Daniel Batson

Last updated
Daniel Batson
Born
Charles Daniel Batson

(1943-03-15) March 15, 1943 (age 81)
Occupation Social psychologist

C. Daniel Batson (born March 15, 1943 [1] ) is an American social psychologist. He has two doctoral degrees, in theology (from Princeton Theological Seminary) and psychology (from Princeton University's Department of Psychology). Batson obtained his doctorate under John Darley and taught at the University of Kansas. He retired in 2006 and now is an emeritus professor in the psychology department of the University of Tennessee. He is best known for his contributions to the social psychology of altruism, empathic concern, and psychology of religion.

Contents

On altruism

Batson has become well known for the empathy-altruism hypothesis, which states that "feeling empathy for [a] person in need evokes motivation to help [that person] in which these benefits to self are not the ultimate goal of helping; they are unintended consequences". [2] The theory, initially proposed as an explanation of the so-called "empathy-helping relationship", implies that pure altruism is possible and that psychological egoism is false. Aronson, Wilson and Akert have described Batson as "the strongest proponent that people often help others purely out of the goodness of their hearts". [3] Batson has published experimental research to support the empathy-altruism hypothesis against various alternative egoistic explanations. Critics who believe that all apparently altruistic actions are actually egoistic have attacked the theory (see, for example, the competing negative state relief model). More on the empathy-altruism hypothesis can be found in a number of social psychology textbooks, including Brehm and Kassin (1996).

Batson is also the co-author of a study examining bystander intervention in theology students (Darley & Batson, 1973). In this study, students' religious views and personalities did not correlate with their willingness to help a needy bystander. Rather, the best predictor of whether a student would stop to help was how hurried they felt. Since some students were assigned work on the parable of the Good Samaritan, but it had no effect on their behavior, the study has been cited as evidence that exposure to the parable does not make people more helpful. There has been debate about whether Batson used appropriate statistics to analyze this study. [4]

On empathy

Social psychology researchers have for a long time been interested in the distinction between imagining the other and imagining oneself, and in particular in the emotional and motivational consequences of these two perspectives. A number of Batson's studies documented that focusing on another's feelings may evoke stronger empathic concern, while explicitly imagining oneself in the other's situation induces both empathic concern and personal distress. In one such study, Batson and colleagues investigated the affective consequences of different perspective-taking instructions when participants listened to a story about Katie Banks, a young college student struggling after the death of her parents. [5] This study demonstrated that different instructions had distinct effects on how participants perceived the target's situation. Notably, participants imagining themselves in Katie's place showed stronger signs of discomfort and personal distress than participants focusing on her responses and feelings, or participants instructed to take an objective, detached point of view. Also, both perspective-taking instructions differed from the detached perspective by resulting in higher empathic concern. This may help explain why observing a need situation does not always produce prosocial behavior: if perceiving another person in an emotionally or physically painful circumstance elicits personal distress, the observer may tend not to fully attend to the other's experience and as a result may not behave sympathetically.

Batson recently collaborated with University of Chicago neuroscientist Jean Decety on a study using functional neuroimaging to investigate the neural underpinnings of empathy and personal distress. [6] While being scanned, participants watched a series of video clips of patients undergoing painful medical treatment. They were asked to either put themselves explicitly in the shoes of the patient (imagine self), or to focus on their feelings and affective expressions (imagine other). The behavioral data confirmed that explicitly projecting oneself into an aversive situation leads to higher personal distress whereas focusing on the emotional and behavioral reactions of another's plight yields greater empathic concern and less personal distress. The neuroimaging data were consistent with this finding and provided insights into the neural correlates of these distinct behavioral responses. The self-perspective evoked stronger hemodynamic responses in brain regions involved in coding the motivational-affective dimensions of pain, including the bilateral insular cortices, the anterior cingulate cortex, the amygdala, and various structures involved in muscle preparation. The amygdala plays a critical role in the evaluation of actual or potential threats. Imagining oneself in a painful and potentially dangerous situation thus may trigger a stronger fearful or aversive response than imagining someone else in the same situation.

