Effects of Gender and Stress on Altruism

Abstract

Lending a helping hand to the person in need with or without expecting something in return is known as pro-social behavior and one of the motivation of pro-social behavior is helping others without any expectations of what you might get in return is Altruism. The present study attempt to determine a relation between an individual’s sex and display of altruistic behavior. Many studies have shown that male and female display different behavioral patterns these are influenced by the societal norms, stereotypes, culture and difference in upbringing. These factors also effect the altruistic behavior displayed by individuals of different sex. With the help of the present study the researcher tries to evaluate which sex is more prone to show altruism in their surroundings. The study also evaluates the effect of stress on altruism using Perceived Stress Scale. For the present study a sample size of 120 under-graduate college students (N=120; 60=males, 60=females) were drawn belonging to the age group of 19years- 23years which were evaluated through the Altruistic Personality Scale. The results highlight that altruistic behavior is more likely to be higher in females than males and people tend to show more altruistic behavior gestures while expressing stress in their lives to decrease the impact of negative emotions caused by it.