Download or read book Altruism and Health written by Stephen Garrard Post and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2007 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book provides heuristic models, from evolution and neuroscience, to explain the association between altruism and health, and examine potential public health and practical implications of the existing data.
Download or read book Pathological Altruism written by Barbara Oakley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-12-19 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The benefits of altruism and empathy are obvious. These qualities are so highly regarded and embedded in both secular and religious societies that it seems almost heretical to suggest they can cause harm. Like most good things, however, altruism can be distorted or taken to an unhealthy extreme. Pathological Altruism presents a number of new, thought-provoking theses that explore a range of hurtful effects of altruism and empathy. Pathologies of empathy, for example, may trigger depression as well as the burnout seen in healthcare professionals. The selflessness of patients with eating abnormalities forms an important aspect of those disorders. Hyperempathy - an excess of concern for what others think and how they feel - helps explain popular but poorly defined concepts such as codependency. In fact, pathological altruism, in the form of an unhealthy focus on others to the detriment of one's own needs, may underpin some personality disorders. Pathologies of altruism and empathy not only underlie health issues, but also a disparate slew of humankind's most troubled features, including genocide, suicide bombing, self-righteous political partisanship, and ineffective philanthropic and social programs that ultimately worsen the situations they are meant to aid. Pathological Altruism is a groundbreaking new book - the first to explore the negative aspects of altruism and empathy, seemingly uniformly positive traits. The contributing authors provide a scientific, social, and cultural foundation for the subject of pathological altruism, creating a new field of inquiry. Each author's approach points to one disturbing truth: what we value so much, the altruistic "good" side of human nature, can also have a dark side that we ignore at our peril.
Download or read book High Octane Women written by Sherrie Bourg Carter, M.D. and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2011-02-02 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this authoritative, well-researched book, full of helpful insights and practical advice, a psychologist draws on more than 15 years experience and expertise in stress management to explore the unique challenges that high-achieving women face and how they can avoid burnout.
Download or read book Altruism in Humans written by Charles Daniel Batson and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We send money to help famine victims halfway around the world. We campaign to save whales and oceans. We stay up all night to comfort a friend with a broken relationship. People will at times risk - even lose - their lives for others, including strangers. Why do we do these things? What motivates such behavior? Altruism in Humans takes a hard-science look at the possibility that we humans have the capacity to care for others for their sakes rather than simply for our own. Based on an extensive series of theory-testing laboratory experiments conducted over the past 35 years, this book details a theory of altruistic motivation, offers a comprehensive summary of the research designed to test the empathy-altruism hypothesis, and considers the theoretical and practical implications of this conclusion. Authored by the world's preeminent scholar on altruism, this landmark work is an authoritative scholarly resource on the theory surrounding altruism and its potential contribution to better interpersonal relations and a better society.
Download or read book Does Altruism Exist written by David Sloan Wilson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that altruism is an inherent factor of group functionality and discusses how studying group function can promote positive changes to the human condition.
Download or read book Standing at the Edge written by Joan Halifax and published by . This book was released on 2018-05 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[This book is] an ... examination of how we can respond to suffering, live our fullest lives, and remain open to the full spectrum of our human experience"--Amazon.com.
Download or read book The Global Body Market written by Michele Goodwin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-27 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Black and gray markets for body parts are illegal, but also pioneering and inventive. Although this type of criminal activity requires dexterity and innovation, these markets thrive and flourish, sometimes in view of law. On the other hand, altruistic procurement is mired by low participation, which encourages black market transactions. Thousands of patients die each year waiting for an organ or bone marrow donation through the altruistic procurement system, so some turn to the dark side. This book offers a frank discussion of altruism in the global body market. It exposes how researchers exploit their patients' ignorance to harvest tissue samples, blood, and other biologics without consent, chronicles exploitation in the name of altruism, including the non-consensual use of children in dangerous clinical trials, and analyzes social and legal commitments to the value of altruism - offering an important critique of the vulnerability of altruism to corruption, coercion, pressure, and other negative externalities.
