Friday, April 1, 2011

A to Z: Altruism

Altruism, the psychology of helping others. I figured this would be a good topic to start on for the challenge. Altruism is the unselfish desire to help others. There are many theories about why people help each other, and in what situations are more likely to produce helping behaviors than other situations.

So you have your character. Maybe they are the type of person more likely to help. Or perhaps they are in a situation where they are the only person available to provide help. Each character could have different reasons for helping another character out. The different motivations for helping can make for different courses of action in the scene and consequences for the characters.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Claire, What a great topic to start the challenge. I believe there are people who tend to help more than others. I also think it's a good thing to take into consideration when creating characters. Lots to think about.

Lisa said...

Claire - I like you take on the letter A. I try to altruistic myself. Enjoyed your post. I'll be back frequently.

Lisa
Inspired By Lisa A-Z

Claire Goverts said...

Kris and Lisa - thank you both for stopping by and the nice comments on my topic. Sometime it might be fun to expand on various types of helping behaviors.

Catch My Words said...

Great topic. I also like the way you tied it into character development.

Mary Aalgaard said...

Excellent use of A. I wish more people were like that. I love your pic with the cat!

Erin M. Hartshorn said...

And, of course, there are those characters who wouldn't be altruistic if their mother's apartment were on fire. ;-)

Nice post!

Julia Phillips Smith said...

A lovely topic for the challenge, Day 1. I feel very strongly that altruism is key to any heroic behavior on the part of a character. Anyone who's willing to put themselves out or even on the line for another person is reaching that state described by Joseph Campbell as the realization that there is no difference between the Self and the Other.

A Piece of My Mind

AnnMackieMiller said...

Great start Clair - I'm writing a fantasy novel too and I see you also did Nano - looking forward to getting to know you more.