Running Head: ALTRUISM

Positive Psychology
Altruism

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Anusha. V (1424314)
Kritika Agarwal (1424325)
Madhuri (1424327)
Neha Arvind (1424333)
Roshni Vijay (1424336)
Shriya Narayan (1424345)
Tenzing Choden (1424353)

Christ University

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Altruism
We make a living by what we get. But we make a life by what we give- Winston Churchill
The following video helps brief on what is altruism and how it is important in our lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZGghmwUcbQ
Altruism is any behaviour that is aimed at benefiting another person. This behaviour can be
motivated by personal egotism, or it can be prompted by pure empathetic desire to benefit
another person, irrespective of personal gain.
Altruism is a concept not new to the society or world we live in. It is often referred to using
different words like benevolence,unselfishness, selflessness, self-sacrifice, self-denial,
consideration,compassion, kindness, publicspiritedness;generosity,magnanimity,liberality,open-handedness,free-handedness, bigheartedness, charity, charitableness and so on. With this we gather the very basic essence of
altruism and that it involves the selfless 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.
Altruistic acts are often considered as prosocial behavior, which refers to any action that benefits
other people, no matter what the motive or how the giver benefits from the action. However, pure
altruism involves true selflessness and not all prosocial behavior is altruistic in nature

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Why do individuals indulge in altruism?
Biological Reasons: Kin selection An individual may indulge into more altruistic acts towards
those they are related to because it increases the chance that their blood relations will survive and
they will have a future generation to carry forward the genes and lineage.
Neurological Reasons: Altruism activates reward certain centers in the brain. Research suggests
that when engaged in an altruistic act, the pleasure centers of the brain become active.
Social Norms: Society's rules, norms, and expectations can also influence whether or not people
engage in altruistic behavior. Due to societal norms one may feel pressured to help others if
others have already done something for him/her.
Cognitive Reasons: While the theoretical explanation of altruism involves the concept doing for
others without reward, there may still be cognitive incentives that are not very evident. 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.
Religious Viewpoint
How it will be conducted: - The presenter will don different hats with respect to the religion
while explaining about the same. Students from the audience will be invited to put their point of
view forward. Quotes from each religious text book will be put up on a chart paper.
Buddhism
"The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes"
(Dalai Lama).

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In one of his discourses the Buddha says: There are these four types of people found in the
world. What four? He who is concerned with neither his own good nor the good of others, he
who is concerned with the good of others but not his own, he who is concerned with his own
good but not the good of others and he who is concerned with both his own good and the good of
others and of these four he who is concerned with his own good and the good of others is the
chief, the best, the topmost, the highest, the supreme. (A.II,94).According to Buddhism, it
should not be a choice between selfishness, self before others, or altruism, others before oneself,
but self and others together.
Jainism
Jainism views every soul as worthy of respect because it has the potential to become Siddha
(Param-atma "highest soul"). Because all living beings possess a soul, great care and awareness
is essential in one's actions. Jainism emphasizes the equality of all life, advocating harmlessness
towards all, whether the creatures are great or small. This policy extends even to microscopic
organisms. The house-holders are encouraged to practice the five cardinal principles of nonviolence, truthfulness, non-stealing, celibacy and non-possessiveness with their current practical
limitations while the monks have to observe them very strictly. With consistent practice, it will
be possible to overcome the limitations gradually, accelerating the spiritual progress.
Islam
The holy Quran is said to be more like a rule book, a way of life that is prescribed to live a
decent life and please the Allah. These include not drinking or smoking, etc. One of the most
important aspects of Islam is charity. According to Islam, if Allah has granted someone with
wealth or property, they MUST help others by giving some of that to the poor. It is believed that
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the poor need it more than the rich. The neighbors, brothers and women fall under this category
and hence the richer Muslim men are obligated to help the,
In Islam, the concept 'thr' (altruism) is the notion of 'preferring others to oneself'. For Sufis, this
means devotion to others through complete forgetfulness of one's own concerns, where concern
for others is rooted to be a demand made by Allah on the human body, considered to be property
of Allah alone. The importance lies in sacrifice for the sake of the greater good; Islam considers
those practicing thr as abiding by the highest degree of nobility. This concept was emphasized
by Sufis of Islam like Rabia al-Adawiyya who paid attention to the difference between
dedication to Allah (i.e. God) and dedication to people. Thirteenth-century Turkish Sufi
poet YunusEmre explained this philosophy as "Yaratlanseveriz, Yaratandantr" or We love
the creature, because of The Creator.
Sikhism
Altruism is essential to the Sikh religion. The central faith in Sikhism is that the greatest deed
any one can do is to imbibe and live the godly qualities like love, affection, sacrifice, patience,
harmony, truthfulness. The fifth Nanak- Guru Arjun Dev Sacrificed his life to uphold the truth
which is the greatest gift to humanity, the Guru Granth. The ninth Nanak, Guru TeghBahadur
sacrificed his head to protect weak and defenseless people against atrocity. In the late
seventeenth century, Guru Gobind Singh Ji (the tenth guru in Sikhism), was in war with
the Moghul rulers to protect the people of different faiths, when a fellow Sikh, Bhai Kanhaiya,
attended the troops of the enemy. He gave water to both friends and foes that were wounded on
the battlefield. Some of the enemy began to fight again and some Sikh warriors were annoyed by
Bhai Kanhaiya as he was helping their enemy. Sikh soldiers brought Bhai Kanhaiya before Guru

