see if the social psychological principles that apply to prosocial behavior apply to heroic behavior seen in the real world. The Carnegie Hero Fund was established to recognize persons who perform acts of heroism in civilian life in the United States and Canada, and to provide financial assistance for those disabled and the dependance of those killed helping others. Visit their website: www.carnegiehero.org, and choose a hero (excluding the year 2010) from the search archives by using the Search Awardees feature. In addition to the website, gather information about your hero from at least one other source. One source option might be a local newspaper description of the event. Take notes on the following:
Identify the hero (or heroine) and what this person normally does.
Describe the situation. Be sure to comment on the environment, location, number of bystanders present, etc.
Identify the person or people helped. Who were they? Why were they in danger? Were they responsible for being in danger?
Identify exactly what the person did and the amount of risk involved.
Identify the outcome.
Your paper should include the following:
A brief introduction that includes a summary of how you collected your information.
A description of the situation you read. You should summarize the facts. Be sure to include the physical/situational characteristics of the event, the personal characteristics of the people, and the heroic behavior.
A summary of possible reasons the hero helped. Be sure to include the reasons why the person assumed responsibility for helping, and the costs and benefits for his/her actions.
An interpretation and analysis of your information. Discuss how you think the situational and/or personal factors influenced the behavior you saw. Also discuss the extent to which you believe that the behavior was altruistic. Was the behavior consistent with what we discussed in class and covered in the text? Be sure to support your conclusions with specific examples from what actually occurred in the situation.
You should conclude with your personal reflections about the assignment. For example, what did you expect to find in the hero behavior, attitude, background, etc. that you didn’t? Have you ever behaved altruistically or failed to act when you could have provided help? Was your behavior, or lack of behavior, consistent with the ideas relating to bystander intervention? Why do you think you behaved this way?
Include a copy of the heroic description from the Carnegie website as well as copies of all additional sources as an attachment to the paper.
