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Altruism and Prosocial Behavior

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Altruism and Prosocial Behavior

Altruism occurs when our motive from our behavior is entirely for the interest of others and is not motivated by self-interest (Feenstra, 2011). Doing something for someone to make them happy with no alternative motive would be acting altruistically, because your ultimate goal was the happiness of the other person. The happiness of others is the true goal of altruistic motives is for the well-being of another person, not yourself (Feenstra, 2011). You might receive benefits because the person on the receiving end could show gratitude, but being altruistic is not asking or needing gratuity for actions that were made to make one happy. An altruistic person doesn’t look for anything in return for making one happy or doing a good deed for that person. When self-benefits are an unintended consequence of an action, that action is truly altruistic (Feenstra, 2011).
The difference between egoistic and altruism is that egoistic is doing something for self-interest unlike altruism which has no motive for the action. Let’s say I do a good deed for someone by mowing their lawn and I do this because I know money will be offered and the money was my motive for mowing the lawn. An egoistic person motives involve an ultimate goal of self benefit. Anything one does as an egoistic person is geared toward self benefit, even though the act may be thought of as a caring act.
The bystander effect is an overall tendency to watch while someone needs help. There are five steps to helping (Feenstra, 2011). First step is to know an emergency is happening. Secondly, one must notice and interpret that an emergency as occurred. Step 2 is interpreting an event as an emergency. Step 3 is to take responsibility for helping. Step 4 is deciding how you can help. Step 5 is deciding to help.

References
Feenstra, J. (2011). Introduction to Social Psychology.

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