Altruism Essay - English

7/30/2019 Altruism Essay - English

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Fitto Priestaza

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ALTRUISM

Altruism is a concern for the welfare of others without regard for our self. This behavior

is a virtue that contain in many cultures and is considered important by some religions. Altruism

can be distinguished by feelings of loyalty and obligation. Altruism focuses on a motivation to

help others and a desire to do something good without expect any reward.

This concept has been popular in the history, especially in philosophical thought and

ethics, and recently became a topic in psychology, sociology, and biology. This concept from

any field can give positive effect to other areas, but the method and the center of attention of

these fields stated above could generates different perspectives on altruism.

Definition of Altruism

The word Altruism first appeared in the 19 th century by the sociologist named Auguste

Comte. The word itself came from Greek word Alteri which means other person. According to

Comte, a person has a moral responsibility to serve humanity completely. Thus, Altruism

explains about the attention of any people that is not selfish to the needs of other person. So,

there are three components within altruism, the first is loving others, helping them doing their

time of need, dan making sure that they are appreciated. According to Baston (2002), altruism is

the response that leads to positive feeling, such as empathy. Altruist has altruistic motivation, the

desire to always helping others. Altruistic motivation shown because, there are internal reasons

inside him/her that can lead to show of positive feeling that can come up with any action to help

others.


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Motivation of Altruism

According to Myers (1996) altruism is one of pro social actions with the reason of the

welfare of others without any concern of the reward. There are 3 theories that can explain about

motivation of a person to do altruism:

1. Social - exchange

In this theory, the act of helping can be explained by the existence of social exchange

reward. Altruism describes that the rewards that motivate the inner-reward (distress). For

example is the satisfaction of helping or circumstances that make it difficult (guilt) for help.

2. Social Norms

The reasons to help others is because it is based on "something" that tells us to "must"

help. The "Something" itself is a social norm. In altruism, social norms can be explained by the

existence of social responsibility. The existence of social responsibility can cause a person to

take action to help as needed and without expecting rewards in the future.

3. Evolutionary Psychology

In this theory, explained that the essence of life is to maintain the generation. Altruistic

behavior can arise easily if the other people who will get help is the same or similar person (same

characteristic). For example, someone who help other people that are identical to him/her -

family, neighbors, and so on.

From the explanation above, Myers (1996) concluded altruism will easily occur in the

presence of:

1. Social Responsibility, a person feels socially responsible with what goes around him/her.

2. Distress - inner reward, personal satisfaction without any external factors.

3. Kin Selection, there is one characteristic of the victims that are identical.


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Characteristics of altruism

In addition to the explanation above, Myer (1996) describes the characteristics of the

behavior of altruism:

1. Empathy

Altruism will occur in the presence of empathy inside a person. The most altruistic

person feel themselves responsible, have a social characteristic, always adapt, tolerant, able to

control themselves, and motivated to make a good impression.

2. Belief on a just world

Characteristic behavior of altruist is the belief in "a just world", they believe that the

world is a good place and can be predicted that the good always get the "gift" and the poor get a

"punishment". With that believe, a person can easily show the behavior of the premises to help

(which can be categorized as "Good").

3. Social responsibility

Each person is responsible for everything done by others, so when there is someone who

needs help, that person must help him/her.

4. Internal LOC

The next characteristic of altruist is they can control themself internally. Various things

he/she does are motivated by internal controls, for example is self-satisfaction.

5. Low egocentrism

An altruist has low self-egoism. He/she was concerned with other interests first than the

interests of himself/herself.


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Altruism Behavior Indicators

Altruism behavior indicator is as the following:

1. Empathy: an altruist felt the same according to the situation.

2. Interpretation: an altruist can interpret and realize that a situation need of help.

3. Social responsibility: an altruist feels responsible to the situation around him/her.

4. Initiative: an altruist has the initiative to help quickly and precisely.

5. Willing to sacrifice: an altruist ready to sacrifice something form himself/herself to take

action to help.

Factors That Influence Altruism

There are several factors that influence a person to provide help to others:

1. Mood

If the mood is good, people will also be encouraged to provide more help. It's nice to feel

the atmosphere that people tend to extend it with a positive attitude. Research shows that helping

others would be preferable if the reward is clear. The more tangible the rewards, the more willing

people to help (Forgas & Bower).

2. Empathy

Helping others makes us feels good; with empathy we can help others without pushed by

selfish motivation. That is the empathy itself that motivate a person to do altruistic act.

3. Believe the Justice World

Another factor that motivates altruism is the belief that there is justice in the world, which

in the long term of time the wrong will be punished and the good will be rewarded. According to

Melvin Lerner s theory , a person who believes to the justice world will be motivated to try to fix


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the condition when they see innocent people suffer. So without take a long time to think, they

will immediately give any help if there are people who need.

4. Socio-biological factors

Altruistic behavior suggests counterproductive, high risk including injured and even die.

When helped people could survive, the people who help probably may not survive. Such

behavior can arise because there are a process of adaptation to the closer neighborhood, in this

case the parents. In addition, although minimal, there is also the role of genetic contribution.

5. Situational factors.

Studies ever showed that in giving help, there was no difference between criminal and

not. Then, it was concluded that situational factors have promoted someone to give help toothers.

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Altruism Essay - English