Concerning Altruism Research and Relief

Although much research in this field has been completed, some writers are very critical of the approach used in the research. There is a dominance of the adherents of positivist methodology that affect the majority of models of caring, and its use is limited in the professional field of education, medicine, nursing, and other helping professions. Pearce et al summarize this important trend as follows.

Dominant tradition in social psychological research is based on laboratory experimental investigation mode. Researchers using this approach attempts to understand the importance of social behavior through control and manipulation of the factors that influence the behavior of other forms of simulated target. This research reflects the philosophy of positivism and the limited scientific deterministic view on human action.

Consequently, much research has been conducted to date have been criticized for low external validity in the real world, have a limited perception of human action, lack of cumulative research entities and are politically and socially conservative. In addition, in studies using realistic scope, there is a tendency to use:

action to help the less meaningful to represent the large-scale phenomena such as caring and empathy. In the next section, we begin to explore some of the research on caring, which has moved from the laboratory into the world of work. Very little research has been done that focuses on helping behavior and caring in a professional context, but this is the kind of research is needed if new theoretical perspectives will be formed which have an impact on nurse educator, researcher, and nursing practice.

Research on caring

A number of nurse researchers have attempted to investigate the process of caring, but most of the investigation was conducted in the context of American States. Only a few studies in the UK which can be found in the literature. Some research in the United States are briefly reviewed below, but the results should be considered carefully, due to the large mismatch between the philosophy of health care, facilities and practices in these different cultures. Kyle offers a more detailed review of the literature on the concept of caring, and the examples given here are only a small review of several studies have been performed in this field.

By using qualitative anthropological designs, Leininger study the process of caring in different cultures over a period of more than 15 years. Collected data from nearly 30 different cultures. Revealed the diversity of belief and value system of informants, as well as the diversity of practices in cross-cultural caring.

Leininger classify a total of 17 ideas (or “how to perceive”) relating to caring, namely comfort, support, compassion, empathy, helping behavior directly, coping, stress reduction is specific, touch, care, assistance, supervision, protection, restoration , stimulation, health care, health education and health consultation. When developing the research, this idea eventually evolved into 28 taxonomic caring idea.

Unfortunately, many details of the research methodologies used are not reported, and this cause is very difficult to check how reliable and valid findings. However, the fact that the construction proved to be more significant differences in cross-cultural, especially important and should alert researchers to the dangers of trying to produce a picture of a universal caring.