Altruism & prosocial behaviour Essay

Altruism, a form of pro kindly deportment had been one of many enduring questions social psychologists occupy investigated. Psychologists have attempted to explain altruism in monetary value of a persons go awayingness to serve at a cost. It has been define by Walster and Piliavin (1972) as dish uping demeanor that is voluntary, costly to the altruist and propel by mostthing other than the expectation of material and social reward. This essay will look at search surrounding or reasons for altruistic behaviour. a lot debate surrounds this topic as it s often unclear whether behaviour is truly altruistic or egoistic (seeking personal reward).Cardwell 1966 suggested that the primary demand for helping person is seen as a desire to improve the wellbeing of another person rather than the anticipation of some reward. One exposition of altruistic behaviour was attempted by Weiner 1986 who analysed the cause in basis of attribution of responsibility. These attributions crea te emotional responses, which motivates action or inaction. Attribution to uncontrollable causes such as illness or disability tends to produce sympathy, which results in helping.Attribution to controllable causes such as drunkenness produces anger, which inhibits helping behaviour. This was exhibit in Piliavin study of subway Samaritan 1969. Weiner theory is one of many that tried and true to explain altruism. Batson empathy altruism hypothesis explains altruistic behaviour in damage of empathy. Witnessing another person in distress creates empathetic concern, which motivates helpers to try to apologize their persons distress. Again the reason for helping could be egoistic I should help him to make me find out better or altruistic I have got to help him so that he feels better.In Batson et als study of the empathic condition 1981, he found that the female students in the juicy empathy condition were much more likely to help the helper even when they argon in a position to es cape from this responsibility. As shown by Batson and his colleagues slew help for reasons other than for their own egotism interest. hardly it is attainable that people who help in such situations do so to avoid punishment such as social disapproval. It is likewise possible that people help simply to avoid feeling bad astir(predicate) themselves. However, this does not appear to explain why empathic concern cause helping (Fultz et al 1986).Studies such Batson et al 1988 cast doubt on these claims. This view of altruistic behaviour is very important, not only does it match the assumption that all motivation is directed towards the egoistic goal of change magnitude our own welfare but contradicts the notion that human nature is self serving. Another impersonate of altruism is a negative relief model (Cialdini et al 1987) which suggest that when we are experiencing negative states we are motivated to amend this condition by helping others. This is personally rewarding and e liminates the negative state. accordingly the motivation for helping is egoistic. This model states that the primary objective of helping behaviour is the enhancement of our mood. Cialdini 1987 carried out an investigate similar to Batson study on empathic condition. This time, just before requesting for help was made, the researcher either offers a bonus or heaps of prayers. The bonus made no deviation however, those who received praise were still motivated to help. This demonstrated that under some conditions experiencing a mood lifting event may lessen our motivation to rid our own negative state by helping others.Cialidini research although covering some evidence of helping for egoistic reasons does also seem to maintain Batsons more optimistic view of human nature. Smith et al 1989 veritable a model empathy joy hypothesis that assumes we enjoy other peoples relief at being helped and so we help others because we are rewarding by their happiness. In Smiths et als study on feedback Smith used a phrase helpers high claiming that people get satisfaction when they see that the people they have helped feel better. It has been predicted that if we get feedback it encourages helping behaviour.Batson 1991 argues that another factor that determines altruistic behaviour is the relation to the person who needs help. We are more likely to feel exclamatory concern when we a close attachment with the person in need. As the studies were lab experiments, there was the problem of experimental validity, did the players believe the situation is real. The experiment was conducted in an artificial environment, which makes it difficult to generalise to real situation and thence the result shave low ecological validity.Also there were the limitations of experimenter participant relationship, demand characteristics and the outcome could have been due to the participants knowing that they were being observed. nevertheless though the studies have their limitations they h ave made a radical parting to psychological research. The results also vary across cultures and so will also depend on the era pf that culture. It can be seen therefore that research into altruism has emphasised the complexity of the motivations and factors involved when deciding to help someone or not. These studies have clarified causes why some people help and why some do not.