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Altruism can be defined as helping behaviour that is not seeking to benefit oneself either tangibly or intangibly.
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| Submitted: Tue Oct 21 2003
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Describe and evaluate one or more explanations relating to human * Altruism or bystander behaviour. (24 marks) Altruism can be defined as helping behaviour that is not seeking to benefit oneself either tangibly or intangibly. Batson (1981) put forward the idea that people are capable of altruistic acts which benefit another person. He suggested the empathy-altruism hypothesis, which states that if a person feels sympathy, compassion and tenderness towards a victim they decide to help in order to reduce the victim's distress. Batson (1981) conducted a study to test his hypothesis. He set up 4 different conditions. In all the conditions participants believed they were watching another student, called Elaine, receive electric shocks. They were asked if they would take Elaine's place and receive the shocks. The conditions are summarised as follows with the results. CONDITION ESCAPE SIMILAR? PERCENTAGE THAT HELPED 1 Easy No 18% 2 Difficult No 65% 3 Easy Yes 90% 4 Difficult Yes 84% This experiment supports Batson's (1981) empathy-altruism hypothesis. The empathy condition (where participants believe they are similar) showed significantly...
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