Altruism and Helping Behaviour

Excerpts derived from “Altruism and Helping Behaviour” by Batson, Van Lange, Ahmad and Lishner (2007)

Some forms of helping behaviour:

1. Stay up all night to comfort a friend who has just suffered a broken relationship,
2. Send money to rescue famine victims halfway around the world,
3. Stop on a busy highway to push a friend’s - even a stranger’s car out of a snowdrift.

Such examples are heartwarming and inspiring. For social psychologists, they are also a puzzle because they raise the question of motives. Why do we spend so much of our time, money and energy on others?

The long debate has raged for centuries from Plato and Aristotle, to St Thomas Aquinas, David Hume, Adam Smith and Friedrich Nietzsche. The majority view is that everything that we do including everything we do for others, is always done to benefit ourselves; we are unremitting egoists.

In Donald Campbell’s 1975 Presidential Address to the American Psychological Association:

He summarized that, “ psychology and psychiatry […] not only describe man as sefishly motivated, but implicitly and explicitly teach that he ought to be so.

Three rewards that a helper may seek are:

1. Reciprocity credit - self benefit of knowing that the person you have benefited owes you one.
2. Mood enhancement - we are more likely to help someone when we feel bad because we know that we can give ourselves a pat on the back when we do something nice like helping and this will make us feel better. Besides that, people who felt bad because they had accidentally harmed someone were more likely to elicit helping behaviour.
3. Empathic joy - the feeling of pleasure at seeing the person in need experience relief. The counterpart of this feeling is empathic costs. These are the discomfort you anticipate feeling because of the empathy you will feel for the person in need as they continue to suffer. 

True altruism:

Reviewing the empathy-alruism research, as well as recent literature in sociology, economics, political science and biology, Pivialin and Charng (1990) concluded true altruism - acting with the goal of benefiting another - does exists and is a part of human nature.

Speculatively hypothesised, the most plausible answer for its existence relates empathic feelings to parenting in higher mammals, in which offspring live for some time in a very vulnerable state. As a result, it may promote one’s reproductive potential, not by increasing the number of offspring but by increasing the chance of their survival.

Collectivism: Benefiting another to benefit a group

Collectivism - a motivation to benefit a particular group as a whole. The ultimate goal is not to increase one’s own welfare but to increase the welfare of the group. 

The collectivist motivation is a product of group identity. It is viewed as an enlightened version of egoism.

Diffusion of Responsibility

Excerpts derived from “Bystander Intervention in Emergencies: Diffusion of Responsibility” by Darley and Latane (1968).

(Only, general information about diffusion of responsibility is discussed but not the details of the experiment)

Real life example of diffusion of responsibility:

In 1964, at least 38 witnesses had observed a young woman being stabbed to death in the middle of a street in a residential section of a New York city. None attempted to intervene or call the police.

This may occur due to conscienceless and inhumane lack of intervention. Terms such as “dehumanization produced by the urban environment”, "depersonalized by living in the cold society," or “psychopaths” and “moral decay” are coined to explain the phenomenon.

Another factor is rational and irrational fears about what might happen to a person who does intervene. This fear exists in the form of public embarrassment, physical harm, involvement with police procedures, lost work days and jobs.

Two reasons on why any individual may have delayed or failed to help are:

1. the responsibility for helping was diffused among the observers,
2. there was also diffusion of any potential blame for not taking action.

When only one bystander is present in an emergency, if help is to come, it must come from him. Thus, any pressure to intervene focuses uniquely on him.

When there are several observers present, the responsibility for intervention is shared among all the onlookers and is not unique to any one. As a result, no one helps. And in this case the potential blame is also diffused to the observers.

There are two types of intervention:

1. Direct intervention - such as breaking up a fight, extinguishing a fire, swimming out to save a drowner. This often requires skill, knowledge, or physical power. and may involve danger. Research results by Berkowitz seem to suggest that males are more responsible than females for this kind of direct intervention.
2. Indirect intervention - to report it to someone qualified to handle it, such as the police. For this type of intervention, sex or medical competence does not appear to affect one's qualifications or responsibilities. Anybody, male or female, medically trained or not, can find the experimenter.

The experiment’s key finding:

It is also important to note however, this experiment seem to indicate that such personality variables may not be as important as these explanations suggest. 

Alienation, Machiavellianism, acceptance of social responsibility and authoritarianism are often cited in these explanations.Yet they did not predict the speed or likelihood of help. In sharp contrast, the perceived number of bystanders did.

