Evidence for the Altruistic Personality from Data on Accident Research

Abstract

The aim of this study was to test whether the concept of an altruistic personality was valid for first aiders who intervened to help the victims of a traffic accident. We derived a number of relevant personality variables that should be related to the willingness to administer first aid. These include locus of control, social responsibility, belief in a just world, empathy, and instrumentality. We obtained data from proven first aiders who had intervened after a traffic accident. Thirty-four of these first aiders were matched to respondents from a subject pool on the basis of sex, age, and socioeconomic status. In addition, the willingness of these respondents to offer help after a traffic accident was taken into account. Only people who indicated that they had witnessed an accident and had not helped were included in the control group. Multivariate analyses of variance and covariance indicated that proven first aiders deviated from the control group on several dimensions: Tbey described themselves as more internal, believed more in a just world, and emphasized more social responsibility and empathy.

Pleasure and pressure based prosocial motivation: Divergent relations to subjective well-being

“…Although there is considerable evidence for the prosocial personality (e.g., Bierhoff et al, 1991;Eisenberg et al, 2002;Penner & Finkelstein, 1998;Staub, 1974), there have been relatively few analyses of the motivational underpinnings of this trait. We have proposed that different motivations underlie the prosocial personality and that these different motivations, in turn, are associated with different personality variables.…”

“…Importantly, the motivation to help others in order to gain pleasure can be contrasted with the motivation to fulfill a duty or conform to a social norm-what we call ''pressure based prosocial motivation''. For example, Campbell (1975) argues that helping behavior is motivated by pressure from cultural institutions, Rosenhan (1970) proposed a concept called ''normative altruism '', and Bierhoff et al (1991) found that people who help in the event of an accident possess a profound sense of duty.…”

“…Helpful behavior depends on situational variables (e.g., Batson, 1991;Latané & Darley, 1970;Piliavin, Dovidio, Gaertner, & Clark, 1981) and on stable dispositions (e.g., Bierhoff, Klein, & Kramp, 1991;Eisenberg et al, 2002;Penner & Finkelstein, 1998;Staub, 1974). Research on both aspects has raised important questions about why people help, with a large amount of debate about whether helpfulness is always motivated by egoistic concerns (e.g., Cialdini, Brown, Lewis, Luce, & Neuberg, 1997) or whether helpfulness can also be an expression of pure selflessness (e.g., Batson, 1998).…”

Features of evaluation and self-evaluation of prosocial behaviour among fifth-and sixth-grade pupils

“…Akékoľvek kvantifikovanie výchovného potenciálu určitého programu alebo intervencie je teda nutne ohraničené konkrétnymi podmienkami, v ktorých sa realizuje, najmä osobnosťou vychovávateľa (Podmanický & Szeliga, 2009) a žiaka (Bierhoff, Klein, & Kramp, 1991;Bierhoff & Rohmann, 2004;Oliner & Oliner, 1988;Penner, Fritzsche, Craiger, & Freifeld, 1995 a i. ), ale aj množ-stvom mnohých ďalších premenných, vrátane kultúry prostredia (Barr & Higginsová, 2007).…”

Carbon Footprints in the Sand: Marketing in the Age of Sustainability

“…Locus of control (LOC) is the degree to which a person believes that their behavior is internally motivated or controlled, contingent on their own actions or personal characteristics, versus external, beyond their control and a function of chance or the control of powerful others (e.g., [20]). Bierhoff et al [10] find that people who are more likely to be altruistic have higher levels of internal LOC, while Singhapakdi and Vitell [72] find that high levels of internal LOC indicate increased moral identity. Cleveland et al [20] find that an internal environmental LOC relates to recycling levels, while an external environmental LOC relates to exoneration of humans from responsibility for sustainability.…”