Altruism Vs Altruism

Altruism is a prosocial act that is done for someone else, perhaps a stranger, and results in the helper losing something. Prosocial behaviors may be helping, sharing, cooperating, and assisting a stranger, but it becomes an altruistic act when the helper performs the act to benefit someone else even when it costs them. To determine if a prosocial act is truly altruistic, one would need to know the intent or expectations of the helper at the time the service was performed. When an individual assists with the intent or expectation of being rewarded, it is not an altruistic act, but is still considered prosocial. Empathy and personal distress may lead an individual to display prosocial behavior, but this act may not be altruistic. When asked
A prosocial act is done to help someone in need, whereas an antisocial act is not done to help, but to hurt. Just as it is important to know to know intent or expectations to determine altruism, many social scientists strive to understand the intensions behind aggressive behaviors and assaults. There are two types of aggression: instrumental aggression and emotional aggression. Emotional aggression is simply aggression that is due to an emotional arousal, whereas instrumental aggression would be assaults that are carried out to obtain money, social status, and enhance self-identity (Berkowitz). Acting on aggression can be inhibited by the individual through self-restraint, but the greater the emotional arousal is the lower the inhibitions will
The Big Five dimensions of personality are hypothetical, or empirical, concepts that make up our personality, and are extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness (Habashi et al., 2016). Agreeableness and neuroticism are predictors of prosocial behavior. Someone who is high in agreeableness may be view as more forgiving, helping, thoughtful, and generous, whereas someone who is neurotic may have high anxiety and experience more personal distress. “Agreeable people are more sensitive to prosocial behaviors”, tend to “judge anti-social behaviors” harshly, and they are more likely to perform prosocial acts