Influences of Behavior
My name is Susan. I was driving home on a Friday evening when my car got a flat tire. I had no option but to replace it with a spare tire. This was a difficult task for me, so I asked a bystander to assist me in changing the tire. Fortunately, he agreed to help me, and within a few minutes, everything was okay. After the service, I asked him why he decided to assist me. He said he was sympathetic by how I was suffering, and as a man, he wanted to help me out.
Normative Influences
Egoism
Egoism is a helping behavior often motivated by self-gratification. His reaction and response did not show any influence of egoism. I asked him whether he was expecting a reward after helping me out, and he said no. He added that he was doing it out of empathy and personal norms. Moreover, he didn’t show any sexual desires, and therefore I concluded it was not out of egoism.
Personal Norm
He said he was morally obligated to help out a woman in such difficult situations. He added that changing a tire was the role of a man.
Empathy-altruism
I realized that it was out of altruism that the young man decided to help me out. This is because we did not agree on any payments after the service, and yet he was not hesitant to help. He did it out of goodwill and never asked for a reward. He said he was concerned by how I was suffering and felt the urge to reduce the distress by helping out.
Norm of reciprocity
The norm of reciprocity did not influence his actions because we had not met before and had no existing favors.
Other influencing factors.
He said that he found me very attractive and felt that I should not suffer. He added that, if it were a man, he would only help if there was a reward. Therefore he helped me out of acquaintance and liking. Another factor that might have influenced his helping behavior is deservingness. A car tire is an accident. He reasoned that this was not my fault but something that could happen to anyone. He felt that I deserved assistance.