Identify Some of the Factors That Make People Help Others.

Identify some of the factors that sham pack religious service early(a)s. Who patrons the nearly, and in what shields (whom) be they especially credibly to assistance? Illustrate your answer with shells. Giedrius Statkus Department of Psychology, Keynes College, CT2 7NP Identify some of the factors that make slew assistant others. Who suspensors the most, and in what cases (whom) be they especially likely to financial aid? Illustrate your answer with voices. many different factors have been shown to influence races spontaneousness to help others.The motive behind certain(p) grammatical case of help can be certain rewards for helping that other types of help do non always appear to have a clear motive. This was noted by Comte (1875 as cited in Batson & Shaw 1991, Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) who learn the question of helping others, philosophically and suggests that there are two key types of help displayed by people. He describes these as either Egoistic Helping (EH) or Altruistic Helping (AH).The former refers to the type of help where an exclusive is clearly aware of a reward for transacting the help, much(prenominal) as can be seen in some volunteers workers, whose clear reward is get under ones skin and recommendations. The latter however refers to situations where an individuals willingness to help is unaided by any conscious reward. AH behaviour can be seen in such(prenominal) examples as helping a broken down stranger fix a car tyre on a road (Pomzal & Clore, 1973 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011).The factors influencing the latter type of help are the ones mainly considered end-to-end this es maintain. However these factors have a varied effect on different people, this variation can be found on gender, age and other individual differences. It has been suggested that one major factor influencing the willingness of people to perform AH is empathy (Batson, Batson, Slingsby, Harrell, Peekna & Todd, 1991). The theory sugges ts that individuals witnessing someone in need of help, as they are displaying distress or pain, will experience similar feelings themselves.This is supported by many studies (Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) however of key importance are studies conducted via observing the surgical operation of empathy in the brain using Functioning Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) (Singer, Seymour, ODoherty, Kaube, Dolan & Firth, 2004). In their study participants were subjected to electric shocks while undergoing an fMRI scan, after that they had to watch as their spouses undergo the electric shocks. The scans showed that the brains responses were similar, for both conditions, and that witnessing the shocks and receiving them modify the very(prenominal) areas of the brain.Other studies have excessively found empathy between emotional states such as happiness or sadness and other situations (Singer, Seymour, ODoherty, Kaube, Dolan & Firth, 2004). Therefore this confirms Batsons et al. (1991) sugg estion that if an individual is witnessing someone in distress, he also experiences some distress and therefore helping that person would be the fastest way to relieve it. There are many other factors playing roles in influencing willingness to help, however many of them may also be explained via empathy. As these other factors may amplify or descend empathy which could result in increased willingness to help.The fact that reward in AH is not obvious is not to say that it does not exist. As mentioned previously the relieving of distress may be one form of reward see through AH. Other rewards to be considered may be the need for praise or some disunite of award (Batson, et al. 1988 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011). Another motivation may be alarm of punishment, often in the form of favorable disproval, the fear of people knowing you could of helped, but did not. This can aid understanding of AH on an evolutionary and survival basis.As in some cases AH may mean little r esources or lay oneself in danger (Dawkins 1988 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) it can be said that such behaviour is harmful to survival. Except in clear cases of close family AH, where the help would favour the survival of the helping individuals genes either way. However modern human survival, and therefore chance of reproduction, is extremely restricted on social acceptance (Coie, Dodge & Coppotelli, 1982). Therefore avoidance of punishment, in the form of social disproval is often a decent reward for AH.Empathy can be seen as a major aspect of other factors influencing willingness to help too, for example it has been shown that people feel more(prenominal) than empathy for people similar (Frans, 2008) and are more willing to help based on similarity between them and the person needing help, such as similar clothes (Eimswiller, Deux & Willts, 1971 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011), personal determine (Batson, Duncan, Ackerman, Buckley & Birch, as cited in B atson & Shaw, 1991) and other features. This may be because people are more likely to experience empathy for people who are ore like them sort of of someone who is very different. This can be seen in Batsons et al. (1981 as cited in Batson & Shaw, 1991) study where participants who believed a person undergoing electric shocks held personal values that were very different to the participants values, were less likely to take the victims place and receive shocks instead of them. This is supported by the kelvin beard theory, a term coined by Dawkins (1976 as cited in western hemisphere & Gardener, 2010) in reference to a theoretical gene that would encode the information of a green beard and make green bearded people more likely to help others with a green beard.In this theory the green beard is an example of an obvious visual feature. Although just a theoretical leash for which the germane(predicate) genes have only been observed in the study of micro-organisms (West & Gardener, 20 10) and other far less genetically complex, than humans, life forms (Fostner, Wensler & Ratnier, 2006). It is suggested that a much more complex system may be a feasible genetic explanation for the way in which AH is influenced by people with similar features.Although the theory is criticised in its received state as it has been said that one allele would be incapable of encoding and identifying all the relevant information necessary (Henrich 2001). This however led others (Jansen & Baalen, 2006) to suggest that, instead, a number of genes could encode some features of appearance, or a visable tag (West & Gardener, 2010, p. 1344), and a separate, gene would encode the ability to recognise similarity and influence AH when it is recognised. For example it has been shown that people empathise more with close members of their family (Frans, 2007).As well as being more willing to help them (Burnstein, Crandall & Kitayama, 1994). This was especially true for close members of the family such as siblings. The willingness to help was found to decrease as the family ties grew weaker. In all cases people were three times more likely to help close family members such as siblings than nephews and cousins, they were even less likely to help strangers or friends. This was especially true if the sibling in question is a monozygotic twin of the individual (Burnstein, Crandall & Kitayama, 1994).The willingness to help for un-identical twins was considerably lower, by up to half as willing, suggesting