Assignment 2: Increasing Blood Donation Through Altruism, PSYC1010

This psychology assignment examines altruism in the context of blood donation, specifically addressing the low donation rates in Canada. The student explores various factors influencing altruistic behavior, including kinship, observational learning, and emotions, to develop strategies for increasing participation. The assignment proposes plans that leverage these factors, such as using advertisements that emphasize family ties, organizing awareness campaigns that demonstrate the benefits of blood donation, and appealing to emotions like empathy, fear, and guilt. Furthermore, the assignment considers the role of reinforcement and punishment, suggesting incentives like social credit for students and the potential use of negative reinforcement to encourage blood donation. The overall goal is to remove the stigma associated with blood donation and promote it as a noble cause, offering practical approaches to address the problem.

Running head: ALTRUISM IN BLOOD DONATION
ALTRUISM IN BLOOD DONATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Altruistic behaviour is defined as those selfless acts that people engage in without
expecting anything in return. Such acts include being kind to others, helping others in need and
being generous (Weiten, 2007). Donating blood is an act of altruism where people willingly
donate blood in order to help the needy however; people in Canada have been reported to show
less interest in blood donation. This paper therefore focuses on laying down certain plans to help
increase the participation of Canadian people in blood donation. These plans are focused on
factors such as kinship, observational learning, emotions, reinforcement and punishment that
plays a role in increasing altruistic behaviours.
One of the most developed countries Canada has the lowest rates in blood donation that
account to 7% of the total eligible population. In order to increase more participation of the
people and help others who need blood, certain plans can be adopted that focus on the factors
that increase altruistic behaviours in people towards blood donation. Kinship or relationship is an
important aspect of any individual’s life. People can go to any lengths to help their loved ones.
The plan that can be adopted is that there can be advertisements in newspapers, on television and
on social media that highlight the importance of donating blood. The love and care that the
family members have for each other can be shown and the stigma related to blood donation can
also be removed. Adopting proper safety measures and showing that blood donation actually
benefits the health can be major reason for luring people into donating blood.
Awareness campaigns for blood donation can be organized. The people who are in charge
of such campaigns can prepare a skit where they create and teach people the benefits of blood
donation. The skit will be used to send a message to the people and thus, the people can learn
that donating blood is actually a noble cause and that if proper safety measures are taken then
there is no risk involved in it. This takes into account the factor of observational learning. People

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will get inspired from others who donate blood and they can then learn and imitate their
behaviour. Observational learning is learning by observing or imitating others (Weiten, 2007).
People modify their behaviour by following others as an inspiration.
Emotions play a major role in influencing any decision of any individual. When people
are made to empathize with others problems then it creates an effective way to get help from
them (Weiten, 2007). Empathy is a difficult emotion to create because if people do not go
through the problems themselves then it becomes impossible for them to understand others
problems. However, the emotions of fear and guilt can be inculcated in people. By constantly
reminding them that because they are not donating blood, people are dying and that their loved
ones are suffering because of them. This would make the person who does not donate blood feel
guilty therefore can lure him into donating blood.
The best way to attract people into making them do anything is by giving them rewards
and reinforcements. Money plays a greater role. When people would be offered money, they
would agree to donate blood voluntarily (Abolghasemi, Hosseini-Divkalayi & Seighali, 2010).
Students often agree to participate in such blood donation camps because they need social credit
for their college assignments. Students can thus be lured into donating blood by announcing that
they would be given social credit if they voluntarily donate blood. Another way in which they
can be made to donate blood is by applying the use of negative reinforcement or punishments
(Weiten, 2007). To avoid punishment, people would readily agree to donate blood. Students can
be told that there credits would be taken away from them if they do not donate blood. This fear
would increase the participation of the students in blood donation.
In order to increase more and more participation, it is important to remove the fear and
stigma associated with it. The teachers and the educators can conduct classes and seminars that

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exhibit the nobility in blood donation and that how there is more need of such altruistic
behaviours to make the world a better place. Therefore, the plans that have been detailed above
can help in increasing the participation of the Canadian people in blood donation.
Advertisements for blood donation campaigns and the teachers can educate their students in
removing the stigma associated with blood donation. Though the meaning of altruism is helping
others without expecting anything in return, money can help in increasing people’s participation
in blood donation.

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References
Abolghasemi, H., Hosseini-Divkalayi, N. S., & Seighali, F. (2010). Blood donor incentives: A
step forward or backward. Asian Journal of Transfusion Science, 4(1), 9–13.
Weiten, W. (2007). Psychology: Themes and variations: Themes and variations. Cengage
Learning.