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Gobind Singh Ji, and complained of his action that they considered counter-productive to their
struggle on the battlefield. "What were you doing, and why?" asked the Guru. "I was giving
water to the wounded because I saw your face in all of them," replied Bhai Kanhaiya. The Guru
responded, "Then you should also give them ointment to heal their wounds. You were practicing
what you were coached in the house of the Guru."
It was under the tutelage of the Guru that Bhai Kanhaiya subsequently founded a volunteer corps
for altruism. This volunteer corps still to date is engaged in doing well to others and trains new
volunteering recruits for doing the same.[63]
Hinduism
Two important tenets of Hinduism that guide one's actions and influence suffering are karma and
reincarnation. Reincarnation essentially means to be born again. The body is like a set of clothes
that the soul removes before putting on new clothing. From a Hindu viewpoint, one can be born
as a human, an animal, an insect, or even a plant.What form the next incarnation takes depends
on karma, and one can move up or down the hierarchy. If a person has lived a good life and
performed more good deeds than bad, they are born into a more fortunate existence.
Karma guides how a Hindu lives and each person's deeds both in current and past lifetimes
determine what sort of rebirth they attain. Karma is a combination of cosmic and moral cause
and effect that crosses lifetimes and life lessons learned for spiritual growth. There are three
types of karma: karma from past lives that may or may not be experienced in the present lifetime,
karma currently being created, and future karma or karmic experiences saved for a future
lifetime. A devout Hindu will be non-violent on every level including the practice of

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vegetarianism. The ultimate goal for living many lifetimes is to be released from rebirth or to
achieve moksha; becoming one with Brahman.
Egotism Motive of Altruism
The subject of whether human beings are capable of altruistic behaviour purely for the welfare of
others is one of controversy. Psychological egoism is a concept in altruism that states that
humans show altruistic behaviour to increase their own welfare. Unlike psychological altruism,
which is believed to be a motivational state with the goal of increasing ones own welfare, the
egotism motive questions the selflessness of the altruistic act. Many western thinkers including
Plato, Adam Smith, Sigmund Freud feel that human beings care for other people because we feel
it benefits us to do so.
The social exchange theory introduced by George Homans in 1958 that foucused on the
interactions between two people in social settings supports this view of altruism. According to
the theory, altruism exists only when the benefits outweighs the costs. That is, people would
rather not help than be inconvenienced.

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Egotistic Altruism can also be viewed from the view of rewards. According to this perspective,
people perform altruistic acts because of the rewards they get out of it. These rewards may be in
the form of praise, gratitude or awards such as the Nobel Peace Prize. Whether we like to admit
it or not, our happiness, to an extent, depends on the happiness on the people that surround us. It
might make us uncomfortable to see a person in distress especially if its a loved one, so we help
them so we can feel better. Helping someone just might make us feel better about ourselves.

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For example, we may give money to a handicapped beggar on the street. But are we doing this
for his or her welfare? Is the money we give the person going to last forever? Does it actually
help the person? Make all their problems go away? We do it because we want to. Lets take the
prominent example of Mother Teresa, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for her work here in India.
She helped many people, no doubt in that. But were here motives entirely of psychological
altruism? She is known to have about the sufferers, Each of them is Jesus in disguise. So was
she trying to get closer to God? And isnt that an egoistic motive? Of course, this has nothing to
do with the amazing work she has done but only with the motive behind her altruistic acts.
But the real question is does all this really matter? Because no matter what someones motives
are, they still help others in need.
Empathy- Altruism Hypothesis
The empathy-altruism hypothesis by Daniel Batson states that psychological altruism is caused
by the empathic desire to help someone who is suffering. Feelings of empathic concern are
contrasted with feelings of personal distress, which compel people to reduce their own
unpleasant emotions. People with empathic concern help others in distress even when exposure
to the situation could be easily avoided, whereas those lacking in empathic concern avoid
helping unless it is difficult or impossible to avoid exposure to another's suffering.Helping
behaviour is seen in humans as young as two years old, when a toddler is able to understand
emotional cues. We care about others because of: (i) identification with the others situation; (ii)
the self expanding to incorporate aspects of the other; (iii) seeing aspects of the self in the other;
or (iv) valuing the welfare of the other. Three benefits of empathy-induced helping are: (a)
aversive-arousal reductionreducing the empathic concern caused by witnessing another in

