When we help others, is our ultimate goal ever to benefit them (altruistic motivation), or is our ultimate goal always some form of self.benefit (egoistic motivation)? Considerable evidence indicates that feeling empathy (sympathy, compassion) for a person in need can increase the motivation to help that person. Past research indicates that the motivation to help associated with empathic emotion is at least in past altruistic (i.e., directed toward the ultimate goal of increasing the others' welfare). This research will extend earlier work, seeking the psychological antecedents of the empathy.altruism relationship. A model is presented that identifies two proximal antecedents of empathic emotion..perception of the other as in need and valuing the other's welfare. This model is based on recent conceptions of emotion that emphasize the central role of value as a precondition for emotional response. Six potential sources of valuing another's welfare are then identified, and nine experiments are proposed to test (1) the relationship between valuing the other's welfare and empathy and (2) the ability of each of the proposed sources to induce valuing of the other's welfare and, thereby, the empathy.altruism relationship. These experiments should increase our understanding of the conditions under which we feel empathy for a suffering person and, as a result, altruistic motivation. This understanding, in turn, should take us an important step closer to the development of empathy.based programs for moral education, therapy, and organizational behavior, programs capable of fostering more positive social relationships.
