The Psychology of Good and Evil: Why Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others

by Ervin Staub

• ISBN13: 9780521528801
• ISBN10: 0521528801
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-07-21
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book gathers the knowledge gained in a lifelong study of the roots of goodness and evil. Since the late 1960s, Ervin Staub has studied the causes of helpful, caring, generous, and altruistic behavior. He has also studied bullying and victimization in schools as well as youth violence and its prevention. He spent years studying the origins of genocide and mass killing and has examined the Holocaust, the genocide of the Armenians, the autogenocide in Cambodia, the disappearances in Argentina, the genocide in Rwanda. He has applied his work in many real world settings and has consulted parents, teachers, police officers, and political leaders. Since September 11th, he has appeared frequently in the media explaining the causes and prevention of terrorism. Professor Staub's work is collected together for the first time in The Psychology of Good and Evil.

Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction and Core Concepts: 1. Introduction: good and evil: themes and overview

2. Studying the pivotal role of bystanders

3. Studying and promoting altruism and studying and working to prevent genocide: the guiding role of early survival

4. Is evil a useful concept for psychologists and others?

5. Basic needs and their role in altruism and aggression

Part II. The Roots of Helping and Passivity: 6. Helping a distressed person: social, personality, and stimulus determinants

7. Spontaneous (or impulsive) helping

8. Social and prosocial behavior

9. The power to help others: report on a Psychology Today survey on values, helping, and well being

Part III. How Children Become Caring and Helpful vs. Hostile and Aggressive: Section 1. Culture, Socialization, and Children's Experience: 10. Origins of caring, helping, and nonaggression: parental socialization, the family system, schools, and cultural influence

11. Natural socialization: participation in positive behavior and experiential learning

12. The origins of hostility and aggression

13. Cultural societal roots of violence: youth violence

14. Bystanders and bullying

15. Students' experience of bullying and other aspects of their lives in middle school in Belchertown

16. Self-esteem and aggression

17. Father-daughter incest

Section 2. Interventions to Reduce Aggression and Promote Caring and Helping: 18. Reducing boys' aggression: learning to fulfill basic needs constructively

19. The Caring Schools project

Part IV. The Origins of Genocide and Other Collective Violence: 20. A note on the cultural societal roots of violence

21. Psychology of bystanders, perpetrators, and heroic helpers

22. Steps along a continuum of destruction

23. The SS and the psychology of perpetrators: The interweaving and merging of role and person

24. The origins of genocide: Rwanda

25. Bystanders as evil: the example of Rwanda

26. Individual and group identities in genocide and mass killing

27. Mass murder: origins, prevention, and US involvement

28. When instigation does not result in mass murder

29. Persian Gulf Conflict was reflection of stormy undercurrents in US psyche

30. Mob violence: societal-cultural sources, instigators, group processes, and participants

31. Understanding and Preventing Police Violence

Part V. The Aftermath of Mass Violence: Trauma, Healing, and Reconciliation: 32. Preventing group violence

33. Kosovo: the need for flexible bystander response

34. The effects of violence on groups and their members

35. Healing, reconciliation, and forgiving after genocide and other collective violence

36. Healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation in Rwanda: project summary and outcome

37. Further avenues to prevention

38. Commentary: human destructiveness and the refugee experience

39. A vision of holocaust education in holocaust centers and schools

40. Out of hiding

41. Review of: Legacy of Silence: encounters with children of the Third Reich

42. What can we learn from this tragedy?: a reaction days after September 11th, 2001

Part VI. Creating Morally Inclusive Societies: 43. Transforming the bystander: altruism, caring, and social responsibility

44. Changing cultures and society

45. Blind vs. constructive patriotism: moving from embeddedness in the group to critical loyalty and action

46. Manifestations of blind vs. constructive patriotism: summary of findings

47. The ideal university in the real world

Conclusion: 48. Creating caring societies

Appendix: what are your values and goals?