Sveriges föreningsliv bygger till största delen på frivilliga insatser och en stor del av Sveriges befolkning är mycket aktiva i föreningar runt om i landet. Det satsas även stora summor pengar årligen till de ideella organisationerna. Studier visar att motiven till frivilligt socialt arbete har förändrats. Från att ha varit med avsikt att göra något för någon annan till att idag handla om att individen vill ha någonting tillbaka för sitt engagemang. Syftet med studien är att beskriva och analysera vad som motiverar människor till att engagera sig i frivilligt socialt arbete. Frågorna som ställdes utgick från vilken betydelse altruismen, egoismen och individualiseringen har för att motivera människor till att engagera sig i frivilligt socialt arbete? Studien har en kvalitativ insats. Datainsamling har skett genom intervjuer. 3 intervjuer i en kyrka och 3 intervjuer i en idrottsförening. Materialet har analyserats genom en empirikopplad analys där teorin SDT använts. Resultatet visar att positiv feedback, social samhörighet, självbestämmande och viljan till ett medborgerligt engagemang är viktiga för motivationen. Det finns altruistiska motiv som är centrala i studien men det finns även tydliga kopplingar till egoistiska och individuella motiv. Betydelsen av dessa diskuteras i studien.

In this thesis I provide an overview of Nietzsche's ethics with an emphasis on showing how his naturalistic approach to ethics leads him to advance an egoistic moral code. I argue that this, though radical in the light of conventional morality, is not irrational, unprincipled, or proscriptive of other-regarding moral considerations. On the contrary, it demands the highest degree of foresight and integrity. While Nietzsche's writings are meant for a select group of people, namely "higher men," whose flourishing may be undercut by their unwitting acceptance of a self-destructive morality. I explain that Nietzsche places the highest degree of value on the life of these individuals, the development of their character, and their flourishing. Further, I explain that Nietzsche extols as a great virtue "bestowing" or "gift-giving," and that he takes generosity to be more frequently practiced under an ethics of egoism.

The purpose of this study was to try to understand the Swedish population regarding the perceptions of the Swedish welfare system, based on the reactions that occurred after Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's statement about raising the retirement age. Our results demonstrate that the reactions on changes in the pension system in fact rooted in a safety factor and not the change in the pension system itself, through which the Swedish welfare system acts as a safety net for the population. Further the results shows that these safety factors create a form of egoism. With an interaction between empiricism and theory, where the starting point of the material was of an inductive approach, the material abstracted into different levels from which the result emerged. The focus of this study lies in the understanding of how human beings act according to one's need for security in major changes, which may be of importance to a comprehensive understanding of changes in social structures.

<p>Forskning har visat att människor hjälper varandra av såväl egoistiska som altruistiska skäl. Hur ter det sig hos volontärer? Ställer volontärer upp för de hjälpbehövandes eller för sin egen skull? Den här uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka volontärers motiv till att hjälpa. Skiljer motiven sig åt beroende på om engagemanget sker i Sverige, inom Europa eller i en annan världsdel? 40 volontärer berättade skriftligt om sina volontärupplevelser. Berättelserna analyserades för att se vilken typ av motiv som angavs mest. Resultatet visade att fler egoistiska än altruistiska motiv angavs totalt sett bland volontärerna, däremot angav Europavolontärer flest altruistiska motiv. Överlag engagerade sig yngre volontärer längre hemifrån. Resultaten kan ge framförallt frivilligorganisationer men också samhället i stort insikt i motiv bakom hjälpinsatser.</p>