On religion

Batson's most famous[ citation needed ] contribution to psychology of religion is his argument that the traditional distinction made by Gordon Allport [7] between intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations does not exhaust all possible religious orientations; rather, he believes it is important to refer to what he calls quest, a form of religiosity that views questions and their answers as of equal importance. [8] This view has been controversial, and critics have questioned whether quest really correlates with any other variable relevant to religiosity. Batson has also written about religious experiences, defending a four-stage model based on Graham Wallas's four-stage model of problem-solving in the psychology of creativity. [9]

Publications

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altruism</span> Principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others

Altruism is the principle and practice of concern for the well-being and/or happiness of other humans or animals above oneself. While objects of altruistic concern vary, it is an important moral value in many cultures and religions. It may be considered a synonym of selflessness, the opposite of selfishness.

This is a descriptive rather than normative view, since it only makes claims about how things are, not how they "ought to be" according to some. It is, however, related to several other normative forms of egoism, such as ethical egoism and rational egoism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Remorse</span> Distressing emotion experienced by a person who regrets actions they have done in the past

Remorse is a distressing emotion experienced by an individual who regrets actions which they have done in the past that they deem to be shameful, hurtful, or wrong. Remorse is closely allied to guilt and self-directed resentment. When a person regrets an earlier action or failure to act, it may be because of remorse or in response to various other consequences, including being punished for the act or omission. People may express remorse through apologies, trying to repair the damage they've caused, or self-imposed punishments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Empathy</span> Capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing

Empathy is generally described as the ability to take on another's perspective, to understand, feel, and possibly share and respond to their experience. There are more definitions of empathy that include but are not limited to social, cognitive, and emotional processes primarily concerned with understanding others. Often times, empathy is considered to be a broad term, and broken down into more specific concepts and types that include cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, somatic empathy, and spiritual empathy.

The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological theory that states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim in the presence of other people. First proposed in 1964 after the murder of Kitty Genovese, much research, mostly in psychology research laboratories, has focused on increasingly varied factors, such as the number of bystanders, ambiguity, group cohesiveness, and diffusion of responsibility that reinforces mutual denial. If a single individual is asked to complete the task alone, the sense of responsibility will be strong, and there will be a positive response; however, if a group is required to complete the task together, each individual in the group will have a weak sense of responsibility, and will often shrink back in the face of difficulties or responsibilities. The theory was prompted by the murder of Kitty Genovese about which it was wrongly reported that 38 bystanders watched passively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compassion</span> Moved or motivated to help others

Compassion is a social feeling that motivates people to go out of their way to relieve the physical, mental, or emotional pains of others and themselves. Compassion is sensitivity to the emotional aspects of the suffering of others. When based on notions such as fairness, justice, and interdependence, it may be considered partially rational in nature.

Sympathy is the perception of, understanding of, and reaction to the distress or need of another life form.

Caring in intimate relationships is the practice of providing care and support to an intimate relationship partner. Caregiving behaviours are aimed at reducing the partner's distress and supporting their coping efforts in situations of either threat or challenge. Caregiving may include emotional support and/or instrumental support. Effective caregiving behaviour enhances the care-recipient's psychological well-being, as well as the quality of the relationship between the caregiver and the care-recipient. However, certain suboptimal caregiving strategies may be either ineffective or even detrimental to coping.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Decety</span> American neuroscientist

Jean Decety is an American–French neuroscientist specializing in developmental neuroscience, affective neuroscience, and social neuroscience. His research focuses on the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms underpinning social cognition, particularly social decision-making, empathy, moral reasoning, altruism, pro-social behavior, and more generally interpersonal relationships. He is Irving B. Harris Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.

Empathy-altruism is a form of altruism based on moral emotions or feelings for others.

Prosocial behavior, or intent to benefit others, is a social behavior that "benefit[s] other people or society as a whole", "such as helping, sharing, donating, co-operating, and volunteering". Obeying the rules and conforming to socially accepted behaviors are also regarded as prosocial behaviors. These actions may be motivated by culturally influenced value systems; empathy and concern about the welfare and rights of others; egoistic or practical concerns, such as one's social status or reputation, hope for direct or indirect reciprocity, or adherence to one's perceived system of fairness; or altruism, though the existence of pure altruism is somewhat disputed, and some have argued that this falls into the philosophical rather than psychological realm of debate. Evidence suggests that prosociality is central to the well-being of social groups across a range of scales, including schools. Prosocial behavior in the classroom can have a significant impact on a student's motivation for learning and contributions to the classroom and larger community. In the workplace, prosocial behaviour can have a significant impact on team psychological safety, as well as positive indirect effects on employee's helping behaviors and task performance. Empathy is a strong motive in eliciting prosocial behavior, and has deep evolutionary roots.

