A comparative study of normative attitude toward helping between the different groups of sex, age and generation

Abstract

The three-fold purposes of the present study are to make clear the structure of normative attitude toward helping, to clarify the structural disparity between the different groups of sex, age and generation, and to confirm correspondence between those attitudes and helping behaviors. A total of 418 subjects rated 29 attitude items related to helping norms in terms of their agreement with those items. The data were analyzed by the method of principal component analysis, and four helping norms (factors) were produced. Analyses of variance, sex (2) × age (4) or generation (2) factorial design found sex, age, and generation differences. The older generation, for example, tends to agree the norm of restitution more than the younger generation, but to agree the exchange norm less than the younger generation. It was confirmed that the normative attitudes correspond to helping behaviors. For example, a man of experience in blood donation possesses a stronger positive attitude toward the norm of self-sacrifice than one who has no experience.