Bakgrund: Anställda i organisationer möter dagligen etiska dilemman som de måste ta hänsyn till, därmed krävs det att individen tar ställning till vad som är etiskt och oetiskt i varierande situationer. Denna studie undersöker etiskt förhållningssätt, vilket berör människors moraliska attityder om vad som anses vara rätt och fel. Människor agerar utifrån olika moraliska skäl vilka kan bero på individen eller situationen. Vi vill skapa förståelse för vilka faktorer som påverkar en anställds etiska förhållningssätt.   Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att identifiera vilka faktorer som påverkar anställda att domineras av ett visst etiskt förhållningssätt i den svenska arbetskraften.   Metod: Vi har genom moralfilosofiska teorier, tidigare empirisk forskning samt logiskt resonemang skapat teorier om vilka faktorer som påverkar anställdas etiska förhållningssätt. Utifrån dessa teorier har hypoteser härletts som testats empiriskt via ett egenutformat mätinstrument. Mätinstrumentet är utformat som en enkät, vilket innebär att studien har utgått från en kvantitativ forskningsansats.   Resultat: Resultat och analyser är genomförda på enkätmaterial inhämtat från ett urval i den svenska arbetskraften. Undersökningens resultat visar att både individuella och organisatoriska faktorer har samband med anställdas etiska förhållningssätt. Tydligast samband kan ses mellan individuella faktorer och ett utilitaristiskt förhållningssätt, samt mellan organisatoriska faktorer och ett egoistiskt förhållningssätt. Dessutom visar pliktetiskt förhållningssätt samband med bådadera kategoriseringarna av faktorer. / Background and problem: Employees are daily faced with ethical dilemmas at the workplace, thus requires the individual to take a stand for what is ethical and unethical in varying situations. This study examines ethical orientations, which affect peoples’ moral attitudes about what is considered as right and wrong. People act on the basis of moral grounds, which may depend on individual or situational factors. We want to create an understanding of these factors, which may influence employees’ ethical orientation.   Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify the factors that influence employees’ ethical orientation in the Swedish workforce.   Method: We have created theories about the factors, which influence employees’ ethical orientations. This is based on normative moral theories, previous empirical research and logical reasoning. Based on these theories we have derived hypotheses, which have been tested empirically through a selfdesigned measurement. The measurement is designed as a survey and therefor the study has been based on a quantitative research approach.   Conclusion: Results and analysis are conducted from a survey and data was collected from a sample consisting of employees in the Swedish workforce. The results show that both individual and organizational factors can influence employees’ ethical orientation. Strongest relations are shown between individual factors and an utilitarian orientation. In contrast, the organizational factors influence an egoistic orientation. Moreover, ethics of duty shows association with both categories of factors.

Why be moral? One possible, and compelling answer is that to act morally is in an agent's self-interest. Such an answer can be either elevationist (broadly speaking the Aristotelian/Platonic approach) where self-interest is elevated to coincide with living the good life, or reductionist where morality is defined as acting in an agent's self-interest. Elevationist moral theories appear flawed. If you are in possession of information that, if divulged, will bring about the deaths of others then it may be virtuous to stay silent. However, if staying silent results in you being slowly tortured to death in an effort to extract the information then it seems bizarre to suggest that in doing so you are flourishing, happy, or acting out of self-interest. Reductionist moral theories, acting for the 'good of self' rather than the 'good of others', are widely considered to be the antithesis of morality. Moral philosophers tend to attack such positions claiming that the doctrine of egoism is unworkable. It is commonly claimed that any theory which recommends 'an agent do x if x is in the agent's best interest' is inconsistent, incoherent, or contradictory and fails to meet the basic requirements of a moral theory (notably the requirement of universalisability). I begin this thesis with an examination of ethical egoism in its most widely known consequentialist form; i.e. an agent ought to act so as to bring about the best consequences for that agent. I examine the major criticisms of this theory and demonstrate that the axioms of egoism can be developed so as to overcome these criticisms. I argue that consequentialist based ethical egoism is coherent, consistent and noncontradictory. However, I go on to argue that while egoism can be formulated in a manner that overcomes all the aforementioned analytic criticisms it is a flawed moral theory in that within certain contexts the action deemed morally correct by egoism is, as a matter of fact, morally pernicious. That a theory contains a flaw is not reason enough to discard the entire theory and I go on to contend that the problem with egoism is the consequentialist approach, not the fact that it is based on self-interest. In Part 2 of the thesis I abandon the consequentialist approach and examine the possibility of a flourishing-based form of ethical egoism. I further develop the axioms of egoism established in Part 1 through an examination of the concept of flourishing (as commonly associated with virtue ethics). Ultimately I tread a path between the consequentialist and elevationist positions. While I do not elevate self-interest to acting virtuously I do contend that an egoist must adopt certain virtues if that egoist is to have the best possibility to flourish. However, I further contend that an egoist ought to act so as to promote that which the egoist values and that this agent-relative hierarchy of values, which necessarily contains certain virtues, determines the manner in which an egoist ought to act.

