1. Dominance and altruism among adolescent males: A comparison of ethological and psychological methods
- Author
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R. Shepherd Zeldin, Ritch C. Savin-Williams, and Stephen A. Small
- Subjects
Agreeableness ,media_common.quotation_subject ,education ,Behavioral assessment ,Personality research ,Altruism ,Developmental psychology ,Dominance (ethology) ,Peer assessment ,General Earth and Planetary Sciences ,Personality ,Psychology ,Social responsibility ,Social psychology ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,General Environmental Science ,media_common - Abstract
Three methods of assessing dominance and altruism in adolescents were compared: self-reports, observation of behavior, and peer rankings. Results indicate that the behavior observation and peer assessment methods are congruent in portraying which adolescents were the most and least dominant and altruistic. While the self-report measure of social responsibility is significantly related to the behavioral assessment of altruism, there is little relationship between these two methods of assessing dominance. An ethological approach to studying human behavior fulfills one aspect of what personality theorists report is urgently needed in the field of personality research: observation of behavior in natural settings.
- Published
- 1981
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