Cross-Cultural Altruism
Cross-cultural altruism refers to the study of altruistic behavior across different cultures. It examines how individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds demonstrate selfless acts of kindness and cooperation. This research aims to understand the universal and culturally specific factors that influence altruism, shedding light on the complex interplay between culture and prosocial behavior.
7 Key excerpts on "Cross-Cultural Altruism"
- Annamaria Di Fabio, Donald H. Saklofske, Con Stough(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
...These altruistic punishments serve as a way to redirect undesirable, selfish behaviors that deviate from a society’s standard of fairness as well as to aid the victim (Fehr & Fischbacher, 2003). Theoretical Views Different perspectives on altruism have emerged in biology, anthropology, and psychology. The biological perspective focuses on the costs and benefits associated with helping another. In the animal kingdom, altruistic behaviors are largely limited within social groups that are genetically related to each other. Biologists note that certain species of animals will decrease their chance of surviving and reproducing only if their sacrifice can increase the chance of a relative’s ability to survive and reproduce, known as kin selection. Humans appear to be a rare exception to helping both related and unrelated individuals, as they often cooperate with others to achieve a common goal. Consequently, humans engage in altruism at a much higher frequency than animals. Anthropologists aim to understand how the helping behaviors evolved in humans despite the often high cost associated with helping others. For instance, if Dianna helps Andrew in one of his class projects instead of focusing on her own studies, Dianna will be increasing Andrew’s success while decreasing her own. At a later time, Andrew returns the favor and helps Dianna study for her finals. This phenomenon, referred to as reciprocal altruism, demonstrates the pattern of turn‐taking to reinforce future helping behaviors and may be one explanation to why humans engage in altruistic behaviors. The field of social psychology has played the largest role in furthering the understanding of the motives behind why an individual would want to cooperate or help in a situation, including what factors impact one’s decision to help. Two predominant theories have been put forth: social exchange theory and Batson’s prosocial motivation model...
eBook - ePub- Mark Schaller, Jeffry A. Simpson, Douglas T. Kenrick, Mark Schaller, Jeffry A. Simpson, Douglas T. Kenrick(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Psychology Press(Publisher)
...We hope that the readers of this chapter will take up the challenge to conduct further research on altruism, which connects social psychological and evolutionary perspectives. Only then will we move toward a more complete understanding of one of the great puzzles of human behavior, altruism. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The first author was supported by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust Foundation (F/00180/L). NOTES 1. The social psychological literature draws a distinction between altruism and prosocial behavior (Batson, 1998; Penner et al., 2005). Prosocial behavior refers to any kind of action that benefits others and is motivated by a variety of interpersonal motives, including pursuit of various self-rewards. In contrast, altruism refers to the underlying motivation to increase the welfare of others. In this chapter, we will use these terms interchangeably, because we are primarily interested in understanding actions in which there is an underlying intention to help others. If that is not the case, there is not much interesting to be explained. For example, a pedestrian on a zebra crossing who accidentally steps in front of a ear, thereby injuring himself, but saving another person's life is helping the other person. But this is not a ease of altruism, and therefore requires no theoretical explanation. Only if the pedestrian steps in front of the car for the purpose of saving the other's life are we dealing with a case of altruism, which needs to be explained. 2. This example is reminiscent of the well-known hawks and doves example in the evolutionary biological literature, where over time the outcomes of peaceful interactions between doves exceed the outcomes of repeated interactions between hawks and doves, or hawk-hawk interactions (Maynard-Smith & Price, 1973). 3. This is not to deny that there were no other social problems than social dilemmas in the ancestral world...
eBook - ePubCross-Cultural Psychology
Critical Thinking and Contemporary Applications, Seventh Edition
- Eric B. Shiraev, David A. Levy(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In particular, cross-cultural psychology studies – again, from a comparative perspective – the links between cultural norms and behavior and the ways in which particular human activities are influenced by different, sometimes dissimilar, social and cultural forces (Lonner, 2019; Segall et al., 1990). For example, consider the question suggested by the opening vignette to this chapter: do disaster survivors experience similar symptomatology across cultures (see Bemak & Chung, 2008; Chung & Bemak, 2012)? If they do, can a psychologist use an intervention aimed at treating posttraumatic symptoms in the United States in other cultural environments such as Sudan or Iran? Cross-cultural psychology attempts not only to distinguish differences between groups, but also to describe psychological phenomena that tend to be common to all people and groups (Berry et al., 1992; Lonner, 1980). What kind of phenomena? For example, cross-cultural psychology attempts to identify commonalties with regard to the structure of human personality: relatively stable patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting (see Figure 1.1). Such universal traits that can be described across cultures include neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness (Costa & McCrae, 1997; Schmitt et al., 2007). Figure 1.1 Cultural Psychology versus Cross-Cultural Psychology How is cross-cultural psychology different from cultural psychology ? First and foremost, cultural psychology seeks to discover meaningful links between a culture and the psychology of individuals living in that culture (which is defined below). The primary belief of cultural psychology is that human behavior is meaningful only when viewed in the sociocultural context in which it occurs (Segall et al., 1999). For instance, a cultural psychologist may be interested in describing how Buddhism, as a religion, affects the behavior and attitudes of married couples in Thailand...