Friendship and hedonism are both major components of Epicureanism. I attempt to relieve the tension that seems to follow from endorsing both of these. I argue that Epicurean friendships require valuing a friend’s well-being in the same way as one’s own and that embarking on such friendships is what David Schmidtz terms a maieutic end – one that is achieved by taking on a new set of ends. This conception fits with other-regarding concern that is espoused throughout the Epicurean texts discussing friendship and, as I argue, remains consistent with other psychological and ethical commitments of Epicureanism.

Forskning har visat att människor hjälper varandra av såväl egoistiska som altruistiska skäl. Hur ter det sig hos volontärer? Ställer volontärer upp för de hjälpbehövandes eller för sin egen skull? Den här uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka volontärers motiv till att hjälpa. Skiljer motiven sig åt beroende på om engagemanget sker i Sverige, inom Europa eller i en annan världsdel? 40 volontärer berättade skriftligt om sina volontärupplevelser. Berättelserna analyserades för att se vilken typ av motiv som angavs mest. Resultatet visade att fler egoistiska än altruistiska motiv angavs totalt sett bland volontärerna, däremot angav Europavolontärer flest altruistiska motiv. Överlag engagerade sig yngre volontärer längre hemifrån. Resultaten kan ge framförallt frivilligorganisationer men också samhället i stort insikt i motiv bakom hjälpinsatser.

Conflicts between a married couple bring about impacts upon the family. As divorce rate surges, numerous researches have pointed to the confrontations between husband and wife as the highly relevant contributing factor. Domestic violence has gone from bad to worse over the past few years as well. This study is aimed to identify different levels of physical violence resulting from arguments between married female teachers and their husbands. It further explores the influence of the wife¡¦s altruistic or egoistic attitude on marital conflicts. Some married female elementary school teachers in Kaohsiung City have been chosen as the subjects of the study. Research has been done to find the link between the wife¡¦s altruistic/egoistic character and occurrences of domestic violence amidst conflicts. This study also examines how the subjects¡¦ personality traits and other personal backgrounds interplay with egoism or altruism, which determines the likelihood of domestic violence. A conclusion may be drawn that the more egoistic a married female elementary school teacher is, the more likely domestic violence is to erupt amidst conflicts with her husband. On the contrary, the more altruistic she is, the less likely violence is to happen. The severity of domestic violence varies with the teacher¡¦s years of service, the number of children, and the degree she holds. It is noteworthy that the higher degree the husband holds, the more likely the married couple may end up in physical clashes. The number of romantic relationships the subject had prior to the marriage suggests difference in the likelihood of the couple¡¦s arguments ending in violence. Namely, the more relationships she had, the more possible it is for the marriage to witness violent episodes. If the teacher generally gets along well with her husband, they are much less likely to be involved in physical fights when having an argument. Her expectations of the marriage also determine the possibility of violent incidents. In other words, the less she expects of her marriage, the greater the possibility of abusive occurrences, and vice versa. Analyses of the female teachers¡¦ backgrounds help identify contributing factors of domestic violence. Her years of service at school may result in difference in likelihood of violence, but no significant correlation has been detected. However, the number of children, the couple¡¦s highest degree, the number of romantic relationships prior to the marriage, spousal closeness, and her expectations of the marriage are all significant variables in the probability of domestic violence. Married female teachers¡¦ attitudes have been categorized as either altruistic or egoistic in the research to facilitate the analysis of their relevance to domestic violence amidst conflicts between a couple. By means of Chi-square analysis, the subjects can be classified into four types, ranging from extremely suited for matrimonial and familial life to self-centered. Each type has significant contributing factors that determine the significant differences in degrees of domestic violence.

Thesis--Ph. D., University of Hong Kong, 1987.