The phenomenon of altruism: New aspects and modern analytical trends
The article analyzes the main interpretations of the phenomenon of altruism in contemporary foreign sociology and social psychology. In social psychology, altruism is considered a variable to be quantified and measured as a characteristic of a behavioral act aiming at gratuitous assistance to others or as a cognitive-motivational disposition of similar content. From this point of view, altruism is seen as a kind of prosocial behavior, an instrument enabling group integration and the growth of intra-group cohesion. Accompanying emotions (empathy, sympathy, compassion, reciprocity, etc.) are an important social and psychological dimension of altruistic experience. Despite the obvious differences in the existing disciplinary approaches to the study of the phenomenon of altruism, they share an understanding of the phenomenon in question in terms of a specific experience of creation, positive from the social and evolutionary points of view and also in relation to the mental health and well-being of the individual, as opposed to aggressive and destructive conflict behavioral orientations.