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

by Ervin Staub

Overview

This book explores the roots of goodness and evil by gathering together the knowledge gained in a lifelong study of harmful or altruistic behavior. Ervin Staub has studied what leads children and adults to help others in need and how caring, helping, and altruism develop in children; bullying and youth violence and their prevention; the roots of genocide, mass killing, and other harmful behavior between groups of people; the prevention of violence; healing victimized groups and reconciliation between groups. He presents a broad panorama of the roots of violence and caring and how we create societies and a world that is caring, peaceful, and harmonious.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521821285
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/21/2003
Pages:	610
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

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?

Editorial Reviews

"Ervin Staub's timely and well-researched book combines knowledge and wisdom, challenging notions of evil, and stimulating concepts of good." Elie Wiesel, recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Peace

"The Psychology of Good and Evil offers a profound scientific reflection on an urgent question for mankind: why do people act so destructively, on the one hand, or with compassion and caring on the other? Psychology rarely grapples with such compelling issues, and even more rarely with the brilliance, insight, and power of Ervin Staub. I strongly recommend his book to anyone concerned about the future of our children, and their children." Daniel Goleman, Author of Destructive Emotions and Emotional Intelligence

"Authoritative, grounded, profoundly humane: a rare opportunity to review a lifetime of important work in one book." Richard Rhodes, winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction and author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Masters of Death, and Why They Kill

"Ervin Staub, like no one else, has richly informed our understanding of our human capacity for both evil and good. His life work, bred by his own experience as a Holocaust survivor, marries a scientistas mind with a humanitarianas heart. Kudos to Cambridge University Press for collecting his influential writings, together with new works, in one accessible volume." David G. Myers, Hope College, author of Intuition and The Pursuit of Happiness

"...enlightening...engaging...It is a systematic, rational, and very detailed discussion of a complex subject that is sure to help clarify the thinking of both academics and lay individuals in these uncertain times." Metapsychology Online Book Reviews

"Over the course of almost four decades, Professor Staub has made signal contributions to our understanding of why some people commit unspeakable acts, why others risk their lives to save their intended victims, and why most of us just look the other way. Professor Staub has never looked the other way, and his research and practical efforts to foster--tolerance and accelerate healing--described in this volume--stand as an inspiration to us all." Richard Ned Lebow, James O. Freedman Presidential Professor of Government, Dartmouth College

From the Publisher