Rani, a school teacher often paid the school fees of students in her class who came from economically backward families. Although her salary was not enough to meet with her personal expenses, she happily contributed the money without anyone knowing who was paying for the student.
Rani's behaviour is called ________.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Pro-social behaviour
Option (1) Pro-social behaviour — Correct. Doing good to others and being helpful is called helping or pro-social behaviour, very close to altruism, which means thinking of the welfare of others without any self-interest. It must aim to benefit others, be done without expecting anything in return, be done willingly, and involve some difficulty or ‘cost’ to the helper. Rani pays from a salary that does not even meet her own expenses, happily, and in secret: every feature is present.
Option (2) Donation — Incorrect. A charitable donation is only one example of pro-social behaviour, and not every donation is pro-social: a rich person who gives money so that her or his name appears in the newspapers is not acting pro-socially. The question asks for the name of the behaviour, not one of its forms.
Option (3) Sympathetic gesture — Incorrect. Showing sympathy is again just one example of pro-social behaviour. Rani does far more than show sympathy; she bears a real cost to help.
Option (4) Co-action — Incorrect. Co-action is a situation in which others present are also performing the same task, which brings social comparison and competition. It belongs to the study of how others affect performance, not to helping.
Note: Pro-social behaviour, and co-action in Option (4), were there in the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023, and are not there in the NCERT book (2025-26). Hence this question has been picked from the pre-rationalised NCERT.
NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “Pro-social Behaviour … Throughout the world, doing good to others and being helpful is described as a virtue. All religions teach us that we should help those who are in need. This behaviour is called helping or pro-social behaviour. Pro-social behaviour is very similar to ‘altruism’, which means doing something for or thinking about the welfare of others without any self-interest (in Latin ‘alter’ means ‘other’, the opposite of ‘ego’ which means ‘self’). Some common examples of pro-social behaviour are sharing things, cooperating with others, helping during natural calamities, showing sympathy, doing favours to others, and making charitable donations. Pro-social behaviour has the following characteristics. It must :
“…For instance, if a rich person donates a lot of money that is obtained illegally, with the idea that her/his photograph and name will appear in the newspapers, this cannot be called ‘pro-social behaviour’ although the donation may do good to many people.…” “…If the others present are also performing the same task, this is called a situation of co-action. In this situation, there is social comparison and competition.…” |