According to the textbook, altruism is “providing unselfish help to others who are in need, without anticipating any reward,” in which men and women score low differences in (188). This is helping out those in need purely out of the goodness of one’s heart, and not for any other selfish reasons. While humans have displayed many examples of this throughout history, they have also displayed many other examples of hatred and cruelty, the opposite of altruism. This most often is more recognized and discussed, which is why it may be hard for others to believe that altruism exists and is practiced by human beings, whether physically, innately, or emotionally. Also, according to the textbook, men tend to be more helpful in tasks that are more dangerous or are seen as more masculine, while both genders selected altruism 75 percent of the time in a study that presented different hypothetical scenarios.
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The aspect that showed more differences was in heroism, which is “defined as risking one’s life for the welfare of other people” (188). In an analyzation of the Carnegie Hero Medal award recipients, only 9 percent of them were women, while 57 percent were women who were willing to “undergo pain and potential medical problems, in order to help another person,” in another aspect of the award (188). The Righteous Among the Nations category, showed that 61 percent of the recipients were also female, who “risked their lives during the Nazy holocaust to save Jews” (188).
Like Alice Eagley and others who performed this study, I believe altruism exists because of social roles, especially because of the explanations and studies of communion and agency’s relationship to gender differences. According to the textbook, communion is often stereotypically linked to women, and is defined as “a concern for our relationship with other people, while agency is more often idealized as a masculine trait, and is “a concern with your own self-interests,” although women’s scores in agency have recently increased (50). Because of reasons like these, gender differences only occur due to cultural pressures, whereas they would not if it were not without these social forces. While men may externally display communionism less than women, they may want communism just as much or even more than women, although they are not allowed to make this obvious because of gender roles. This is also according to the similarities perspective, also endorsed by the authors, which is “the belief that men and women are generally similar in their intellectual and social skills,” including in their empathy and morals. Therefore, this approach could explain men and women’s equal responses to empathy due to the fact that they are both born inherently good, with both a need to interact with others in altruistic ways, such as communionism, as well as a need for agency and selflessness. Those who are deemed bad or abnormal, who may be less likely to perform altruism, are only dubbed this title because they do not meet or they inadequately fulfill society 's expectations based on gender roles. However, the divide within the idea of gender polarization only allows men and women to express an aspect of these roles in certain settings, which contributes to what type of settings and what type of altruism men and women are more likely to perform. However, during highly critical, potent, and stressful times, these social roles, or “a culture’s shared
The aspect that showed more differences was in heroism, which is “defined as risking one’s life for the welfare of other people” (188). In an analyzation of the Carnegie Hero Medal award recipients, only 9 percent of them were women, while 57 percent were women who were willing to “undergo pain and potential medical problems, in order to help another person,” in another aspect of the award (188). The Righteous Among the Nations category, showed that 61 percent of the recipients were also female, who “risked their lives during the Nazy holocaust to save Jews” (188).
Like Alice Eagley and others who performed this study, I believe altruism exists because of social roles, especially because of the explanations and studies of communion and agency’s relationship to gender differences. According to the textbook, communion is often stereotypically linked to women, and is defined as “a concern for our relationship with other people, while agency is more often idealized as a masculine trait, and is “a concern with your own self-interests,” although women’s scores in agency have recently increased (50). Because of reasons like these, gender differences only occur due to cultural pressures, whereas they would not if it were not without these social forces. While men may externally display communionism less than women, they may want communism just as much or even more than women, although they are not allowed to make this obvious because of gender roles. This is also according to the similarities perspective, also endorsed by the authors, which is “the belief that men and women are generally similar in their intellectual and social skills,” including in their empathy and morals. Therefore, this approach could explain men and women’s equal responses to empathy due to the fact that they are both born inherently good, with both a need to interact with others in altruistic ways, such as communionism, as well as a need for agency and selflessness. Those who are deemed bad or abnormal, who may be less likely to perform altruism, are only dubbed this title because they do not meet or they inadequately fulfill society 's expectations based on gender roles. However, the divide within the idea of gender polarization only allows men and women to express an aspect of these roles in certain settings, which contributes to what type of settings and what type of altruism men and women are more likely to perform. However, during highly critical, potent, and stressful times, these social roles, or “a culture’s shared