The society’s position in the XXI century is likely to become egocentric leaving personal values aside. Altruism and empathy are being ousted from our lives. Instead of them a lack of sympathy, help, understanding and passiveness towards other people’s misfortune is noticed. This is especially characteristic of the young generation. Therefore, the question about teenagers’ altruistic behavior arises, i.e. if teenagers tend to provide non-selfish help or support and what the level of their empathy is. There have not been any researches about the expression of teenagers’ empathic behavior carried out so far. Consequently, the relevance of the work is to reveal the present situation and problems related to it. The object of the research ��� the expression of personality’s altruism and empathy’s features of senior students. The aim of the work – to analyze the features of personality’s empathy and altruistic behavior of senior students. In order to achieve the aim the following objectives have been set: 1. to ascertain the nature of expression of senior students’ altruistic behavior; 2. to identify the manifestations of altruistic behavior applying the method of social provocation; 3. to determine the personality’s empathy features of senior students; 4. to identify if the coherence between the empathy of senior students and altruistic behavior exists; 5. to discover if social demographic and educational features influence altruistic behavior and personality’s empathy. In... [to full text]

Thesis (Ph. D.)--George Mason University, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 22, 2008). Thesis director: Kevin A. McCabe. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics. Vita: p. 126. Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-125). Also available in print.

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2001.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [95]-104).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-105).

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on February 24, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Lawrence Ganong. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The main purpose of the study was to determine if altruism and empathy could be developed in Ecuadorian college students. Gender differences were expected in initial altruism and empathy measures. A predictive relationship between different dimensions of empathy (fantasy, perspective taking, empathic concern, personal distress) and altruism was also expected. The intervention took the form of a mandatory service learning course, which included conferences and a service internship with continuous and shared reflection via computer mediated discussion groups. A mixed methodology design first used an experimental component in which participants were randomly assigned to experimental (with discussion groups) and control (without discussion groups) conditions, and a qualitative component in which semi-structured interviews were done with control and treatment participants approximately a year after the intervention. Quantitative results revealed a positive impact of the intervention in altruism and empathic concern, as well as a positive qualitative impact in treatment participants' critical thinking about their country's reality. Additionally, qualitative data showed a difference in thinking about their service experience between experimental and control group participants. Gender differences in altruism and empathy were not found in contrast with previous studies. The combination of empathy factors as measured by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983) predicted scores in altruism as measured by the Self-Report Altruism Scale (Rushton, Chrisjohn & Fekken, 1981). It was concluded that the intervention had a modest effect on participants' empathy and a strong positive effect on participants' altruism. Instruments used in this study were differentially appropriate for the sample. The SRA appears to be more valid and reliable than the original and complete IRI. The IRI instrument appeared to have had some components (Empathic Concern and Perspective Taking) that were more related to the constructs under study and other components that were unrelated to this study. Some extraneous variables were not taken into account in data collection and analysis, and may have influenced the results, such as: Cultural knowledge about the importance of research, different service experiences due to different qualities of placements, and dispositional characteristics of participants. / 2031-01-02

Towards developing an applied behavioral technology that treats altruism as the dependent variable of interest, there is a necessity for understanding the contextual conditions under which altruistic behavior is most likely to occur. The purpose of the study was to evaluate how relative contextual conditions affected social discounting. Thirty-six participants were given three social discounting surveys, each survey preceded by a different contextual scenario. In each scenario, either the participant, a hypothetical other, or both the participant and the hypothetical other were in need of money to avoid a negative outcome. The results suggest that there was a significant difference in social discounting across the three contextual conditions F (2, 35) = 34.28., p < 0.0001), where the greatest discounting occurred when participants were exclusively in need. Hyperbolic functions provided a strong fit for each of the conditions (R² = 0.98, R² = 0.98, R² = 0.84, respectively), and the relationships between participant scores in each of the condition was evaluated.

Professionals in the mental health industry often attach a stigma to Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). It is commonly thought of as a frustrating disorder to treat. As a result many professionals avoid dealing with BPD individuals. In an attempt to promote positive treatment outcomes, the aim of the study is to explore how the introduction of altruistic behaviours would affect the outcome of the overall treatment of individuals with BPD. Snowball sampling procedures were implemented. Data were collected through the use of semi-structured interviews with six mental health professionals and analysed through qualitative data processing and thematic analysis procedures. To the researcher’s knowledge, no research has been conducted specifically exploring the relationship between altruistic behaviour and BPD to date. The following superordinate themes emerged: treatment challenges, treatment context, treatment approach, diagnostic challenges, altruism/prosocial influences, and altruism/prosocial behaviour. It is the researcher’s hope that the findings of this study will increase awareness of this possible avenue in the treatment of BPD, so that the results of this study can then be taken to the next level of exploration in research and in clinical practice.