Altruism.
Bernard McFarland is a single dad chosen for the chance of a lifetime—to receive a brand-new house. ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” has selected McFarland to be a recipient of this grand makeover due in part to his dedication and devotion to the community of Martindale-Brightwood, Indiana. Serving as a mentor to the children in the neighborhood while playing an integral part in improving the community, McFarland has devoted his time and efforts into giving back.
McFarland displays an altruistic motive for helping when he seeks to increased another’s welfare and expects nothing in return. After serving the military, McFarland returned back to his hometown to raise his family. He displays pure altruism as he performs his role in the community for the sake of helping others. This is shown by the condition of his household. With leaky pipes, crumbling drywall, and bad wiring, fixing up McFarland’s home is definitely not his top priority.
According to the empathy-altruism hypothesis (Batson, Batson, Slingsby, Harrell, Peekna, & Todd, 1991), empathy motivates people to reduce other people’s distress such as by helping or comforting them. Altruistic helping is motivated by the emotional response of empathy in which one reacts to another’s emotional state by experiencing that same state. Thus, when McFarland sees a fellow community member’s distress, he feels the same. This sharing of feelings causes people to want to help the sufferer feel better.
For McFarland, his altruistic motives did earn him something in the end. Though unexpected, his active role in the community has lead ABC to grant him something that is desperately needed to increase his family’s welfare—a new house.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090329/LOCAL18/903290405