Download or read book Altruism in Later Life written by Elizabeth Midlarsky and published by SAGE Publications, Incorporated. This book was released on 1994-08-17 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are the elderly so often perceived as burdensome and unproductive members of our society? Altruism in Later Life explores and refutes this view with cogent, empirical data. Authors Elizabeth Midlarsky and Eva Kahana introduce the results of a series of investigations on assistance offered by--rather than to--the elderly, in the context of historical, philosophical, and theoretical trends in gerontology and altruism research. Following a brief but inclusive historical survey of aging treatments, they present their own theoretical model of successful aging: Based on a carefully applied methodological review of research focusing on altruism and the elderly, the results reveal the relative frequency, nature, correlates, and ramifications of the contributions they make. Dispelling many of the misapprehensions held about the elderly, this work will prove to be a vital, timely resource for professionals and students in fields including gerontology, psychology, social work, sociology, counseling, and the health sciences.
Download or read book Doing Good Better written by William MacAskill and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of us want to make a difference. We donate our time and money to charities and causes we deem worthy, choose careers we consider meaningful, and patronize businesses and buy products we believe make the world a better place. Unfortunately, we often base these decisions on assumptions and emotions rather than facts. As a result, even our best intentions often lead to ineffective—and sometimes downright harmful—outcomes. How can we do better? While a researcher at Oxford, trying to figure out which career would allow him to have the greatest impact, William MacAskill confronted this problem head on. He discovered that much of the potential for change was being squandered by lack of information, bad data, and our own prejudice. As an antidote, he and his colleagues developed effective altruism, a practical, data-driven approach that allows each of us to make a tremendous difference regardless of our resources. Effective altruists believe that it’s not enough to simply do good; we must do good better. At the core of this philosophy are five key questions that help guide our altruistic decisions: How many people benefit, and by how much? Is this the most effective thing I can do? Is this area neglected? What would have happened otherwise? What are the chances of success, and how good would success be? By applying these questions to real-life scenarios, MacAskill shows how many of our assumptions about doing good are misguided. For instance, he argues one can potentially save more lives by becoming a plastic surgeon rather than a heart surgeon; measuring overhead costs is an inaccurate gauge of a charity’s effectiveness; and, it generally doesn’t make sense for individuals to donate to disaster relief. MacAskill urges us to think differently, set aside biases, and use evidence and careful reasoning rather than act on impulse. When we do this—when we apply the head and the heart to each of our altruistic endeavors—we find that each of us has the power to do an astonishing amount of good.
Download or read book The Altruistic Brain written by Donald W. Pfaff and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Unlike any other study in its field, The Altruistic Brain synthesizes into one theory the most important research into how and why - by purely physical mechanisms - humans empathize with one another and respond altruistically."--Jacket.
Download or read book Advances in Animal Welfare Science 1984 written by M.W. Fox and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, the first in an annual series, written by academicians scientists, philosophers and others-is not intended exclusively for an imal welfarists and conservationists. Since it is written* by scholars, it will appeal to a wide range of academic and professional readers who are involved with animals for scientific, economic, altruistic, and other reasons. While this first volume cannot cover the entire spectrum of animal welfare science-related topics, it does, in its diversity of con tributions, demonstrate the multi-faceted and interdisciplinary nature of the subject of this new series. Indeed, animals are as much an integral part of society as we are dependent upon them. The many interfaces between us and the billions of animals under our dominion (as well as the environment upon which the welfare of human and non-human animals alike is ultimately de pendent) have their separate features: trapping and wildlife manage ment; laboratory animal research; whaling and fishing; veterinary practice; agriculture and farm animal husbandry; horse racing and the ownership of animal companions; the propagation of captive wildlife and their preservation in the wild; the use of animals as companions and for the purposes of vicarious entertainment.
