 Human factors involves the study of all aspects of the way humans relate to the world around them, with the aim of improving operational performance, safety, through life costs and or adoption through improvement in the experience of the end user. In social interactions, the use of the term human factor stresses the social properties unique to or characteristic of humans.The study of how people think, feel and interact with each other is like the study of anything else that is both important and complex begins to get exciting when we find that there are some general rules we can depend on to help us understand things that are not, on the surface, self-explanatory.
It is easy, on the basis of one's own experience and with the aid of accumulated folk wisdom to describe frequently observed regularities in people's behavior toward each other. For example, people who spend a good deal of time together are apt to come to like each other. (Newcomb, Turner, Converse, pg 1, 1996)
According to my school reading, people usually seek out and spend time with others, for many reasons for example, they either interact to accomplish instrumental goals, such as raising money for a charity or meeting over dinner to discuss a business deal, others interact for family ties, shared interests, desires for companionship, or other relationship. A child may interact with his classmates to make friends and share common interest or goals. At work, people intereact for accomplishing common working goals or perform better in a team.
What is Altruism?
Altruism means behaving in a way that helps another person with no apparent gain or with potential cost to oneself, probably reflects a blend of selfish and unselfish motives. (Interpersonal Processes, Chp 18, 2008) In evolutionary biology, an organism is said to behave altruistically when its behaviour benefits other organisms, at a cost to itself. Altruistic behaviour is common throughout the animal kingdom, particularly in species with complex social structures. For example, in numerous bird species, a breeding pair receives help in raising its young ones from other helper birds, who protect the nest from predators and help to feed the fledglings. (Okasha, 2003) According to Eresource text “Interpersonal Processes”, aggression is a verbal or physical behavior that is aimed at harming another person or living being, is a characteristic of human interaction as altruism. (Interpersonal Processes, Chp 18, 2008)
Precursors and Consequences of Altruism
Philosophers commonly distinguish between psychological hedonism and ethical hedonism where psychological hedonism is the view that humans are psychologically constructed in such a way that we exclusively desire pleasure. Ethical hedonism whereas is the view that fundamental moral obligation is to maximize pleasure or happiness. Consequentialism requires that a person must tally both the good and bad consequences of an action and then determine whether the total good consequences outweigh the total bad consequences. If the good consequences are greater, then the action is morally proper and if the bad consequences are greater, then the action is morally improper. The text describes the example of bystander intervention who witnessed the murder of Genovese, but not one came to her assistance or even bothered to called the police, until she was already dead.
The behavior of the bystanders can be rules out as Ethical Egoism which states that all human actions are ultimately motivated by selfish interests. Thus, ethical egoism is the only possible criterion for ethical judgment since it alone recognizes people’s complete selfish motivations. Darley and Latané developed a multistage model of the decision-making process that underlies bystander intervention, where the bystanders must notice the emergency, interpret it as one, assume personal responsibility to intervene, decide how to intervene, and then actually intervene. In the first two stages which is noticing the emergency and interpreting it as one, other people serve as both a source of information and reassurance if they do not react strongly. At the next stage, the presence of others leads to a diffusion of responsibility and a diminished sense of personal responsibility to act because others are seen as equally responsible. At this point people also consider the consequences of action and are less willing to intervene and more likely to justify inaction if it jeopardizes their own safety if they have misinterpreted the situation. (Interpersonal Processes, Chp 18, 2008)
Bystanders understanding their moral responsibility is Ethical Altruism where an action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone except the agent. Researchers studying bystander intervention have found that individuals often do not help in a crisis in the presence of other people. There is another example, where a friend of a person who was murdered infront of whole bunch of people in a pub. Jessica Lal, was a very famous interenational model, who was killed infront of her friend, serving drinks to the guest. The friend later denied that he was present when the murder occurred, but later provided his statement and justice was done to Jessica Lal’s murderers. Diffusion of responsibility, a diminished sense of personal responsibility to act, is one of the most important reason people do not intervene. Situational determinants of whether or not people will help interact with individual difference variables to determine when helping will occur. (Interpersonal Processes, Chp 18, 2008)
To Be Continued..... Next Week
Biblography
Social Psychology: The Study of Human Interaction. Contributors: Theodore M. Newcomb, Ralph H. Turner, Philip E. Converse, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, pg 2, 1996; http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=91358728
Biological Altruism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Samir Okasha, 2003; http://www.seop.leeds.ac.uk/entries/altruism-biological/
Interpersonal Processes, Chapter 18, University of Phoenix, 2008; http://www.phoenix.edu/ebooks/ppdf.asp
IN SEARCH OF GOOD LIFE, Research on Altruism – Acts and Faith, 2008; http://www.helsinki.fi/collegium/english/staff/Yeung/yeung_abstract.htm
Applied History of Psychology/Group Therapy - principles, theory, and key figures- Applied History of Psychology, Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection, June 2007;
Applied_History_of_Psychology/Group_Therapy_-_principles,_theory,_and_key_figures
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.According to the author "Altruism means behaving in a way that helps another person with no apparent gain or with potential cost to oneself, probably reflects a blend of selfish and unselfish motives"-I would like to say,gain may not always be some materialistic thing like money,power,fame etc etc but it may be purely mental satisfaction which is not visible but needs to be felt from heart.For some people smile in others face brings mental satisfaction.So the fact is, every human being is bounded by motive in life,for most people this is clearly visible(like craving for money,food,fame) while for others this turns out to be what the author describes as altruism.Another point i would strongly object is the heading of the article"Altruism- is this Gandhism?"-may be the author was trying to focus that since the works of Gandhiji and Altruism are synnonymous so such heading could be used,but I would strongly object that not only Gandhi but several others like Netaji,Balgangadhar Tilak,Bhagat Singh even Abraham Lincoln to name a few devoted their life for the benefit of others.What about the contributions of so many freedom fighters of India who sacrified their lives for the freedom of our motherland India??They too didnt gained anything material by sacrificing their lives,so its better not to similarise Gandhism with Altruism..
)showed Altruism. 
Hold u tongue.If you start hitting me directly now onwards I ll do the same.Keep it in mind.I respect the author's comment that he encourages readers to write more on the topic without concentrating more on the name of the topic.But I would like to add that its not my part of job to write articles on Lincoln and Mother Teresa(which I think the matured readers have being knowing from their mother's womb 
),those interested can search job engines and history books to increase their knowledge.What i was trying to do is to give examples of well known personalities of the world who stand as example of Altruism.Even according to someone's comment our parents stand as a living example of Altrism...these are highly appreciated,requests such as changing the name of the topic to Altrusm-Is it Motherhood or Fatherhood?? is mere foolishness i wont request that also.I just presented my view on the above topic but some critics who claims them to be highly matured are taking it into a wrong turn.I would request the author-Tintin to come up with few additions to the above article in his next article so that we can get acquinted more with brand new word Altruism.