Altruism

After my last post about "Life's Purpose", and how I felt that my purpose was to help, it got me thinking about the reasons why I felt like that.
So after doing some research on psychological behaviourism's, I found the term 'Altruism'.

It is a behaviour that appears to have very few negative associations and brings people together.  It is behaviour that helps other people with no apparent gain or with potential cost to oneself.  A person who donates blood, volunteers or even risks death is displaying altruism.  It seems that many forms of altruistic behaviour are so common that we simply take them for granted, such as holding a door open, giving a stranger directions or such as yesterday, whilst walking to my car I directed a driver, who was looking for a space to where I was, and gave her my parking ticket that still had two hours left on it - I mean, why not, I didn't need it.

For a long time now, it has been debated whether any prosocial act - no matter how generous and unselfish it may appear on the surface - is truly an indication of altruistic behaviour.  When people offer money to a homeless person in the street, is their actions motivated by a pure desire to help, or are they alleviating their own discomfort. There are many theories that underpin the understanding of altruism which I have not looked into yet, but what I will say is that I believe their is a truly genuine altruism in all of us.  Humans have a natural compassion for one and other and that the only reason why they do not always behave compassionately is that society beats it out of us.  What makes people more or less likely to show genuine altruism.  I think amongst a lot of things, it can also depend on the people who you let into your life.

People seek out and spend time with others for many reasons.  Sometimes it is an interaction to accomplish goals, raising money for charity or meeting over dinner to discuss business.  Sometimes during these meetings, can influence interpersonal attraction, or a physical attraction, attracting people like magnets.  You choose to be around people for many reasons, but the main reason is because they make you feel good, and hopefully you make them feel good too.  You are more likely to make selfless acts is you are happy within yourself.

Whether or not something is "genuine" altruism is missing the point.  Even if other motives are operating, if a persons ultimate goal in helping another is to benefit that other person, then the behaviour should be considered altruism.