Altruism is a subcategory of helping behaviour, and refers to an act that is motivated by the desire to benefit another rather than oneself (Batson & Coke, 1981; Berkowitz, 1970, cited in Hogg & Vaughan, 2005). The main issue with determining whether a helping act is truly altruistic is one of motivation; if we cannot determine whether an act stems from a desire to benefit others or some kind of ulterior motive, altruism is difficult to demonstrate (Rushton & Sorrentino, 1981, cited in Hogg & Vaughan, 2005). This essay will firstly discuss the Empathy-Altruism hypothesis, which rejects the claim that no behaviour is ‘really’ altruistic and will go on to discuss opposing theories of egoism such as negative state relief, reciprocity and social responsibility, and Piliavin’s bystander-calculus model.

Gaertner and Dovidio (1977, cited in Passer & Smith, 2007) commented that it is likely that empathy motivates us to help others. Batson, Duncan, Ackerman, Buckley and Birch (1981)......

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Title: No Behaviour Is ‘really Altruistic. Based On Theory And Research In Social Psychology, Critically Discuss This Contention.
Approximate Word Count: 1187
Approximate Pages: 5 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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