Language

Language is one of the branch of cognitive processes alongside memory, perception, thought, reasoning judgement and action. The primary form of language is speech and the secondary is written language.

Language is a way of presenting and describing. One can use language to frame an event and shift the focus of an event. For example:

1. The dog is chasing the cat. (Focus is dog)

2. The cat is being chased by the dog. (Focus is cat)

Language is considered a cognitive process because language requires words recognition, understanding of syntax, goals and forming a plan.

1. Syntax - the sentence's order: a question, or a statement, etc.

2. Goals - understanding speaker's objective: what is his point?

3. Plan - response

Language has form:

Dual articulation - a stream of speech can be divided into meaningful signs (...the dog chases the cat...), which can be further subdivided into meaningless elements (cat, dog, chase). 

So, the first step is listing out the words and secondly shuffle it to make sense of it. And shuffling can be done in many different ways. 

"The finite number of components combining to produce an infinite arrangement of novel utterances is an important property of human language."

Language has meaning: 

It is about a subject. It has reference and aboutness.

Language has link between form and meaning:

1. Arbitrariness - For example, 'cat' means cat in English language and 'cat' means paint in Malay language.

2. Productivity - by knowing word and grammar, you can create a new word. 

Language has cognition continuity:

1. Onomatopoeia - word that resembles the source of the sound it describes. For example, "meow", "moo" and "bang". In other languages, "meow" is "nyan" (Japanese) and "yaong" (Korean).

2. Compound nouns - you can put two words together.

3. Sound symbolism - low pitched sound for large (big, large, gross) and high pitched sound for small (teeny, tiny, petit)

Animal communication also involves dialect and accent. For example, songbirds in different region has different song. The same goes to whale song. As for primate language teaching, vervet monkeys can assign different 'alarm'/noise to different predator. However, at best the can only have language comprehension of a two-year-old.

The tool used for capturing sound is called spectrogram. 

Verbal sound is made by manipulating air pressure in the larynx (contraction and relaxation) and moving the tongue to allow certain amount of air to pass through. However, the tongue moves in between sounds and as you are making a sound, your tongue is simultaneously moving to the next sound. This is called co-articulation.

In human being, the fundamental frequency and pitch for male is usually lower for male than female. However, until the age of 60 male's fundamental frequency and pitch gets higher and female's gets lower.

Deeper: Why psychology?

Well Alhamdulillah (Praise be to Allah) i'm on my third week of being a psychology student and i think i have already understood briefly what psychology is all about although most of the people out there do not know what psychology really stands for. (Please don't think that we only work in a mental hospital. Just don't.) So i'll try to explain what psychology frankly is.

So 7 reasons on why people won't understand my choice on pursuing psychology (since people are clueless):

1. Psychology is not hard but TRICKY.

Stereotypes can be wrong. Our logic and rational can be wrong. Experts also can be wrong. Each one of us has our own opinions, some are socially agreed and some are not. We are bias towards what idea we grow up with. We have our own self interests and the way we view things. We can deduce and propose theories but the truth is independent from what we think it is. All that we do is we try the best that we could to read it. 

2. Psychology is PHILOSOPHY.

Before psychology adopted science in its mainstream field, philosophy is the main alphabet of psychology. Before we started studying the brain, the nervous system, neurons and sleep cycle, we began by investigating the mind and the soul. A spiritual realm realized only through concept but without scientific disciplines. It is developed then through peer observation and rationalizing. Greatly developed without the scientific framework.

3. Psychology is a SCIENCE.

Time passes by and now science is a big game in town. Science celebrates observation, hypothesis making, theories and many more fundamentals that contributes to huge human advancement. Besides reports and intellectual writings such as journals, psychologists also need to learn the building blocks on how to conduct an excellent experiment, ways on handling data and the modus to present it. It is quite technical to be honest but a very important set of skills in order to establish your findings at a professional, scientific standard.

4. Psychology is SUBJECTIVE. (in one sense)

It is about celebrating other people's opinion, mutual respect towards each other's beliefs and motivation and things that make us unite in diversity. Tolerance is a major part of being a matured, professional being. Being tolerance is the singular ethic that prevents many crazy things that could possibly happen. Tolerance in diversity means having a brain far bigger than your mouth and a heart far bigger than your brain.

5. Psychology is about CRITICAL THINKING/EVALUATION.

Opinions are celebrated as well as being challanged critically. What is your opinion about this and that? Do you agree or disagree with your lecturers? What is your opinion regarding such matter? Can you provide a better argument with a solid evidence? These are the questions that will soon occupy my day and possibly the rest of my life. How can i make a change for the better? Is there any better solution? What is our last resort?

