Altruistic Personality Scale

Abstract

The Altruistic Personality Scale (APS), also known as the Self-Report Altruism Scale, is a highly influential 20-item self-report measure developed to assess an individual’s dispositional tendency toward altruism. Unlike scales focusing on motivational factors, the APS operationalizes altruism by quantifying the historical frequency of various altruistic behaviors, particularly those directed toward strangers or impersonal causes, thereby minimizing the influence of expected reciprocity from close associates. The instrument employs a 5-point frequency scale, ranging from “Never” to “Very Often,” to yield a continuous, quantitative score reflecting an underlying generalized altruistic behavioral trait.

Keywords

Altruism, Prosocial Behavior, Personality Trait, Self-Report, Helping Behavior, Rushton, Social Psychology, Behavioral Frequency, psychometrics, Trait Psychology.

Authors

J. Philippe Rushton, Richard D. Chrisjohn, George C. Fekken.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the APS is to establish a reliable and empirically quantifiable metric for measuring altruistic tendencies conceptualized as a stable personality trait. It achieves this by systematically assessing the behavioral manifestation of altruism, specifically by gauging the regularity with which an individual engages in helping behaviors across diverse contexts, such as spontaneous aid to strangers or formalized contributions to charitable organizations.

The scale serves as a critical research tool for social and personality psychologists studying the correlates of prosocial behavior, including genetic, environmental, and cognitive factors. By providing a robust measure of individual differences, the APS facilitates rigorous experimental and correlational studies comparing high- and low-altruistic individuals.

Construct

The APS is fundamentally designed to measure behavioral altruism. This construct is defined as voluntary action undertaken with the specific intention of benefiting another person, often involving some personal cost (time, effort, or resource expenditure) to the actor, and crucially, without the expectation of immediate external reward or reciprocation. The instrument operationalizes this disposition by focusing strictly on observable, past actions that reflect a general helping orientation, such as donating blood or providing spontaneous assistance.

A core theoretical premise underlying the APS is the assumption that altruistic behavior is cross-situationally consistent, indicating a stable personality disposition rather than merely situational responses. The item selection deliberately emphasizes interactions with strangers rather than family or friends to isolate genuine, non-reciprocal altruism.

Validity

The initial validation studies conducted by the scale’s authors demonstrated strong evidence for construct validity. Convergent validity is supported by consistent findings showing that APS scores exhibit significant positive correlations with other established psychological measures of related concepts, such as empathy, moral reasoning, and general prosocial behavior. Conversely, discriminant validity is evidenced by expected negative correlations with personality traits like aggression, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.

Furthermore, the APS has demonstrated robust predictive validity. Numerous studies have confirmed that individuals scoring highly on the scale are more likely to exhibit observed helping behaviors in controlled experimental settings and are more frequently reported to engage in altruistic actions in real-world contexts, confirming that the self-reported frequency aligns accurately with actual helping tendencies.

Reliability

The APS demonstrates high internal consistency, which is the standard indicator of reliability for multi-item self-report instruments. Across diverse cultural samples and various research applications, the scale consistently yields Cronbach’s alpha coefficients falling within the excellent range of 0.78 to 0.85. This indicates that the 20 items cohere effectively and consistently measure the underlying construct of the altruistic personality.

Assessment of test-retest reliability—the stability of the measurement over time—has also yielded satisfactory results. This finding confirms the theoretical conceptualization of altruistic tendency, as measured by the APS, as a relatively stable and enduring personality trait rather than a transient state.

Factor Analysis

The foundational factor analysis performed by Rushton, Chrisjohn, and Fekken strongly supported the notion that the APS is essentially unidimensional. This structure suggests that all 20 items load onto a single, dominant factor, which represents a generalized altruistic disposition or overall tendency toward helping behavior across different situations.

