I was reading the Lifestyle section of The Sunday Times (23/3/08) when an article titled “Art or mutilation” caught my attention. The article states that implants of silicon or Teflon beads can be inserted under our skin, forming raised designs and patterns. The process is painful and is also potentially hazardous to our health as infections can easily set in. However, this has not stopped 28- year-old Alexx Ng, a self-employed investment agent, and his 10 or more friends from doing it. Alexx has a total of 18 Teflon beads, each size of a 50-cent coin and a star-shaped silicone implant under the skin of his right arm. In the article, he mentioned that he was not an attention seeker and he did not really know why he did it.
Personally, I felt that Alexx went for the Teflon implants because he wants to be liked by the people that he is mixing with, and this is an example of normative conformity. Normative conformity occurs when people are influenced by others to gain rewards or to avoid punishment In Alexx’s case, the reward that he gets by doing what his friends does, is to be able to maintain positive relationships with them. In addition, perhaps Alexx felt that should he not do what his friends does, his friends would ostracise him, thus to prevent himself from being excluded, he went for the implants.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
1st post: Altruism
Based on the empathy-altruism hypothesis, feelings of empathy for a person can lead to behaviour that is truly aimed at helping that person. As can been seen from an article on page 14 of The New Paper, dated on 2/3/08, Mr Toh, a businessman, upon reading about their predicament, rendered his help to a family which is having financial difficulties, till the extent that both parent intend to give 3 out of their 5 children up for adoption. According to Mr Toh, he wants to help the family because he too, once experienced the days of being down and out and having to struggle to raise his children, thus, he understands the feelings of the family.
Apart from giving money to the family, Mr Toh offered some business advice and a loan to the family if they choose to open their noodle stall in the future. In addition, he also offered a part-time job in his company to the family’s eldest son, provided that the eldest son’s school work would not be affected by the job.
The article also mentioned that through this incident, Mr Toh wants his children to learn the importance of helping, even if they would have to sacrifice something to bring happiness to others and to make them realise how fortunate they are. As such, he made his children gave away their favourite toys to the family in need. In doing so, he hopes that his children would be able to experience the positive consequences that he experiences and by observing his actions, he hopes that his children will learn to help others too.
From what I have mentioned above, I would consider Mr Toh’s helping originates from altruistic motivation (helping purely for the sake of providing benefit to another person), instead of egoistic motivation (helping others in order to obtain rewards or punishment) . This is so, as although this incident can help to mould his children’s future behaviour and perhaps, to help make Mr Toh feel better about himself, they are not the main reasons as to why he chose to render his help to a stranger. Instead, those two are benefits that he would gain while helping out.
Apart from giving money to the family, Mr Toh offered some business advice and a loan to the family if they choose to open their noodle stall in the future. In addition, he also offered a part-time job in his company to the family’s eldest son, provided that the eldest son’s school work would not be affected by the job.
The article also mentioned that through this incident, Mr Toh wants his children to learn the importance of helping, even if they would have to sacrifice something to bring happiness to others and to make them realise how fortunate they are. As such, he made his children gave away their favourite toys to the family in need. In doing so, he hopes that his children would be able to experience the positive consequences that he experiences and by observing his actions, he hopes that his children will learn to help others too.
From what I have mentioned above, I would consider Mr Toh’s helping originates from altruistic motivation (helping purely for the sake of providing benefit to another person), instead of egoistic motivation (helping others in order to obtain rewards or punishment) . This is so, as although this incident can help to mould his children’s future behaviour and perhaps, to help make Mr Toh feel better about himself, they are not the main reasons as to why he chose to render his help to a stranger. Instead, those two are benefits that he would gain while helping out.
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