6. Psychology can be THE SOLUTION.

Well, sitting, writing and thinking are among the things that i love to do the most. That is why psychology really appeals to me. It deals with a set of problems different than engineers, businessman, economics and other people of different fields get theirselves into. As for me, the set of problems in psychology (specifically the field that i'm interested in) requires a lot of thinking and being flexible. So it is not a suprise that i am fond towards such never-ending puzzle piece.

7. Psychology is like a SUPERPOWER.

Regardless which field you are in, knowing is verily owning. Psychology can be a useful art yet sometimes dangerous. From implanting false childhood memory to manipulating blindness in the brain, it seems that psychology offers us a lot of fun stuffs to mess around with our own but most of the time, other people's brain. Magics, illusions, a Sherlock-ian level of critical observation and business' aggresive but silent advertising, all has its roots in psychology. All you need is a shovel and patience to dig it further than the others or find a new spot directing you to a new treasure.

That is a power that you cannot buy. Psychology is a delicate field of science as well as philosophy. It is broad and unique, complex and mysterious. It celebrates science, religion, philosophy, art and many streams of the vast ocean of knowledge. If you were to put in a jar all essences that exist in psychology, probably you will find that everything is in it, because as far as we concern, we define PSYCHOLOGY.

Life: Why psychology?

Bismillah. 

I am well aware that most people around me view engineers and doctors as the professions of the smart ones. "Why don't you want to be an engineer?" is a common question. "Oh, the government sponsors an art course (psychology) to study in the UK? Back in my time most of us were sent there to study engineering."

Yeap, that is tough pill to swallow. But maybe i need it. 

I admit that psychology is not a very popular course. And its job prospect is unclear to most of us. Including to myself most of the time. I am still figuring out what i want to be in the future. I have a plan on what i want to do with my life but i don't think there is a name for it, or i haven't found it out yet. Maybe the Window Cleaner Man! Hmmm i don't know. Whatever it is, there are a few things that psychology can help me with:

1) Being a better being. 

There are a lot of kinds of smarty pants in the world. Be it artistic kid, sport guy, financial literates, maths whiz, science geek, book smart people and so many more. However, i am positive that psychology will prepare me to become a "people smart" kind of person. Being conscious and sensitive about people's emotion, how certain behavior affects other's emotions and understand the society in general will help me to cherish and appreciate others at a greater height.

2) Maybe the psychology circle is where i belong.

I like to write but it seems like formal people don't prefer my style of writing even if i try to write formally. I like to contemplate a lot that i have a feeling that my parents think sometimes i am rude when i don't respond much to them while in fact, i am actually thinking about something important at that time. Plus, i am a carefree person and i really appreciate flexibility. Furthermore, i think too much about too many things around me. I secretly give my own opinions in my head because i can't find a nice way to say it. I will get nervous, anxious and sometimes studded if i start talking about a serious matter.

3) Having a lot intellectual discussions!

I am not a gamer, i don't watch much tv series and i seldomly listen to music. Yes, i sound old and boring. I enjoy documentaries, listen to talks and listen to rational people talking about concepts and principles. It is like a dope for me if i hear people talking about ideas! Opinions, insights, and words i never heard of make me thirst for more. And i hope that with my psychology background, it will be a ticket for me not just to meet and discuss with them, but also to collaborate with many game changers from all sorts of backgrounds around me.

4) I will be able to see the funny side of the world!

No one will believe me if i say psychology is a kind of a superpower and no radioactive waste is needed in the process. Via psychology, you can see how people in advertising messes with your head to buy their product (like advertising Nutella in 9gag and stuff which now causes the world to run out of hazelnut because people can't stop eating Nutella), how you can spot a liar, what methods do the media uses to spread propaganda, how to influence and hack the brains of others, and so many more. These are some branches of applied psychology besides child development psychology, cognitive psychology and etc.

5) My ultimate goal: I want to contribute to Islam.

Yes, people may say that muslims are too indoctrinated and fanatic about their religion. But i don't know, somehow i really love it. I really love my religion despite my constant shortcomings. I spend hours thinking about it and most of the time on how improve its appearance. "Islam has the best products but a horrible shop window," they say. So i hope with my psychology knowledge and degree, maybe i can fill the job vacancy to be one of the window cleaners for Islam? Insha Allah (if God wills it.)

Well, i think this is all for now. I will post a few more entries in the near future Insha Allah since there are a couple of things that i wish to share about. So until next time!