eBook - ePub- John D. DeLamater, Jessica L. Collett(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Participants behaved more cooperatively when they knew that observers could potentially gossip about them. Source: Adapted from Feinberg, Willer, Stellar, & Keltner, 2012. Another sociobiological account for the perpetuation of altruistic behavior is reciprocation. If all the members of a group engage in helping behavior, they will all be better off in the long run (Hardy & van Vugt, 2006). If, for example, animals take turns playing the role of sentry and warning the group of approaching predators, many more members of that group will survive and reproduce than if none of them had warned the group. Evolutionary approaches to altruism have produced a considerable body of interesting research and theoretical propositions. For example, animals should be most altruistic toward those that most closely resemble them genetically—that is, they should help immediate family members more than distant cousins, and distant cousins more than outsiders or strangers (Burnstein, Crandall, & Kitayama, 1994; Rushton, Russell, & Wells, 1984). Second, parents will tend to behave altruistically toward healthy offspring, who are likely to survive and pass on their genes, but less altruistically toward sick or unhealthy offspring, who are likely to die before reproducing (Dovidio et al., 1991). Third, helping behavior should only favor those who can still reproduce. Thus, helping behavior should be targeted more toward young women than to older women who are past the age of menopause (Kruger, 2001). Although interesting, the sociobiological perspective is controversial, especially as applied to humans. By the above model, animals and humans would help only close relatives. Yet we know humans often help others who are unrelated—even total strangers. To explain altruism among unrelated persons, it is necessary to rely on cultural constructs, such as religious values, that define unrelated others as appropriate recipients of help...
eBook - ePub- Thomas A. Kindermann, Jaan Valsiner(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Psychology Press(Publisher)
...In addition, as mentioned earlier, these studies focus on adults, and emotional determinants were not included. So far, cross-cultural studies do not exist that would allow us to determine the influences between person-context relations, including their emotional feature, and individuals’ prosocial behavior. However, the intention to help does not necessarily correlate with real helping in real interaction situations. So far, no cross-cultural studies on the relation between emotional reactions (e.g., empathy) and prosocial behavior exist. Some indirect information may be gained from the recent cross-cultural studies on the development of aggression in different group-oriented (Japan, Bali, Batak) and individualistic (Germany, Switzerland) cultures by Kornadt, Hayashi, Tachibana, Trommsdorff, and Yamauchi (1992) and by Kornadt (1991). Significant differences in the occurrence and kinds of aggression motive (for adolescents) and in developmental conditions are demonstrated in these cultures. One of the most striking differences is that the aggression motive is lower for adolescents in group-oriented (East Asia) than for those in individualistic (Western) cultures. This is interesting in view of the fact that the aggression motive is often understood to counteract prosocial motivation. Cultural Differences in Socialization These motivational differences in aggression were related to different patterns of socialization. Mothers from Eastern cultures showed more understanding for their child and preferred prosocial values more than did mothers from Western cultures. Similar differences in socialization goals and values have been demonstrated in studies comparing Japan with other Western societies (Azuma, 1986 ; Hendry, 1986 ; Lebra, 1976 ; Trommsdorff, 1983, 1986, 1993c)...
eBook - ePubCross-Cultural Psychology
Critical Thinking and Contemporary Applications, Sixth Edition
- Eric B. Shiraev, David A. Levy(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...These kinds of differences (and, of course, similarities) are studied in cross-cultural psychology (Gudykunst & Bond, 1997). Cross-cultural psychology is the critical and comparative study of cultural effects on human psychology. Please notice two important elements of this definition. First, this is a comparative field. Any study in cross-cultural psychology draws its conclusions from at least two samples that represent at least two cultural groups. Second, because cross-cultural psychology inherently involves comparisons, and the act of comparison requires a particular set of critical skills, the study of cross-cultural psychology is inseparable from critical thinking. Cross-cultural psychology examines psychological diversity and the underlying reasons for such diversity. In particular, cross-cultural psychologists study—again, from a comparative perspective—the links between cultural norms and behavior and the ways in which particular human activities are influenced by different, sometimes dissimilar social and cultural forces (Segall et al., 1990). For example, consider the question suggested by the opening vignette to this chapter: Do disaster survivors experience similar symptomatology across cultures (see Bemak & Chung, 2008)? If they do, can a psychologist use an intervention aimed at treating posttraumatic symptoms in the United States in other cultural environments such as Sudan or Iran? Cross-cultural psychology attempts not only to distinguish differences between groups but also to establish psychological universals and phenomena common to all people and groups (Berry et al., 1992; Lonner, 1980). (See Figure 1.1.) For example, cross-cultural psychology attempts to identify commonalties with regard to the structure of human personality: relatively enduring patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting. Such universal traits include neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness (Costa & McCrae, 1997)...
- Paul Seager(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Teach Yourself(Publisher)
...This form of behaviour can also be antisocial: for example, an individual can help another person in order to make them look incompetent. • Prosocial behaviour : This type of behaviour is purely voluntary and is valued positively by society (and therefore may be culturally determined). It has positive consequences, contributes to the physical and/or psychological well-being of an individual, and is not motivated by professional obligation. • Altruism : There is some debate about whether pure altruism actually exists as this type of behaviour puts the emphasis on the needs of another without any consideration of benefit to the helper. This would be exemplified by the parable of the Good Samaritan, or perhaps by the act of heroism by an individual at an underground station outlined above. However, it is difficult to define such an action as purely altruistic as it may have been carried out in order to alleviate anticipated personal distress. ‘… the broad range of actions intended to benefit one or more people other than oneself – behaviors such as helping, comforting, sharing and cooperation’… Altruism is motivation to increase another person’s welfare … Prosocial behaviour need not be motivated by altruism; altruistic motivation need not produce prosocial behaviour. (C. Daniel Batson, 1998, p. 282) One of the challenges faced by researchers is to capture and understand the diversity of prosocial behaviour. For example, there are many different dimensions to helping, and these can include: • Planned vs. spontaneous • Serious vs. non-serious • Direct vs. indirect Planned helping might include a regular monthly donation from your wages to a charity, whereas spontaneous helping could include giving directions to a motorist who stopped you in the street whilst you were out walking...
