Salvador Gutierrez P7 Oct. 4-8

This week in AP Psychology: we learned about altruism.  Altruism is selfless attitudes and behavior towards others.  I believe that no one in this world is truly selfless.  If you are completely truly selfless, you will die quickly.  To survive in this world you have to think of yourself and care for yourself.  When you’re in the middle of the desert with another person and you find an apple, you will have to think of yourself and take it instead of giving it to the other person or else you’ll die.  We learned about the black man that saved a guy from being run over by the subway train.  The black man’s act was not completely selfless.  It was kin selection because he put his children first, selfishly.  When he was asked why he saved the other man, he said that he did it because he did not want his daughters to see a man die.  I would not like it if everyone was altruistic because selflessness would lose its meaning.  In an episode of The Office, Dwight was being selfless and doing nice things to others (he would say, “You owe me,“ to everyone) and Andy would return the “selfless” kindness (for self-satisfaction).  Dwight would open the door for Andy, Andy would let Dwight go first, Dwight would insist that Andy goes first, Andy would insist that Dwight goes first etc.  It was annoying because they would not stop doing nice things to each other, it became a competition.  So Andy and Dwight would selfishly compete against one another on who’s more selfless.  They went from being selfless to selfish.  Which proves my point that no one can be truly selfless.  I honestly think that this whole thing on altruism and selflessness is a bit confusing and can be interpreted in many ways.  I just live by this: treat people the way you want to be treated.