Concepts
Health psychology/Defence mechanisms · Mature
Altruism
What it means
Managing distress by meeting the needs of others and gaining vicarious gratification.
Worked example
A bereaved parent founds and runs a charity for the disease that killed their child.
In the exam
After losing her son to meningitis, a mother devotes herself to running a meningitis-awareness charity and finds meaning in helping others.
What settles it
Altruism serves others and the reward is vicarious. Sublimation channels a personal drive into achievement for oneself.
Classically confused with
Sublimation
Source: Vaillant hierarchy