Analyze The Argument Of Egottistic Vs Altruism

Pro-social Behavior
Peggy Reeves
Psych/555
March 14, 2011
Dr. Keisha Anthony

Pro-social Behavior
Pro-social behavior is important to social psychologists. The argument of what motivate someone to help someone else has been going on for many years and will be going on for many more probably. This author will briefly summarize the argument of altruism versus egotistic, evaluate the argument, and give a personal opinion on the subject of altruism versus egotistic.
Altruism or Egotistic
To determine altruism, it is important to identify some points of which the” egotistic and altruistic interpretation differ at a behavioral level” (Nier, 2010, p. 379). The conceptual distinction between egoism and altruism was determined to be first
“the end-state goal, not the behavior” (Batson, Duncan, Ackerman, Buckley, & Birch, 1981, as cited by Nier, 2010, p. 379). Second can be a combination of both altruism and egotistic and third, “increasing the other’s welfare is both necessary and sufficient to attain an altruistic end-state goal” (Batson et al. (1981) as cited by Nier, 2010, p. 379). According to Ciaidini, Schaller, Houlihan, Arps, Fultz, and Beaman (1987) “an empathic orientation causes individuals viewing a suffering victim to feel enhanced sadness” (p. 759). Yes
According to Batson, et al. (1981) individuals helps other for altruistic reasons. They believe empathic feelings are the motivation for helping. Empathic is defined by Eisenberg (2000) as “an affective response that mimics another person’s emotional state” (as cited by Fiske (2010), p. 365). Batson, et al. (1981) states the cost of helping can be measured. Their argument is if a person helps because of personal distress this would be egotistic . According to Batson, et al. (1981) experiments individuals “difficulty of escape had no effect on subjects’ readiness to help” (p. 301).
No
According to Cialdini et al. (1987) individuals help others for egoistic reason. The reasoning behind helping according to Cianldini (1987) is personal sadness motivated individuals to help. According to Cialdini et al. (1987) the explanation of helping motivation is egoistic because of interpreting the evidence by “associating increased personal sadness with such empathy and by supporting the egoistic motive of sadness reduction as the mediator of this form of helping” (p. 757).
Argument
The argument consists of whether egotistic or altruistic motivation is the reason for helping others.
Batson and el al (1981) believe altruistic is the result of empathy. Cialdini and el al (1987) believes other motivations are the reason for helping others. The question of egotistic or altruistic motivation has been studied for a long time. Neither argument answered the question fully. According to Fiske (2010) “core social motives underlying prosocial behavior can include self-enhancement, trusting, belonging, or understanding. In helping research, a continuing controversy debates these motives respectively as egoism, altruism, collectivism, and principlism” (p.
386).
True Altruism This author believes in true altruism.
Empathic is defined by Eisenberg (2000) as “an affective response that mimics another person’s emotional state” (as cited by Fiske (2010), p. 365). Individuals do things to help others without thinking it over. For example, a man in New York jumped onto the subway tracks to save a woman life; he did not have time to think about what he was doing. Both the man and the woman were killed (Bearak, 2010). This author does not believe the man jumped onto the track because of personal distress or sadness. He jumped on the track because he saw a lady who needed help.
Another example, this author has witnessed was after Hurricane Katrina. Many came to the Gulf Coast to help, which this author believes was probably a combination of both altruism and egotistic. The end goal was to increase the welfare of those who had lose so much. To this author this is true altruism.
Conclusion
Social psychologists have tried to explain pro-social behavior because helping others is a good behavior. The argument “pits the empathy-altruism hypothesis against egoistic alternatives” (Fiske, 2010, p. 371). This paper has summarized the argument of altruism versus egotistic, evaluated the argument, and given a personal opinion on the subject of altruism versus egotistic.
Reference
Batson, C., Duncan, B. D., Ackerman, P., Buckley, T., & Birch, K. (1981). Is Empathic Emotion a Source of Altruistic Motivation?. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 40(2), 290-302. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Bearak, M. (2010, May 15). NYC good Samaritan killed in subway accident. Digital Journal. Retrieved from http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/292075#ixzz1GgyVoIhZ
Cialdini, R. B., Schaller, M., Houlihan, D., Arps, K., Fultz, J., & Beaman, A. L. (1987).
Empathy-Based Helping: Is It Selflessly or Selfishly Motivated?. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 52(4), 749-758. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Fiske, S.T. (2010). Social being: Core Motives in Social Psychology (2nd ed). Hoboken. NJ: Wiley
Nier, J. A. (2010). Taking sides: clashing views in social psychology (3rd ed.) Boston. MA: McGraw Hill.