that AH is an important behaviour for successful evolution and survival as it favours identical genes. This stupefying difference between identical gene siblings and dizygotic twins could also be relate to the green beard theory mentioned earlier. As the perfect visual tag for an altruistic gene to identify would, in the case of monozygotic twins, be a completely identical appearance. AH was also found to be dependent on age (Baumaister & Bushman, 2011).For example Burnstein et al. (1994) found that peoples willingness to help young children of age 1 was identical to the amount of willingness seen at age 25. Overall, willingness to help was found to quickly reach a hint at the age of 10 and then steadily decrease as people get older. For the final examination recorded age, of 75, willingness to help had decreased by a quarter when compared to age 1. Peoples wellness was also noted as an important factor in influencing willingness to help. It was found that people are more willing to help ruddy individuals than those suffering from ill-health.This may be due to survival causas as healthy individuals are much more likely to help the person in return and therefore increase their rate of survival. In cases of AH, it can be said that, the evaluation of ability to satisfy may be performed unconsciously. The same concept applies to old and very young individuals who are also less able to reciprocate the help they receive. The attractiveness of an individual is also a recognised factor in ones willingness to help (Harrel, 1978 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011). This is often hard to explain in regards to evolution and survival theories. wiz aspect considered is that attractiveness may be evaluated as health, as attractiveness and health evaluations have been shown to positively correlate (Taylor and Brown, 1988). However a study by Juhnke et al. (2001) found that attractiveness does not necessarily verify on physical features. He found people dressed more attractively are also more likely to receive help. A possible critique of this finding could be that in this case the more attractive people were seen as richer, and therefore their ability to reciprocate would be higher(prenominal).This would however pit Burnsteins et al. (1994) finding, which demonstrates that people would be significantly less likely to help rich people than pathetic people crosswise every situation. And although based on participants conscious evaluation of their willingness to help, the results are consistent across all participants and therefore suggest that Juhnkes et al. (2001) findings were related to attractiveness, if not as the sole factor than at the very least more than the effect of a ealthy appearance. This finding is also more supported by the survival via reproduction theory since in some cases it appeared to have a sex specific effect, (Pomzal & Core, 1973 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) where male participants were found to be more likely to help females than males, especially if the female is attractive. They also report that males are more willing to help than females overall which is an important finding as this some contradicts Batsons et al. 1991) theory, of empathy being the most important factor in AH as Davis (1980) has pointed out that females display a much higher level of empathy across many different AH related situations. This may be related to Dawkins (1989 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011 ) theory. He proposes that willingness to help is directly affected by the loss incurred in the process of helping. Therefore although women may want to help more than males, as they feel higher empathy, they may be prevented by fear of loss.This is because most AH requires a form of loss of resources, time or putting oneself in danger (Batson & Shaw, 1991) as only in cases of unconscious and reflex powered reactions are people willing to put their survival over the person in need of help. This sort of behaviour is most often seen in combat situations and almost never occurs if people are able to consider the threat posed to them (Batson & Shaw, 1991) Individuals willingness to help people is affected by many factors as discussed. This can be seen in many forms.Some forms of help are motivated by feelings of distress caused through empathy. This coupled in concert with unconscious reward seeking and punishment avoidance influences people in making the decision of whether to help or not. Although empathy may be the prevailing factor it is also important to mention that it is heavily influenced by other factors such as age, gender, family ties and physical or mental similarities. However empathy at times is affected by other factors such as the cost of helping someone.For example men are less likely to be helped, however are more likely to be willing to help than females. Females, although experiencing higher empathy and therefore maybe higher willingness to help are said to be more aware of fear of loss. This may also be influenced by the fact that males feel higher social expectations, to help, than females. Although another reason may simply be survival as the people most likely to be helped are often the same people who are most capable of reciprocating the help.In the case of 10 category old children and young adults receiving more help than elderly people or young children it may be because they can be said to be evaluated as having more chance of recip rocating this help. Same can be said for the health bias influencing willingness to help. Healthy people are more likely to receive help as they are more likely to have the ability to return the help. The fact that attractive people are more likely to be helped than less attractive people is thought to be highly linked to peoples willingness to help healthy people.Helping close family is also affected by health although the predominant factor here is the closeness of the family relationship. Children and parents are as willing to help each other as siblings who are significantly more willing to help each other than they are willing to help nephews, cousins or other family members. The only group more likely to help each other are identical twins, this evidence fits in with the selection of kin theory of evolution and therefore is most likely based on survival of the genes.Genes appear to be the most likely explanation for the fact that people are very likely to help individuals who appear similar to them. As suggested by the theory that certain genes may help their own survival by creating visual tags in people who share the same genes or by encoding recognition of similarity. This visual tag would be recognised by the other individuals carrying the same genes and therefore AH would be increased.When all the discussed factors are considered it can be seen that peoples willingness to help and their choice of whom they help, is motivated and influenced by many factors which all interact in a complex manner. References Batson, C. D. , Batson, J. G. , Slingsby, J. K. , Harrel, K. L. , Peekna, H. M. , & Todd, R. M. (1991). empathetic Joy and the Empathy- self-sacrifice Hypothesis. Journal of Personality and sociable Psychology, 61, 413-426. Batson, C. D. , & Shaw, L. L. (1991). Evidence for Altruism Toward a Pluralism of Prosocial Motives.Journal of mental Inquiry, 2(2), 107-122. Baumeister, R. F. , & Bushman, B. J. (2011) Social Psychology and Human Nature (2ed. ). Belmot, California Wadsworth. Burnstein, E. , Crandall, C. , & Kitayama, S. (1994). 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