Psy 490 Pay It Forward Research Paper

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Pay It Forward PSY/490 Capstone Course in Psychology May 23, 2012 Pay It Forward Webster's Dictionary of the English Language defines altruism as, "consideration for other people without any thought of self as a principle of conduct." The author encountered a woman in a non-electrical wheel chair in Best Buy. She was trying to roll herself thru the store toward the exit. The chair was fighting the carpet causing her a huge battle and slowing her down immensely almost to a stop. Not one person around her bothered to move out of her way or to help her, in fact the young man who worked at the store and stands at the entrance door just watched her. The author was dumbfounded at what she observed. She walked over and asked the elderly lady if she would like…show more content…
As a result the focus is off his or her own physical pain which causes it to minimize with the shift of attention. There is also a rush of euphoria, that follows the act of kindness as mentioned earlier, this later turns into a sense of peace, which creates the body’s natural painkillers (Orman & Thorsen, 1999). Codependency is a word that might be confused with altruism but it is just the opposite. Codependency is a vicious cycle and very selfishly driven. Altruism is selfless. Where a codependent has trouble setting healthy boundaries and saying “no” especially for the well-being of the other person, an act of altruism is done in spite of the return. One such example involves a parent disciplining their child and their comment might be “Even if you say you hate me, I don’t care. This is going to be more beneficial for you and that is most important to me.” Whereas a codependent person might not say no, because she or he is more concerned with the child saying she hates him or her and stop loving the individual. In this scenario the concern of the codependent is selfishly

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