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need; (b) punishment avoidanceavoiding empathy-specific material, social, and self
punishments; and (c) reward seekinggaining empathy-specific material, social, and self
rewards.
Batson realised that people sometimes help because of selfish reasons. To study this, he
conducted an experiment where students were asked to listen to tapes from a radio program. One
tape was of a woman named Carol. She spoke of her car accident where both her legs broke. She
talked about how she struggled and how she was lagging in class. Students who were listening to
this interview were given a letter asking the student to share lecture notes and meet with her. The
experimenters changed the level of empathy by telling one group to focus on how she was
feeling (high empathy level). The other group did not focus on it (low empathy level). The high
empathy group was told that Carol would be in their psychology class after returning to school.
The low empathy group believed she would finish the class at home. The results showed that
those in the high empathy group were just as likely to help her in either circumstance, while the
low empathy group helped out of self-interest. Seeing her in class everyday made them feel
guilty if they did not help.
The social exchange theory states that altruism does not exist unless benefits outweigh the
costs. However, Batson believes that people help out of genuine concern for the another. If you
feel empathy towards another person you will help them, regardless of what you can gain from it.
When empathy is not felt, the social exchange theory takes place. Two hypotheses that counter
the empathy-altruism hypothesis are: (i) Empathy Specific Reward - empathy triggers the need
for social reward which can be gained by helping and (ii) Empathy Specific Punishment:
Empathy triggers fear of social punishment which is avoided by helping. When one looks at the

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evolution of empathy-related altruism, it would seem it evolved as part of the parental instinct
among higher mammals. If parents were uninterested in the welfare of their progeny, their
species would die out soon. The human parental instinct goes beyond nursing, providing and
protecting as it includes the desires and feelings of the child (Is that a hunger cry?).
The empathy-altruism hypothesis has several implications. People sometimes suppress or avoid
feeling empathic concern. As they are aware of the effort involved in effective helping, workers
in helping professions, nurses and pedestrians in the presence of the homeless may try to avoid
empathic concern in order to prevent the altruistic motivation. Empathy-induced altruism has
also been found to improve attitudes toward stigmatized outgroups (improves attitudes towards
race, people with AIDS, homeless, convicted murderers and drug dealers). It has also has been
found to increase cooperation in a potentially competitive situation. In schools, empathy-based
training has been used to increase mutual care among students.
Scales to measure Altruism
There are different types of scales by which altruism can be measured.
The first one is The Self-Report Altruism (SRA) Scale has an easy-to-administer concept, selfreport formant that consists of 20 items. Respondents are instructed to rate the frequency with
which they have engaged in the altruistic behaviours using the categories 'Never', 'Once', 'More
Than Once', 'Often' and 'Very Often'.
The second is Adapted self-report Altruism scale.

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The Adapted Self-Report Altruism Scale measures the extent to which someone engages in
behaviors that help others. It can be administered as a pre-test/post-test to determine if behaviors
have changed.
Scale Name: Adapted Version of the Self-Report Altruism Scale

Developers: P. C. Rushton (original), Peter Witt and Chris Boleman (adapted version)
Scale:
0=Never
1=Once
2=More than once
3=Often
4=Very often
Instructions: How often would you exhibit the following behaviors?
Items:
1. I would give directions to someone I did not know.
2. I would make changes for someone I did not know.
3. I would give money to a charity.
4. I would donate clothes or goods to a charity.
5. I would help carry belongings of someone I did not know.
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6. I would delay an elevator and hold the door for someone I did not know.
7. I would allow someone I did not know to go in front of me in line.
8. I would point out a clerk's error in undercharging me for an item.
9. I would let a neighbor I did not know well borrow an item of value to me.
10. I would help a classmate who I did not know well with a homework assignment when my
knowledge was greater than his or hers.
11. I would voluntarily look after a neighbors pet or children without being paid.
12. I would offer to help a handicapped or elderly person across the street.
13. I would offer my seat on a train or bus to someone who was standing.
14. I would help an acquaintance move houses.
Scoring
Sum all item ratings together.
A higher score indicates greater altruism.
Ways to enhance altruism
The ways to enhance altruism are basically classified into two major approaches, which were
used to explain the concept of altruism. They are: Egotism-Based approaches and EmpathyBased Approaches.
Egotism-Based Approaches

