A Seton Hall alum who graduated in 2001 is releasing a book, "Motivation, Altruism, Personality and Social Psychology: The Coming Age of Altruism," on Dec. 4.
Dr. Michael Babula, MBA, Ph.D. and researcher, said he was inspired by some of his experiences at Seton Hall that led to an interest in altruism. Two specific events at Seton Hall, Babula said, had a profound impact on his studies of altruism. One was when professor Richard Hunter organized a trip to Poland to visit Auschwitz, where Babula was quite moved. The other was after the attacks on Sept. 11, where the response of students was overwhelming. Babula was intrigued by the actions of people that moved beyond self-interest because psychology typically teaches that people are driven by self-interest and aren't as interested in helping others.
"I had opportunities [at Seton Hall] where I started questioning where people's higher motivations were," Babula said. "I very much enjoyed my time there."
Babula said he has two missions with the release of his book: To define a new psychological paradigm for the development of human psychological health, and to utilize that paradigm to predict value changes using improved statistical models.
Babula said that some famous altruists are Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Ghandi and Mother Theresa.
According to Babula's book, "We are on the cusp of something truly extraordinary, and that over the next few decades we may witness a series of peaceful revolutions which will see an end to the rule of artificial aristocracy and the rise of a new civilization that works to collectively resolve pressing issues rather than cause them."
Babula said he believes that we will see these revolutions in America very soon because young people have such a strong interest in pure altruism.
"Always focus on helping the other person," Babula advised. "Helping other people leads to a much healthier state of mind and a true state of happiness."
Rebecca White can be reached at rebecca.white@student.shu.edu.
