Psychology Essay: Exploring the Psychological Impact of Blood Donation

This psychology essay presents a student's personal reflection on their experience with blood donation. The essay begins with the student's initial fears of injections and their eventual motivation to donate blood after a personal health crisis where they needed blood transfusion. The student discusses the realization of blood donation's importance and the impact of a previous donor's generosity. The essay outlines the physiological aspects of blood donation, emphasizing the small volume of blood drawn and its benefits. The student describes the emotional impact of their decision, highlighting the pride and satisfaction derived from contributing to saving lives. The essay also touches upon the need for blood transfusions in various medical conditions, including hemorrhages and cancer, and concludes with the student's aspiration to create an agency to address blood needs. The essay references several academic sources to support the arguments. Desklib provides access to this and other student assignments.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PSYCHOLOGY
Throughout my entire life, I wonder what is the most generous thing that I have ever
done to others without any selfishness? The answer can be very simple. I donated my blood for
the first time last month. I was very afraid of injections and stitches from my childhood and I got
very afraid whenever I got ill. This thing invoked a sense of fear and nervousness in me. One
day I fell seriously ill and I was admitted to a hospital. A few units of blood were needed to save
my life. From then on, I became aware that blood donation is one of the most important factors
that could be done without any selfishness and hesitation of mind. I came to realize this fact and
one day I heard that a blood donation camp was being organized by our local communities in our
neighborhood.
I believe that when a person suffers from a massive physical problem, he or she is in dire
need of blood. This situation can only be overcome if people come forward to help the needy
people. This is a humanistic cause and people should openly come up to support this act. I
remember that time when I was in sheer pain and I was desperately in need of blood, a generous
hearted man came to my parents and donated me his blood. I can say that I am only alive because
of his unselfish blood donation. Later in my life, I came to know the people who are only
between 18 and 65 years of age can donate their blood. The minimum body weight that is
required to donate blood is 59 kilos. Every human being has 5 to 7 liters of blood in their bodies.
This consists up to 7.7% of their total body weight. Every time blood is donated only about 350
ml of blood drains out from the body. This does not harm the body at all but it helps to create to
new cells in the body. These things are very essential because I was quite motivated by parents
when I went out to donate the blood. I felt pain primarily after donating the blood but when I
realized this little sacrifice of mine could save a person’s life, I was literally amazed with my
decision.

2PSYCHOLOGY
I had felt pride of my decision when I realized that I became a participant in saving the
lives of the people with a little self sacrifice. I have learned that the act of blood donation helps
the women to keep away from obstetric complications in their bodies or pregnancy problems.
The act of blood donation is completely a voluntary act. This is why I must say that I became
proud of my decision as it was taken entirely by mine. Some of the diseases where the patients
need blood transfusion are hemorrhages, severe burns, cancer, any kinds of transplant,
coagulation disorders and others. I feel a part of the fortunate people who have contributed to
save the mankind. In these circumstances, I would surely want to focus on the facts that I had
been able to save a person’s life when he was in dire need of it. I have read about the facts that in
every two seconds, a person is in need of blood transfusion for some reason or the other. The
World Health Organization has again and again put its strength on the importance of blood
donation for the human beings. SO, I have responded to the urge of the World Health
Organization. The patients who are suffering from diseases like blood cancer, thalassemia and
other emergency situations need urgent blood transfusion and I have thought of building up an
agency who will take after these needs with urgent intervention.
Blood and platelets are needed for the burn victims and I have also urged to some
important people about my initiative and take them under my confidence to start this project. I
hope this will inspire many of the boys like me and I will be very much happy to be able to do
something for those poor people. I hope this small step of mine will help millions of people to
fight against the evils of these diseases even more strongly.

3PSYCHOLOGY
References
Bednall, Timothy C., et al. "A systematic review and meta-analysis of antecedents of blood
donation behavior and intentions." Social science & medicine 96 (2013): 86-94.
Bonney, Kevin M. "Chagas disease in the 21st century: a public health success or an emerging
threat?." Parasite 21 (2014).
Choi, Soe Yoon, Hee Sun Park, and Ju Yeon Oh. "Temporal distance and blood donation
intention." Journal of Health Psychology 17.4 (2012): 590-599.
Roberts, Gilbert. "Human cooperation: The race to give." Current biology 25.10 (2015): R425-
R427.