Internal determinants of altruism: is helping others egoistic or altruistic in its essence?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15291/radovifpsp.2531Abstract
Classical meaning of altruism lies in the fact that it seems to represent an exception from convincing principle which argues that behaviour is controlled by rewards and punishments and in this connection by generalization that people are essentially egoistic. Contemporary researches of the positive forms of social behaviour are only peripherally relevant for this centuries-old question. The majority of these researches investigate situational factors and external determinants of altruistic behaviour. But by turning from the investigation of altruism as a social form of behaviour to definition of altruism as an attribute of personality, a problem necessarily arises of establishing internal determinants and motivational structure of the helping act. Recent approaches point out the importance of emotional factors as fundamental mediators in helping others. These approaches are different from the above mentioned ones because they presuppose different kind of motivation, caused by emotional excitement. According to Piliavin and Piliavin model, helping others in a trouble is exclusively motivated by egoism. Batson and Coke on the other hand presuppose the experience of empathy can be a cause of unaffected altruistic motivation to help. According to this model the spectator of a troubled person can experience qualitatively different emotions: personal anxiety and empathic care for the troubled person. These different emotional reactions result in different motivation to help. There is a suggestion that the experience of empathy provokes altruistically motivated behaviour, i. e. help whose aim is a reduction of the other’s trouble and not of personal unpleasant states. The authors propose a method as well how to ascertain empirically whether motivation to help other is altruistic or egoistic in its essence. At the same time this model represents the first meritorious attempt to ascertain the motivational basis of seemingly unselfish helping others not notionally only but empirically as well.References
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2. B atso n , C. D., Coke, J. S.,: Empathy: A source of altruistic motivaition for helping. U J. P. Rushton i R. M. Sorrentino (Eds.) Altruism and helping behavior: Social, personality, and developmental perspectives, Hillsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum, 1981.
3. B atso n , C. D., D arley , J. M., Coke, J. S.: Altruism and human kindness: Internal and external determinants of helping behavior. U L A. Pervin i M. Lewis (Eds.) Perspectives in interactionas psychology, New York: Plenum Press, 1978.
4. Ba it son, C. D., D uncan, B. D., A ck erm an , P., Buckley, T., Birch, K.: Is empathic emotion a source of altruistic motivation?, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1981, 40, 290—302.
5. B atso n , C. D., O’Q uin, K., F u ltz, J., Vanderplas, M.: Influence of self-reported distress and empathy on egoistic versus altruistic motivation to help, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1983, 45, 706—718.
6. Coke, J. S., B atso n , C. D., M c D a v i s, K.: Empaithic mediation of helping: A two — stage model, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1978, 36, 752—766.
7. Do v id io , J. F.: The search for altruism: A motivational problem?, Contemporary Psychology, 1983, 28, 13—15.
8. H offm an, M. L.: The development of empathy. U J. P. Rushton i R. M. Sorrentino (Eds.) Altruism and helping behavior: Social, presonality, and developmental perspectives, Hillsdale, N. J. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1981.
9. K rebs, D. L.: Altruism: An examination oE the concept and review of the literature, Psychological Bulletin, 1970, 73, 258—302. 10. K rebs, D.: Empathy and altruism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975, 32, 1134—1146. 11. K rebs, D., R u ssell, C.: Role-taking and altruism: When you put yourself in the shoes of another, will they take you to their owner’s aid? U J. Pne. Rushton i R. M. Sorrentino (Eds.): Altruism and helping behavior: Social, personality, and developmental perspectives, Hillsdale, N. J., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1981. 12. L a t a n e, B., D arley , J. M : Social determinants of bystander intervention in emergencies, U J. Macauley i L. Berkowitz (Eds.) Altruism and helping behavior, New York: Academic Press, 1970. 13. La tane, B., N i d a, S. A., W ilson, D.: The effect of group size on helping behavior, U J. P. Rushton i R. M. Sorrentino (Eds.): Altruism and helping behavior: Social, personality, and developmental perspectives, Hillsdale, N. J. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1981. 14. L ynch, J. G., C ohen, J. L.: The use of subjective expected utility theory as an aid (to understand variables that linfluence helping behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1978, 36, 1138—1151. 15. M acau ley , J., B e rk o w itz, L. (Eds.): Altruism and helping behavior, New York: Academic Press, 1970, str. 3. 16. P ilia v in , I. M., P i 1 i a v i n, J. A., Rodin, ,1.: Costs, diffusion and the stigmatised victim. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975, 3, 429—438. 17. R osen h an, D.: The natural socialization of altruistic autonomy, u J. Macauley i L. Berkowitz (Eds.) Altruism and helping behavior, New York: Academic Press, 1970. 18. S c h a c h t e r, S.: The interaction of cognitive and physiological determinants of emotional state. U L. Berkowitz (Ed.) Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol. 1. New York: Academic Press, 1964.
19. S c h w a rtz , S. H.: Moral decision making and behavior. U J. Macauley i L, Berkowitz (Eds.) Altruism and helping behavior, New York: Academic Press. 1970. 20. S taub, E.: Helping a distressed person: Social, personality and stimulus determinants. U L. Berkowitz (Eel.): Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol. 7. New York: Academic Press, 1974. 21. S ta u b , E.: Social and prosocial behavior: Personal and situational influences and their interactions. U E. Staub (Ed.): Personality: Basic aspects and current research, Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1980. 22. V a so v ić, M.: Istraživanja altruizma. Psihologija, 1975, 3—4, 151—167. 23. W isp e, L.: Altruism, sympathy and helping, New York: Academic Press, 1978.
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2018-04-17
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