Day 1: In 1904, industrialist Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Hero Fund with an endowment of $5 million. The purpose of the fund is to reward heroes who risk their own lives in efforts to save the lives of others. Since its inception, more than 63,000 people have been nominated for heroism awards, but only 7,313 (about 11%) have been chosen to receive them. Interestingly, more than 1,500 Carnegie heroes (21%) have died performing their rescues (usually drowning and fires).

Define heroism and list the criteria that you would use to grant Carnegie awards. Is your list consistent with the text's definition of prosocial behavior?

Day 2: Reflect on the last time that you were helped and the last time that you provided help to someone. Did your self-esteem seem to suffer after receiving help? Who was the source of the help? How did the person that you helped seem to feel after the assistance?

Day 3: Reflect on where you believe your empathic feelings and potential prosocial behaviors may have originated (e.g., with your parents, peers or favorite television show).

Day 4: Create a simple helping experiment. The following are some manipulations that you could try:

a. volunteer to collect money for some real organization (with the permission of the organization of course) and manipulate dress (formal vs. casual), race, or tone of voice (warm or cold).

b. Ask for directions while well-dressed or dressed like a "street person".

c. Observe gender differences in opening doors, carrying packages, etc.

d. Drop books or pencils and see whether help is dependent on group size.

Day 5: Which Helping Model do you believe is most accurate and why (empathy-altruism, negative state relief, empathic joy, or genetic determinism).