Altruism among humans Essay Example for Free

Altruism among homos EssayThis paper presents an examination of the phenomenon of altruism among humans. Altruism is define as a behaviour that may be to ones advantage but is also to the advantage of former(a)(a)s. The questions of wherefore we behave this way or what motivates us to behave in this manner and the relevance to society directly atomic number 18 the focus of this paper. Various research and theories has explained why egoless behaviour is undertaken intentionally in the human world.Introduction We practically read or hear about acts of generosity and courage, such as, fund raisers or concerts tohelp homeless people, the fostering of a child and sponsoring his or her education, or of volunteers risking their lives to help victims in incidents interchangeable September 11 terrorist attack in the United States. We could have donated some money to orphanages or cared for a wounded dog. Such humane acts are defined by Psychologists as altruism (Moghaddam, 199 8). Altruistic acts could be unselfish or done for personal gain or egoistic reasons. Indeed in a psychological paradigm, psychologists believe that true unselfish behaviour does non exist (Moghaddam, 1998).But how do we neb for the behaviour of Mother Theresa or Mahatma Gandhi and many other unselfish acts of human endeavours? In enounce to look this we have to understand the person variable and situational variable prompt the altruistic act (Simons, Kalichman Santrock, 1994). As we are aware behaviour is de terminalined by personal and situational variables. A persons ability to empathise with the needy or to feel responsible for anothers welfare has great impact on altruistic behaviour. Situations influence the strength of the altruistic motivation.Reciprocity and exchange are important aspects of altruism (Simons, Kalichman Santrock, 1994). Humans give and receive from others everywhere. Reciprocity is the primary principle of every religion in the world for example, Ju daism, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism and Islam (Brosnahan, 2003). To act altruistically, requires consciousness and caring, and similarly, pet owners can often cite altruistic behaviour or at least conscious acts of kindness on the luck of cats and dogs (Simons, Kalichman Santrock, 1994).Another good example would be the nursing,profession founded on the notion of helping people, sometimes eve at a cost to nurses themselves. There are many ways people show altruism. To explain why we do altruistic acts like volunteering, donating or raising funds, we need to distinguish between 4 different forms of altruism which are observed in humans that shown towards kin, a partner, a friend, and individual who does not fit into these categories (http//www. theunityofknowledge. org/the_evolution_of_altruism/introduction. htm, 2003) Of the several types of altruism a main focus has been on heroic altruism (Moghaddam, 1998).It is a short term intervention requiring physical action and tend s to fit more the masculine gender. On the other hand Nurturant altruism requires more patience, listening and a caring attitude with long term involvement. This more closely fits the image of the traditional feminine gender (Moghaddam, 1998). The Bystander effect greatly influences helping behaviour, because of reciprocal ignorance of bystanders and assumptions about other bystanders actions. Each persons scope of responsibilities can decrease in the presence of others ( Moghaddam, 1998).Inorder for Bystander to help he or she has to posses social skills to interpret the situation and take appropriate actions (Moghaddam, 1998). Initially from a theoretical perspective if a person knows how to overcome obstacles to he or she giving help, subsequently other people start questioning whether the helping behaviour was true altruism (Moghaddam, 1998). A later on that point was a theory of Daniel Batson empathy-altruism, believes that people help out of a genuine desire(Moghaddam, 1998 ).Other theories propose that altruistic behaviour is egoistic and put the hypothesis that helping behaviour is a way torepair a helpers image (Moghaddam, 1998). Methodology An interview was conducted with a woman who volunteers her services with meals on wheels and has done nearly 16 years. She is a retired school teacher living alone. I assumed that her altruistic behaviour had a self fulfilling motive. Therefore I chose her and I wanted to clarify or confirm my assumption. In order to expedite my focus interviewee was given ten questions asking about her volunteering profile, and her motivating factors. This interview created awareness of other influencing factors motivating her altruistic behaviour.