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Often times, people tend t think that feeling good about oneself is not part of rendering help.
However, it becomes important that people believe they can help and through this confidence,
attain higher self-esteem. it has also been proved that people seem to take delight in learning that
it is legitimate to feel good about helping others.
Community volunteer work is one of the most common ways to enhance altruism. A number of
agencies and NGOs working with children, elderly population, physically challenged
individuals, hospitals, etc are in need of volunteers. But though this act may start as a voluntary
work, people tend to change their professions to involve activities where they support others and
get paid for it. But the baseline is however, it feels good to help others and volunteer work helps
in the process.
Empathy-Based Approaches
Altruism and empathy are two intertwined entities. Empathy increases the likelihood of a person
to help others in need. Developing empathy is often a process which starts with interacting with
other people who need help. Once the individual starts to understand the perspectives of the
people in need, he starts to develop a view of us versus them which helps him differentiate the
positions in which both the parties stand.
Similarity helps in making people understand that we all are part of the same grand journey.
This similarity can be as simple as working in the same type of job or having grown up in the
same neighborhood.
When speaking of similarity, it is hard to neglect the feeling of uniqueness that most people feel
and strive to achieve. But once it crosses the limit, it becomes very difficult for the person to
make contact and interact with others. People must be shown how they actually share similar
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characteristics and how their illusionary specialness needs may be preventing them from deriving
pleasure from interacting with other people. This helps the person to try and walk in the shoes
of another, and thus helps enhance altruistic behavior.

Children can be helped to develop altruism by fostering empathy moral affiliation and

moral principles.
People can be taught to stop for a moment from their hurrying lives and observe their

surroundings, thus creating awareness and promoting altruism.

The role of bystanders can be turned into more helpful by assisting them in taking up

responsibility.
Encouraging altruism through moral affiliation involve offering clear rules and sanctions

within the context of a warm, supportive and sensitive relationship.

Subjecting people to public image can help bring out their helping nature. People tend to

be more willing to help if their image is put on question.

Empathy is also fostered by inviting children to reflect on the impact of their behavior on

others.
An everyday journal of good deed for the day or a random act of kindness can be
maintained, which would help cultivate altruism as a part of their personality.

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Benefits of Altruism
Altruistic behavior is shown to be beneficial for a person in various ways and it is worth the
effort.
Altruism and health
It is a known fact that when a person feels good, he tends to be more altruistic. The reverse effect
too, altruism helps in attaining a good health, has been researched in various contexts and
positive results in physical and mental health have been obtained.
Altruism and Psychological Wellbeing
Research shows being more willing and helpful has a beneficial effect on emotional well-being,
and thus increase ones peace of mind. This in turn causes a decrease in stress level too. Those
who offered support generally found that their lives were dramatically changed for the better.
Altruism and Increased Social Support
What goes around comes around. People who show more altruistic behavior are in turn liked
more in by the society and receive help when they are eventually in need. They earn reputation
and support from their community better than individuals who do not exhibit altruistic behaviors.
Keeping Things in Perspective
Man is never happy with what he has. But seeing people who are in a less comfortable state than
oneself and helping them can give a perspective on ones situation and help him appreciate what
he has got.

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Building a Better Community
Help is like a never ending relay, where if you help some ne today, he may help another needy
person tomorrow and he in turn helps another one and so on. Thus, it not only creates a better
individual, but also a better community as a whole.
Facts about Altruism
Five studies testing two new egoistic alternatives to the empathy-altruism hypothesis.
Empathy-altruism hypothesis has been supported. Empathic emotion towards individuals, elicits
altruistic motivation.
Which is the fair sex? Gender differences in altruism
Women are more altruistic when the altruistic behaviour in concern is expensive, where as men
are more altruistic when the behaviour in concern is more cheap. Men tend to be either
completely selfish, or completely selfless, where as women tend to be equalitarian, and like to
share evenly.
Altruism, happiness, and health: its good to be good
A strong relation exists between people who are emotionally and behaviourally compassionate
and well-being, happiness, health and longevity.
Immorality from empathy-induced altruism: When compassion and justice conflict.
Altruism and the motive to uphold justice are two independent prosocial motives. While
sometimes they co-operate, at times they may conflict.

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The Effects of Confession on Altruism
Men donate more money prior to a confession, than after. Women donate more money
postconfession. Overall, men tend to give more money than women.
Altruism as a courtship display: Some effects of third-party generosity on audience perceptions
Altruists are more desirable for long term relationships than neutral individuals. Women prefer
altruists for single dates where as men show no such preference.
The following video shows an experiment conducted on children to show that altruistic behavior
is an inborn trait. Children willingly come forward and help the ones in need.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-eU5xZW7cU

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