Altruism in College Volunteers: Relationships to Prosocial Personality, Constructive Thinking, and Parenting Variables

TL;DRAbstract

Altruism--acting with the goal of benefiting another, despite costs to oneself--has been the subject of many studies, yet its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Laboratory studies have relied on isolated instances of contrived helpfulness, while investigations of actual rescuers and humanitarians are typically small and lack controls. Some investigators have suggested that altruism is merely a function of situation (c.f., Latane & Darley, 1968). Others, however, have found robust relationships between altruism and personality (c.f., Batson, 1991). This study investigated sustained, planned altruism in a sample of 469 undergraduates from four major New England Universities. The hypotheses were that altruism, operationalized as consistent volunteer work for altruistic organizations, would be related to personality variables of empathy and responsibility, to moral reasoning style, to constructive thinking under stress, and to retrospective reports of parenting practices that emphasize

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