Motives for the helping behavior of the nursing staff

Abstract

Helping behavior is one of the forms of positive social behavior, which is the
product of interaction or integration between a person’s compatibility with himself
and his compatibility with others. His motive was rarely the subject of researchers'
interest, which motivated the researchers to know his motives among the nursing
staff in the city of Diwaniyah in the context of the Corona pandemic. Accordingly,
the aim of the research is to know the motives for helping behavior (altruism,
searching for reward, and avoiding punishment) among the nursing staff in the city of
Al-Diwaniyah, and to know the significance of the differences in the motives for
helping behavior (altruism, searching for reward, avoiding punishment) according to
the variables of gender and years of service. Searching for nursing staff in the center
of Al-Diwaniyah Governorate, and 375 male and female nurses were selected as a
research sample, at a rate of 12.88% from the research community. The two
researchers prepared a scale of helping behavior motives according to Daniel
Bateson’s theory of empathic attention, which in its final form consisted of (27)
items. Females outperformed males in the motivation to avoid punishment, and the
nursing staff who had more than ten years of service excelled in altruism and
avoiding punishment over their peers who have served 10 years or less. The research
concluded with a set of recommendations and suggestions.