Download or read book Altruism in World Religions written by Suzanne Neusner and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2005-11-08 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1830 philosopher Auguste Comte coined the term altruism to provide a general definition for the act of selflessly caring for others. But does this modern conception of sacrificing one's own interests for the well-being of others apply to the charitable behaviors encouraged by all world religions? In Altruism in World Religions prominent scholars from an array of religious perspectives probe the definition of altruism to determine whether it is a category that serves to advance the study of religion. Exploring a range of philosophical and religious thought from Greco-Roman philia to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, from Hinduism in India to Buddhism and the religions of China and Japan, the authors find that altruism becomes problematic when applied to religious studies because it is, in fact, a concept absent from religion. Chapters on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam reveal that followers of these religions cannot genuinely perform self-sacrificing acts because God has promised to reward every good deed. Moreover, the separation between the self and the other that self-sacrifice necessarily implies, runs counter to Buddhist thought, which makes no such distinction. By challenging our assumptions about the act of self-sacrifice as it relates to religious teachings, the authors have shown altruism to be more of a secular than religious notion. At the same time, their findings highlight how charitable acts operate with the values and structures of the religions studied.
Download or read book Altruism in Cross Cultural Perspective written by Douglas A. Vakoch and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-05-16 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Altruism in Cross-Cultural Perspective provides such a scholarly overview, examining the intersection of culture and such topics as evolutionary accounts of altruism and the importance of altruism in ritual and religion. The past decade has seen a proliferation of research on altruism, made possible in part by significant funding from organizations such as the John Templeton Foundation. While significant research has been conducted on biological, social, and individual dimensions of altruism, there has been no attempt to provide an overview of the ways that altruistic behavior and attitudes vary across cultures. The book addresses the methodological challenges of researching altruism across cultures, as well as the ways that altruism is manifest in difficult circumstances. A particular strength of the book is its attention to multiple disciplinary approaches to understanding altruism, with contributors from fields including psychology, anthropology, sociology, biology, communication, philosophy, religious studies, gender studies, and bioethics.
Download or read book Motivation Altruism Personality and Social Psychology written by M. Babula and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-11-19 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Motivation, Altruism, Personality and Social Psychology takes up the debate around altruism and the acceptance in society that self-interest is a healthy guiding principle in life, and argues that helping behaviour can lead to self-fulfilment and happiness and is beneficial to psychological health and society in general.
Download or read book The Heart of Altruism written by Kristen Renwick Monroe and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1998-07-21 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is all human behavior based on self-interest? Many social and biological theories would argue so, but such a perspective does not explain the many truly heroic acts committed by people willing to risk their lives to help others. Kristen Monroe boldly lays the groundwork for a social theory toward altruism by examining the experiences described by altruists themselves.
Download or read book A Scientific Search for Altruism written by C. Daniel Batson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-19 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, the egoism-altruism debate has echoed through Western thought. Egoism says that the motivation for everything we do, including our seemingly selfless acts of care for others, is to gain one or another self-benefit. Altruism, while not denying the force of self-interest, says that under certain circumstances we can care for others for their sakes, not our own. Over the past half-century, social psychologists have turned to laboratory experiments on humans to provide a scientific resolution of this debate about our nature. The experiments have focused on the possibility that empathic concern-other-oriented emotion elicited by and congruent with the perceived welfare of someone in need-produces altruistic motivation to remove that need. With carefully constructed experimental designs, these scientists have tested the nature of the motivation produced by empathic concern, determining whether it is egoistic or altruistic and, thereby, providing an answer to a fundamental question about what makes us tick. Framed as a detective story, this book traces the scientific search for altruism through numerous studies and attempts to examine various motivational suspects, reaching the improbable conclusion that empathy-induced altruism is indeed part of our nature. The book then considers the implications of this conclusion both for our understanding of who we are as humans (the bad news as well as the good) and for how we might create a more humane society.
Download or read book The Organ Donor Experience written by Katrina Bramstedt and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011-11-16 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite starting slowly with some academic jargon about altruism and people's motivations to donate organs, the book quickly takes a right turn and gets interesting. The authors sprinkle little informative tidbits along the way-Asian-Americans constituted only 3.4% of U.S. donors-and bring their points alive through little vignettes when examining the origins of altruism. The authors would make brilliant sales reps: they put forth a convincing argument about what a great humanitarian effort living donation is then patiently explain the evaluation process to reassure readers of the minimal costs. The few downsides are reviewed and discussed-for example, how to deal with family members who do not support the decision to donate or the devastation donors might experience when a recipient dies. Resources, bibliography, and index occupy a full 36 pages, yet for the most part this book escapes the drudgery of a research-laden study and instead reads as a fascinating story about a very human issue. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
