ALTRUISTIC

PERSONALITY
• Altruism is sometimes seen as a form of prosocial behavior, but
some experts suggest
that there are actually different concepts.
• While prosocial behavior is seen as a type of helping behavior
that ultimately confers
some benefits to the self, altruism is viewed as a pure form of
helping motivated purely
out of concern for the individual in need.
• Altruism involves the unselfish concern for other people.
• It involves doing things simply out of a desire to help, not
because you feel obligated to
out of duty, loyalty, or religious reasons.
Everyday life is filled with small acts of altruism, from the guy
at the grocery store who
kindly holds the door open as you rush in from the parking lot
to the woman who gives
twenty dollars to a homeless man.
• Altruism is one aspect of what social psychologists refer to as
prosocial behavior.
Prosocial behavior refers to any action that benefits other
people, no matter what the
motive or how the giver benefits from the action. Remember,
however, that pure
altruism involves true selflessness.
• While all altruistic acts are prosocial, not all prosocial
behaviors are completely
altruistic. For example, we might help others for a variety of
reasons such as guilt,
 obligation, duty, or even for rewards.
• Psychologists have suggested a number of different
explanations for why altruism exists,
including:

a) Biological Reasons:
Kin selection is an evolutionary theory that proposes that
people are more likely to help those who are blood relatives
because it will increase the odds of gene transmission to future
generations. The theory suggests that altruism towards close
relatives occurs in order to ensure the continuation of shared
genes. The more closely the individuals are related, the more
likely people are to help.

b) Neurological Reasons:
Altruism activates reward centers in the brain. Neurobiologists
have found that when engaged in an altruistic act, the pleasure
centers of the brain become active.

c) Social Norms:
Society's rules, norms, and expectations can also influence
whether or not people engage in altruistic behavior. The norm
of reciprocity, for example, is a social expectation in which we
feel pressured to help others if they have already done
something for us. For example, if your friend loaned you money
for lunch a few weeks ago, you will probably feel compelled to
reciprocate when he asks if you if he can
borrow $100. He did something for you, now you feel obligated
to do something in return.

d) Cognitive Reasons:
While the definition of altruism involves doing for others
without reward, there may still be cognitive incentives that are
not obvious. For example, we might help others to
relieve out own distress or because being kind to others
upholds our view of ourselves as kind, empathetic people.

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The Possible self-benefits from benefiting others include  Material,
social, and self-rewards received, payment praise, gifts honor,
reciprocity credit, enhanced self-image, mood enhancement
(maintenance), esteem and empathic joy. It can also include
material, social, and self-punishments avoided
Fines/imprisonment Sanctions for norm violation, attack
censure, recrimination, shame, guilt, empathy costs.
The other benefits include Aversive-arousal reduction, Escape
distressing situation, Escape discrepant situation and Escape
unjust situation.

Empathy - Altruism Hypothesis

Over the centuries, the most frequently proposed source of
altruistic motivation has been an other-oriented emotional
response congruent with the perceived welfare of another
person today usually called empathy or sympathy.  If another
person is in need, these empathic emotions include sympathy,
compassion, tenderness, and the like. The empathy-altruism
hypothesis claims that these emotions produce motivation with
the ultimate goal of benefiting the person for whom the
empathy is felt that is, altruistic motivation. Various forms of
this hypothesis have been espoused by Thomas Aquinas, David
Hume, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and
William McDougall, and in contemporary psychology by
Hoffman (1975), Krebs (1975), and Batson (1987).
Considerable evidence supports the idea that feeling empathy
for a person in need leads to increased helping of that person .
To observe an empathy-helping relationship, however, tells
one nothing about the nature of the motivation that underlies
this relationship. Increasing the other person's welfare could
be (a) an ultimate goal, producing self-benefits as unintended
consequences; (b) an instrumental goal sought as a means to

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 reach the ultimate goal of gaining one or more self-benefits; or
(c) both. That is, the motivation could be altruistic, egoistic, or
both.

Other possible sources of altruistic motivation include an

altruistic personality, principled moral reasoning, and
internalized prosocial values. There is some evidence that each
of these potential sources is associated with increased
prosocial motivation, but, as yet, it is not clear that this
motivation is altruistic. It may be, or it may be an instrumental
means to the egoistic ultimate goals of (a) maintaining one's
positive self-concept or (b) avoiding guilt. More and better
research exploring these possibilities is needed.

SUMMARY
Social-psychological research has documented a long list of
self-benefits that can serve as the ultimate goal of helping
behavior. The list includes material, social, and self-rewards
obtained; material, social, and self-punishments avoided; and
the reduction of aversive arousal. Social-psychological research
has also tested the claim that feeling empathy for a person in
need produces altruistic motivation to help that person
motivation with the ultimate goal of increasing that person's
welfare that is independent of and irreducible to self-
interested, egoistic motivation. Results of the over thirty
experiments designed to test this claim have proved
remarkably supportive. Sources of altruistic motivation other
than empathy have been proposed, but, as yet, there is not
compelling research evidence to support these
proposals. Two additional forms of prosocial motivation also
seem worthy of consideration. Collectivism motivation with the

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 ultimate goal of benefiting some group or collective as a whole
has been claimed to result from group identity and to account
for prosocial responses to social dilemmas. Principlism
motivation with the ultimate goal of upholding some moral
principle has long been advocated by religious teachers and
moral philosophers. Whether either of these motives is
independent of and irreducible to egoism is not yet clear.

References
Hogg, M.A (2003). The SAGE Handbook of Social Psychology.