Sarah-Elizabeth Atunrase Final Paper

Acting with an unselfish and benevolent regard towards others isn’t always the easiest thing for one to do and most people have to put in a conscious effort to do it but some people believe that human beings are hard wired to behave altruistically as a primal method of survival. Humans could never

In the first two paragraphs Lewis Thomas describes altruism as acts of self sacrifice but in the next paragraph, he specifies altruism is a human behaviour as opposed to any animal or insect’s behaviour. Thomas states that animals don’t have human brains to think things through, in other words, they are mechanical, they just do things without justification and therefore the term “altruism” does not apply to them. Animals don’t have the ability to do things and be concerned about consequences, in other words, they don’t consciously intend to act a certain way, therefore animals have no connection to altruism, for altruism is a human behaviour.

Jeremy Rifkin in the article " A Change of Heart about Animals" argues on the fact that as incredible as it sounds, many of our fellow creatures as like us in so many ways. For example, in a movie named Paulie a young girl that suffers autism gets attached to a parrot. The girl struggles to talk but she just can't. Time passes by and then the girl starts talking because the parrot helped her. An incident happened so the little girl's parents decide to let the parrot go. The parrot ends up in an animal testing lab but somehow he managed to escape. The parrot begins to miss his owner because he formed a bond with a human being. Obviously, this proves Rifkin is right when he states that animals experience feelings like human beings.

Sarah Elizabeth Goode was an entrepreneur and inventor. She was the first African-American woman to receive a United States patent. She shares the distinction with Judy Reed, who invented a dough-kneading machine that was patented in 1880, and Miriam Benjamin, who received a patent in 1888 for a hotel chair that signaled the service of a waiter.

creators of the Salem Witch Trials (L. Annika). The girls were believed to have been doing black

Bartel (1976) defines prosocial behaviour as ‘behaviour that intentionally helps or benefits another person’. Batson (1987) defines altruism as ‘helping another person for no reward, and even at some cost to oneself.’ This definition of altruism seemingly depicts the behaviour as selfless, however there is a wealth of research which suggests that this is not the case.

When a team fails, they are often quick to blame a single player while when in reality the fault lies with them all. This everyday scenario can be related to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which takes place in 17th century Salem, Massachusetts. The antagonist of the story is Abigail Williams who begins the accusations of witchcraft, which soon causes hysteria and paranoia in Salem. However, the damage cannot be attributed to one character. In the Crucible, the town is to blame for the Salem Witch Trials because of its strict Puritan background, the widespread feelings of vengeance, and because it is easily gullible and consequently puts strength to meaningless accusations.

such a friend ought to be - do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak

Sarah Augusta Squires was born at Welwyn, Hertfordshire, England on March 8th, 1848, to Henry Augustus and Sarah Minnie Catlin Squires who joined the Church the year before.

The Creatures existence may in some ways be compared to the lifestyle of a homeless person. When basic needs are not met, social interaction becomes neglected because each day is met with new challenges. In order to survive they must focus on overcoming those tests. They are unable to form the relationships that provide care and interaction they need. The homeless that cannot meet their basic needs tend to withdraw and begin to regress further from society. People begin to recognize them as homeless and then become less inclined to interact with them. As they befall into desperation to make interaction, others are more inclined to ignore them. This digression of contact forces the homeless to retreat further into themselves.

An oxymoron appeared to exist between Darwin’s theory of natural selection (1859) and the definition of altruism (West et al., 2006). Hamilton’s theory of inclusive fitness (1964) appeared to mediate this problem. However, the theory does not explain altruistic acts towards non-kin in line with natural selection. Reciprocal altruism (Trivers, 1971), indirect altruism (Alexander, 1987) and strong reciprocity (Gintis, 2000) have been proposed to resolve this conflict. It is of note that behaviour in all theories has been noted in animals, but will not be discussed further. Instead, the essay will focus on which theories are most relevant when understanding human sociality, with the author explaining why no sole theory is seen to describe the phenomenon. All theories will be discussed in relation to evolutionary stable strategies (ESS), which refers to plans that when adopted by a majority of members in a population that restrict any other action existing, which could yield higher reproductive success (Smith & Price, 1973).

Research by Yamamoto, Humle and Tanaka in 2009 concluded that chimpanzees show altruism only when prompted or pressured rather than voluntarily [5]. This particular empirical research challenges the evidence proposed by prior researchers and tests the limits of chimpanzee’s altruistic nature. Using colour-coded tokens, one of which allowed for a partner to share the reward with the test subject and one of which gave the test subject all of the reward, several chimps were tested as to their response. Results showed a tendency for the chimpanzee to take the prosocial option in situations both with and without peer pressure. Abnormally results showed that pressure or harassment from partners reduced the chimpanzee’s inclination to take the prosocial option. Although these results challenge prior research [5] they are limited as they are not conclusive and raise questions of their own to reach a complete understanding. These research results are significant in challenging an already established understanding of chimpanzee’s altruistic traits and acts as a good contrast to other references. This resource stands out as it does not make conclusive statements out of abnormal results but rather opens up a reader’s opinion and presents issues further

Also, recent news has reported that chimpanzees (Choi, 2007) and toddlers (China Daily, 2006) have shown true altruistic behaviour.

Why do we show altruism? Social and evolutionary biologists, psychologists, economists and philosophers alike have made many attempts at providing an explanation for altruism. As a result, many opposing theories have developed over the years. In this essay, I will attempt to explain altruism as the presence of an altruistic gene which is selected for by natural selection in terms of kin selection. I will explore evidence supporting this theory, as well as evidence pointing to psychological explanations such as reciprocal altruism, social norms and primitive sympathy.

Altruistic acts are often seen through the benevolent acts of family members express towards each other on a regular basis. Because of the significant amount of genes we share with our kin, the survival of a family is prioritized equally to the survival of the individual. Each member of the family will therefore behave altruistically towards each other, due to the evolutionary drive for survival. The reason that parents behave this altruistically towards their offspring is because “parents (adults) are in a maximally favorable position to dispense inexpensive aid to offspring (eggs) that maximally resembles the parents genetically” (Alexander, 462). Even through altruism is perhaps highest between family members, people also feel more empathetic towards others who possess similar traits, as a large number of genes are share. As altruism “involves a loss of individual fitness, [it] can evolve only by group selection” (Nunney, 228). Therefore, we can see that nature’s force of the survival of the group is a primary driving factor for the appearance of altruism.