Although limited subsequent research has occasionally proposed minor distinctions related to the context of helping (e.g., formal vs. informal aid), the consensus remains that the APS is most reliably and commonly utilized by summing responses across all items to produce a single, continuous measure of the overall altruistic personality trait.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report Personality Scale

Format: 20 items utilizing a 5-point frequency Likert-type scale (1 = Never to 5 = Very Often).

Language Available: Primarily English, with validated translations available in many languages, including Spanish, French, and Persian.

Population Group: General population, widely used across academic and clinical research settings.

Age Group: Adolescents and Adults (typically suitable for individuals aged 16 years and older).

Population Details: Specifically suitable for assessing individual differences in stable prosocial disposition and behavioral history.

Test Methodology: Participants retrospectively report the frequency of specific altruistic actions they have performed. The total score is derived by summing the frequency ratings across all 20 items, resulting in a continuous total score.

Keywords

Altruism measurement, Rushton, Behavioral frequency, Social science research, Trait psychology, Self-Report Altruism Scale, Individual Differences.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Information not consistently available for original authors).

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Information not consistently available).

Correspondence Address: N/A (Information not consistently available).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The APS was first published in 1981 by Rushton, Chrisjohn, and Fekken. Given its age and status as a foundational academic instrument, the scale is widely accepted as being in the public domain for non-commercial research and educational applications. Users are required to provide appropriate citation to the original publication when utilizing the measure.

The original PDF documentation for this measure and supplementary resources can be accessed via the following links:

• The original PDF can be downloaded here: http://www.fetzer.org/sites/default/files/images/stories/pdf/selfmeasures/PROSOCIAL_ORIENTATION_AND_ALTRUISM.pdf
• An additional resource PDF is located here: http://uijs.ui.ac.ir/jas/files/site1/user_files_779417/admin-A-10-1-15-0e3ede8.pdf

Reference’s

Rushton, J. P., Chrisjohn, R. D., & Fekken, G. C. (1981). The Altruistic Personality and the Self-Report Altruism Scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 2(4), 293–302.

Additional reference sources used in the development and dissemination of the scale:

• http://www.fetzer.org/sites/default/files/images/stories/pdf/selfmeasures/PROSOCIAL_ORIENTATION_AND_ALTRUISM.pdf
• http://uijs.ui.ac.ir/jas/files/site1/user_files_779417/admin-A-10-1-15-0e3ede8.pdf

Items of the Altruistic Personality Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Using the following scale‚ please se‎lect the category that conforms to the frequency with which you have carried out the following acts.

1= Never‚ 2= Once‚ 3= More than once‚ 4= Often‚ 5 =Very Often

1. I have helped push a stranger’s car that was broken down or out of gas.
2. I have given directions to a stranger.
3. I have made change for a stranger.
4. I have given money to a ch‎arity.
5. I have given money to a stranger who needed it (or asked me for it).
6. I have donated goods or clothes to a ch‎arity.
7. I have done volunteer work for a ch‎arity.
8. I have donated blood.
9. I have helped carry a stranger’s belongings (books‚ parcels‚ etc).
10. I have delayed an elevator and held the door open for a stranger.
11. I have allowed someone to go ahead of me in a lineup (in the supermarket‚ at a copy machine‚ at a fast-food restaurant).
12. I have given a stranger a lift in my car.
13. l have pointed out a clerk’s error (in a bank‚ at the supermarket) in underch‎arging me for an item.
14. I have let a neighbor whom I didn’t know too well borrow an item of some value to me (eg‚ a dish‚ tools‚ etc).
15. I have bought ‘ch‎arity’ holiday cards deliberately because I knew it was a good cause.
16. I have helped a classmate who I did not know that well with an assignment when my knowledge was greater than his or hers.
17. I have‚ before being asked‚ voluntarily looked after a neighbor’s pets or children without being paid for it.
18. I have offered to help a handicapped or elderly stranger across a street.
19. I have offered my seat on a bus or train to a stranger who was standing.
20. I have helped an acquaintance to move households.