Prosocial Behaviour: Cognitive Theories of Altruism (DP IB Psychology)

Empathy-altruism hypothesis

• Psychological theories of altruism emphasise the cognitive and social processes involved in helping another person

• Psychological theories are based on the idea that specific states of mind (e.g. empathy, egoism, negative mood) can influence the degree of help given to a person in need

• The empathy-altruism hypothesis (EAH) was suggested by Batson (1981):

  • The EAH is based on the idea that acts of altruism are not necessarily motivated by a selfless desire to help someone in need

  • Batson proposed that egoistic motivation may underlie some acts of altruism:

    • in other words, help is provided not to alleviate the unpleasant, negative feelings that stem from seeing another’s pain 

    • help may also be given to derive praise or external reward rather than out of a genuine desire to help

• Batson was interested in identifying the difference between:

  • prosocial behaviour based on empathy (true altruism)

  • prosocial behaviour based on egoism (motivated by self-serving needs)

• Batson (1981) stated that:

  • ‘egoistically motivated helping is directed toward the end goal of increasing the helper's own welfare; in contrast, a person's helping is altruistic (empathic) to the degree that he or she helps from a desire to reduce the distress or increase the benefit of the person in need’ (p.290)

Negative state relief model

• The negative state relief model (NSRM) was proposed by Schaller & Cialdini (1988):

  • it considers the extent to which personal discomfort at the sight of another’s distress motivates altruistic acts (akin to egoistic helping in the EAH)

  • when someone witnesses another in need of help they experience a negative mood, for example:

    • sadness

    • guilt

    • anxiety

    • distress

    • discomfort

• The NSRM assumes that if an individual feels empathy for someone in need then they are likely to experience sadness or guilt about it:

  • this negative mood may then prompt the individual to offer help in order to improve their own mood

  • the model is directed towards the egoistic motivation of making oneself feel better (‘self-rewarding’) rather than simply helping the person in need

• According to the NSRM there are two ways to alleviate the unpleasant symptoms experienced when in the presence of someone in need: 

  • 1) walk away (out of sight, out of mind)

  • 2) stay and help (guilt disappears)

  • either of these decisions should then reduce or eliminate the negative state

Evaluation of psychological theories of altruism

Strengths

• Psychological theories of altruism are less reductionist than biological theories:

  • They consider a range of factors which influence prosocial behaviour

  • They consider the individual in terms of the context of the help needed and their attitudes/motivations towards helping

• Both theories acknowledge that prosocial behaviour is not a ‘knee-jerk’ response but is something that is likely to go through a process of decision-making and cost-benefit analysis

Limitations

• Both the EAH and the NSRM rely on researchers being able to measure empathy and sadness respectively:

  • Each theory includes key variables that are highly subjective and open to interpretation

  • The key variables of empathy, egoism and negative mood are difficult to operationalise

  • These difficulties mean that research in this field tends to lack reliability

• Neither theory adequately explains why someone may feel empathy towards someone in need and yet still not offer any help

Research which investigates psychological theories of altruism

• Batson et al. (1981): EAH tested in lab conditions

• Batson et al. (1989): NSRM tested in lab conditions

Batson et al. (1981)and Batson et al. (1989) are available as ‘Two Key Studies of Psychological Theories of Altruism’ – just navigate the Social Responsibility section to find them.