CHAPTER ONE
1.1.INTRODUCTION
Identifying the conditions necessary for human flourishing depends in part on the perspective one chooses to take. One can take the perspective of an average person and ask, ‘what is necessary for an individual to flourish?’ (Heintzelmanrt al, 2012). Alternatively, one can take the perspective of a community or a society composed of many persons and ask, ‘what is necessary for a community to flourish?’ Taking an individual’s perspective will invariably highlight the necessity of finding meaning in life as a fundamental personal need (Heintzelman & King, 2014).
Viewing one’s own life as meaningful is associated with greater longevity, better physical health, and reduced depression and anxiety (Taylor, Kemeny, Reed, Bower, & Gruenewald, 2000). In contrast, taking a communal perspective will invariably highlight the necessity of pro-social behaviour as a fundamental communal need. Pro-social behaviour is critical for creating the trust and cooperation necessary to sustain impersonal and complex societies and markets (Bowles & Gintis, 2003). The present research investigates whether the personal and communal perspectives are linked. Specifically, I test whether helping other people can increase helpers’ perceptions of meaning in life, thereby establishing an empirical connection between personal and societal flourishing.
There are at least two reasons to predict that helping others can increase a sense of meaning in life. First, helping other people can increase helpers’ sense of self-worth, which is one of the basic needs that must be satisfied to achieve a sense of meaning in life, according to prevalent theoretical accounts (Baumeister & Vohs, 2002). Helping other people can increase selfworth because pro-social behaviour is universally admired and valued (Grossman, Uskul, Kraus, & Epley, 2015). Helping other people is a way for helpers to gain social acceptance and build a positive reputation, which in turn increase helpers’ social status in their communities (Grant & Gino, 2010). Because social acceptance is a critical determinant of self-worth and self-esteem (Leary & Baumeister, 2000), the reputational benefits of pro-social behaviour are likely to increase self-worth, which in turn can increase the sense that life is meaningful. Second, another reliable predictor of meaningfulness is social connection with others (Stavrova & Luhmann, 2016). Accordingly, social exclusion and loneliness can lead to substantial psychological damage, including decreased sense of meaning in life (Cialdini & Patrick, 2008). Helping another person is one of the most basic ways to establish and reinforce social connection.
Therefore, helping may increase meaningfulness by increasing the sense of connection to others. The present research tests whether either or both of these two potential mechanisms – emotional intelligence and assertiveness – can explain the relationship between helping and meaningfulness.
Although helping is primarily intended to benefit recipients, existing research finds that helping creates benefits for helpers as well. As mentioned, the most obvious benefit helpers receive is a boost to their reputation in the eyes of others. Observing a person help another increases evaluations of the helper, and in turn motivates recipients and observers to cooperate with helpers in subsequent interactions (Klein & Epley, 2014). This reputational mechanism is thought to underlie a substantial portion of the incentive for pro-social behaviour in general (Rockenbach & Milinski, 2006). Because helping others is viewed positively, helpers can expect to be rewarded with social approval and goodwill. Helping others also creates psychological benefits that do not necessarily depend on others’ judgments and reciprocity. Empirical evidence has thus far pointed to psychological benefits that are mostly hedonic in nature, increasing positive emotion and decreasing negative emotion. For example, spending money to benefit other people can increase happiness compared to spending money to benefit oneself (Weinstein & Ryan, 2010). Volunteering is associated with higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction (Thoits & Hewitt, 2001). Helping can also reduce sadness associated with seeing another person in need of help (Cialdini et al., 1987).
However, meaningfulness and happiness are distinct in important ways. For example, people find meaning in painful and stressful events in their lives, despite being unlikely to extract happiness from such events (Baumeister, Vohs, Aaker, & Garbinsky, 2013). Other experiences, such as nostalgic reflection on the past and thinking about one’s own mortality, increase people’s sense of meaning despite being hedonically negative (Benzoni & Tost, 2009). Compared to happiness, meaningfulness spans a wider range of emotions than simply positive ones, and is also associated with purely cognitive processes such as mental simulation and counterfactual thinking (Waytz, Hershfield, & Tamir, 2015). Therefore, simply because pro-social behaviour creates hedonic benefits does not necessarily mean that it also creates eudemonic benefits.
Intelligence is considered as one of the most desirable personality qualities in today's society. I.Q. and E.Q. tests are presently employed for many purposes such as selection, diagnosis and evaluation in all parts of society. It claims that, it is the single most effective predictor of individual performance at school and on the job (Andoh, 1998).
Evolutionary trend shows human beings to be the most pro-social of all species, which being a social species helps and guides their fellow mates to surge ahead in the battle for existence (Simpson et al., 2008). The term “pro-social” relates to behaviours which are positive and intend to benefit other individuals. This beneficial behaviour is further defined as which “covers the broad range of actions intended to benefit one or more people other than oneself-behaviours’ such as helping, comforting, sharing, and cooperating” (Batson etal., 2003).
Quite interestingly, whenever we refer to pro-social behaviour, the term Altruism intervenes. Altruism can be defined as “A motive to increase another’s welfare without conscious regard for one’s self-interests” (Myers, 2010). There is hardly anyone-to-one interaction between the two concepts, since altruism is a motivational notion behind initiating beneficial action towards the welfare of others and pro-social behaviour is the action itself, but it’s not a necessary criterion for a pro-social act to be altruistically motivated or an altruistic motivation to produce pro-social behaviour (Batson et al., 2003).
Definition of Intelligence
According to David Wechsler, intelligence can be defined as the aggregate of an individual to act with purpose and to deal effectively with the environment. Wechsler also postulated in 1943 that non-intellective abilities were important predictors for success in one’s life (Cherniss, 2000).