Empathic concern refers to other-oriented emotions elicited by, and congruent with the perceived welfare of, someone in need. These other-oriented emotions include feelings of tenderness, sympathy, compassion and soft-heartedness.

The negative-state relief model states that human beings have an innate drive to reduce negative moods. They can be reduced by engaging in any mood-elevating behaviour, including helping behaviour, as it is paired with positive value such as smiles and thank you. Thus negative mood increases helpfulness because helping others can reduce one's own bad feelings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helping behavior</span> Voluntarily prosocial behaviour

Helping behavior refers to voluntary actions intended to help others, with reward regarded or disregarded. It is a type of prosocial behavior.

In psychology, personal distress is an aversive, self-focused emotional reaction to the apprehension or comprehension of another's emotional state or condition. This negative affective state often occurs as a result of emotional contagion when there is confusion between self and other. Unlike empathy, personal distress does not have to be congruent with the other's state, and often leads to a self-oriented, egoistic reaction to reduce it, by withdrawing from the stressor, for example, thereby decreasing the likelihood of prosocial behavior. There is evidence that sympathy and personal distress are subjectively different, have different somatic and physiological correlates, and relate in different ways to prosocial behavior.

Moral development focuses on the emergence, change, and understanding of morality from infancy through adulthood. The theory states that morality develops across a lifespan in a variety of ways and is influenced by an individual's experiences and behavior when faced with moral issues through different periods of physical and cognitive development. Morality concerns an individual's reforming sense of what is right and wrong; it is for this reason that young children have different moral judgment and character than that of a grown adult. Morality in itself is often a synonym for "rightness" or "goodness." It also refers to a specific code of conduct that is derived from one's culture, religion, or personal philosophy that guides one's actions, behaviors, and thoughts.

Role-taking theory is the social-psychological concept that one of the most important factors in facilitating social cognition in children is the growing ability to understand others’ feelings and perspectives, an ability that emerges as a result of general cognitive growth. Part of this process requires that children come to realize that others’ views may differ from their own. Role-taking ability involves understanding the cognitive and affective aspects of another person's point of view, and differs from perceptual perspective taking, which is the ability to recognize another person's visual point of view of the environment. Furthermore, albeit some mixed evidence on the issue, role taking and perceptual perspective taking seem to be functionally and developmentally independent of each other.

Perspective-taking is the act of perceiving a situation or understanding a concept from an alternative point of view, such as that of another individual.

Moral emotions are a variety of social emotions that are involved in forming and communicating moral judgments and decisions, and in motivating behavioral responses to one's own and others' moral behavior. As defined by Jonathan Haidt, moral emotions "are linked to the interests or welfare either of a society as a whole or at least of persons other than the judge or agent". A person may not always have clear words to articulate, yet simultaneously knows it to be true.

An empathy gap, sometimes referred to as an empathy bias, is a breakdown or reduction in empathy where it might otherwise be expected to occur. Empathy gaps may occur due to a failure in the process of empathizing or as a consequence of stable personality characteristics, and may reflect either a lack of ability or motivation to empathize.

References

  1. U.S. Public Records Index, Vol 1 & 2 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 2010.
  2. Batson & Shaw 1991, p. 114
  3. Aronson et al., 2005, p. 362
  4. Greenwald, A. (1975). "Does the Good Samaritan parable increase helping? A comment on Darley and Batson's no-effect conclusion". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 32 (4): 578–583. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.32.4.578.
  5. Batson, C. D., Early, S., & Salvarini, G. (1997). "Perspective taking: imagining how another feels versus imagining how you would feel". Personality & Social Personality Bulletin, 23, 751758.
  6. Lamm, C.; Batson, C. D.; Decety, J. (2007). "The neural substrate of human empathy: effects of perspective-taking and cognitive appraisal". Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 19 (1): 42–58. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.511.3950 . doi:10.1162/jocn.2007.19.1.42. PMID   17214562. S2CID   2828843.
  7. Allport, Gordon W. & Ross, J. M. (1967). "Personal religious orientation and prejudice". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 5, pp. 432433.
  8. Batson & Schoenrade, 1991a; 1991b
  9. Batson, Schoenrade & Ventis, 1993