Prosocial behavior and altruism are two topics that are being studied within social psychology to try to understand the motivation behind humans to help those in need. Researchers have made various theories of why some people are more willing to help humans in need than other people and why people choose to help victims when they do. These theories do a great deal of explaining why exactly prosocial behavior and altruism occur when they do with regard to genetics, culture, and many other factors that may influence this behavior, such as race, gender, and similarity of the victim and helper. Naturalistic observational studies have also been made by researchers to learn more behind the cause of this helping behavior and many cases are looked
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Altruism is the concern and motivation to help others even if it may have consequences to the helper (Cherry 2015). These two phenomena are related in the sense that altruism is a type of prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior involves the physical act of helping others although the reason behind the act may be something other than pure concern for someone else while altruism is the desire to help others with no reason behind the act but genuine concern for the person in need. For example, the physical act of helping someone who is choking when others are around is an example of prosocial behavior. Their reason for helping this person could be because of a possible boost in the helper’s reputation or because helping that person in need may make them feel better. Altruism, on the other hand, is an act of prosocial behavior that is performed strictly because the helper wants to help someone in need. An example of this may be helping someone find a plane ticket that has been lost at the airport and as a result, the helper misses their flight. So, prosocial behavior and altruism are similar in action but the reasons underlying the act of helping are much …show more content…
Learning and discovering new information about these forms of social behavior allow us to learn why people behave the way that they do in terms of helping others. Through research, we can see that this behavior can originate internally whether someone has a personal desire to help or because of how nurture played a role in their life growing up. `An important factor concerning prosocial behavior is the cause behind prosocial behavior. These causes may include the empathy-altruism hypothesis, empathy, the negative-state relief model, the empathy joy hypothesis, and the kin selection theory (Brombe & Branscombe 2012). These theories state that people help others because they are empathetic towards the victim regardless of the consequences that may occur to the helper, it lowers the negative emotions that the helper may be feeling, it makes the helper feel positive from the reaction of the person who has been helped, and that we are more likely to help a relative in need because they will carry our genes for many generations, respectively. Of course, these are not the only causes behind prosocial behavior and altruism. Race and gender, for example, are important in understanding prosocial behavior because they can have a huge impact on the way that people may respond to others including how relatable or similar they feel to them and the level of empathy the feel as a
Altruism is the concern and motivation to help others even if it may have consequences to the helper (Cherry 2015). These two phenomena are related in the sense that altruism is a type of prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior involves the physical act of helping others although the reason behind the act may be something other than pure concern for someone else while altruism is the desire to help others with no reason behind the act but genuine concern for the person in need. For example, the physical act of helping someone who is choking when others are around is an example of prosocial behavior. Their reason for helping this person could be because of a possible boost in the helper’s reputation or because helping that person in need may make them feel better. Altruism, on the other hand, is an act of prosocial behavior that is performed strictly because the helper wants to help someone in need. An example of this may be helping someone find a plane ticket that has been lost at the airport and as a result, the helper misses their flight. So, prosocial behavior and altruism are similar in action but the reasons underlying the act of helping are much …show more content…
Learning and discovering new information about these forms of social behavior allow us to learn why people behave the way that they do in terms of helping others. Through research, we can see that this behavior can originate internally whether someone has a personal desire to help or because of how nurture played a role in their life growing up. `An important factor concerning prosocial behavior is the cause behind prosocial behavior. These causes may include the empathy-altruism hypothesis, empathy, the negative-state relief model, the empathy joy hypothesis, and the kin selection theory (Brombe & Branscombe 2012). These theories state that people help others because they are empathetic towards the victim regardless of the consequences that may occur to the helper, it lowers the negative emotions that the helper may be feeling, it makes the helper feel positive from the reaction of the person who has been helped, and that we are more likely to help a relative in need because they will carry our genes for many generations, respectively. Of course, these are not the only causes behind prosocial behavior and altruism. Race and gender, for example, are important in understanding prosocial behavior because they can have a huge impact on the way that people may respond to others including how relatable or similar they feel to them and the level of empathy the feel as a