Social Psychology and Volunteer Work - Essay Example

Your Reflection Paper: Social Psychology and Volunteer Work Poverty is rampant in all parts of the world. There are so many impoverished families now, and because of recession, the numbers have gone up as well. This is because poverty is directly correlated to economic status. This year, I have devoted twenty hours to help the low-income families by volunteering at the International Families Association in Glendale, CA. This non-profit organization is funded by the government to help those who are in need. We distributed canned goods, drinks, soaps, shampoos and other grocery items to the low income families. This was such a great learning experience and it allowed me to understand social psychology even deeper, especially in understanding why people help and the causes and cures of prejuidice. Volunteerism is an altruistic activity. It is done to improve human lives, especially those who are not as fortunate as others. Since it is an altruistic activity, it gives the volunteer a sense of self and generally feels good about his own self. This is prosocial behavior at work. Prosocial behavior is any act performed with the goal of benefitting the other person (Aronson, Wilson, Akert, 2009) and altruism is the desire to help another person even if it involves some personal cost to the helper (Aronsn, Wilson, Akert, 2009). Volunteering is a form of an altruistic job. It is not motivated by genes, which is the promise of evolutionary psychology, nor is it also motivated by the reciprocity norm. For me, volunteering is done purely because of empathy and altruism. In evolutionary psychology, it is posited that the helper must share the same genes with that of the one being helped because it may help in the passing on of the genes because the kin share the same genetic makeup. Therefore, the genetic imprint of their clan would be passed on to the next generation. Since I am not in any way related to the people I am helping, I do not consider this as something that can prolong my genetic imprint on Earth. Same with social exchange, which posits that, like evolutionary psychology, the act of volunteering is a self-serving effort, but unlike it, it does not involve genetics. Social exchange proposes that we help because the returns would be high. For example, if someone helps a girl (not related to him) who has been hit by a car, he will enjoy social approval, higher self-worth and it would relieve him of the personal distress (and probably guilt) that he experienced while witnessing the accident. Volunteering might be self-serving but because of the effort in helping, I do not think it is purely self-serving because, for me, the returns cannot compete in the input one gives when helping others. Also when helping, one does not think of the returns it may give back to you because it is not a career. According to Batson, Empathy and Altruism are the main motives on why people help people. This is a humanistic view and it proposes that we help out of our hearts. This view highly opposes the idea that humans are still governed by instincts, as with instinct, we are motivated only by survival in our actions. This “empathy and altruism as motivation” is not, since it actually decreases the chances for survival because helping actually entails a lot of depletion of resources of the helper. Batson said that a person will help if he experiences the emotions, events and situations that the other person suffers from. This may be vicarious. Because of this empathic behavior, the person would choose to help that other person in order to for the other person to be relieved. This is a purely altruistic act and the person would do this regardless of the returns that the helper can have. The empathy-motivation is true for me, although I have to admit it is also a bit self-serving, unlike Batson’s theory that it is purely for the other person’s benefit. Helping also makes the helper feel good about himself. In fact, it is probably the reason why the people continue to help altruistically. When you feel good, you tend to do more good to prolong the good, warm feeling. This is because feeling good (or being in a good mood) helps us interpret ways more sympathetically; and it also increases of self-attention, thus making us behave in our self-imposed values and beliefs, which are more inclined to lean on the altruistic side. Volunteering makes me feel good. It makes me feel a bit more important and this actually motivates me in helping more people, even if I don’t get anything back. What’s more, volunteering actually breaks down several prejudices that I had before starting volunteer work. This is because you get to learn about the people, their actions and motivations, and this leads to further understanding. This makes one more rounded as a person and more knowledgeable in terms of understanding the society. The prejudice that these impoverished people are lazy and too dependent on the government is wrong, as I have learned. Some of them are impoverished because of really unfortunate circumstances, like getting laid off from work because of the recession and sometimes (worse) because of their color or beliefs. Some of them are actually impoverished because of prejudice. Prejudice causes inequality to people who are judged because of their differences, most of which are petty such as color, race and gender differences. This is unfair and biased and should not be promoted since it hinders progress, and it is very influential. As been said, prejudice is easy to learn but not necessarily maintained (Aronson, Wilson, Akert, 2009). This is true. Before volunteering, I was also subscribing to the fact that they were not very good people but this experience taught me that they are actually victims of circumstance. There was a family that we were helping in the organization, composed of a single mother and her autistic son. She was jobless and her husband died last year. Normally, the prejudice would be, she’s lazy because she has a child but she wouldn’t work. But we do not know that her four year old child is autistic and would need constant supervision, thus she could not really have real work. This elicited empathy in me, leading me to help them. And since help provides a good feeling, like a high sometimes, it made me help more even if there were no material rewards for it. Hopefully, many people would partake in this kind of movement, as this really would help mankind in the future. This is also good for people who are willing to understand social psychology broadly because this volunteering job in a simple charitable institution presents a microcosm of the society that works around the world. Bibliography: Aronson, Elliot, Wilson, Timothy, Akert, Robin. Social Psychology Seventh Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Publishing Company, 2009. Print. Read More