Identify Some of the Factors That Make People Help Others.
Identify some of the factors that make people help others. Who helps the most, and in what cases (whom) are they especially likely to help? Illustrate your answer with examples.
Giedrius Statkus
Department of Psychology, Keynes College, CT2 7NP
Identify some of the factors that make people help others. Who helps the most, and in what cases (whom) are they especially likely to help? Illustrate your answer with examples.
Many different factors have been shown to influence people’s willingness to help others. The motive behind certain type of help can be certain rewards for helping however other types of help do not always appear to have a clear motive. This was noted by Comte (1875 as cited in Batson & Shaw 1991, Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) who studied the question of helping others, philosophically and suggests that there are two key types of help displayed by people. He describes these as either Egoistic Helping (EH) or Altruistic Helping (AH). The former refers to the type of help where an individual is clearly aware of a reward for performing the help, such as can be seen in some volunteers workers, whose clear reward is experience and recommendations. The latter however refers to situations where an individual’s willingness to help is unaided by any conscious reward. AH behaviour can be seen in such examples as helping a broken down stranger fix a car tyre on a road (Pomzal & Clore, 1973 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011). The factors influencing the latter type of help are the ones mainly considered throughout this essay. However these factors have a varied effect on different people, this variation can be based on gender, age and other individual differences.
It has been suggested that one major factor influencing the willingness of people to perform AH is empathy (Batson, Batson, Slingsby, Harrell, Peekna & Todd, 1991). The theory suggests that individuals witnessing someone in need of help, as they are displaying distress or pain,
Giedrius Statkus
Department of Psychology, Keynes College, CT2 7NP
Identify some of the factors that make people help others. Who helps the most, and in what cases (whom) are they especially likely to help? Illustrate your answer with examples.
Many different factors have been shown to influence people’s willingness to help others. The motive behind certain type of help can be certain rewards for helping however other types of help do not always appear to have a clear motive. This was noted by Comte (1875 as cited in Batson & Shaw 1991, Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) who studied the question of helping others, philosophically and suggests that there are two key types of help displayed by people. He describes these as either Egoistic Helping (EH) or Altruistic Helping (AH). The former refers to the type of help where an individual is clearly aware of a reward for performing the help, such as can be seen in some volunteers workers, whose clear reward is experience and recommendations. The latter however refers to situations where an individual’s willingness to help is unaided by any conscious reward. AH behaviour can be seen in such examples as helping a broken down stranger fix a car tyre on a road (Pomzal & Clore, 1973 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011). The factors influencing the latter type of help are the ones mainly considered throughout this essay. However these factors have a varied effect on different people, this variation can be based on gender, age and other individual differences.
It has been suggested that one major factor influencing the willingness of people to perform AH is empathy (Batson, Batson, Slingsby, Harrell, Peekna & Todd, 1991). The theory suggests that individuals witnessing someone in need of help, as they are displaying distress or pain,
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