Do you consider yourself Selfish or Altruistic?

I lean more towards being altruistic. I am one of those “helper type” people. A good example would be that this is the 367th question I have answered, but I have only asked 8.

My ex husband once told me I went too far trying to help other people, and he thought it wasn’t healthy for me. He said I feel other people’s pain.

altruistic.
i care a little more about other people than i should.
it is a good feeling most of the time,
then again i usually forget about myself.

I have a hard time defining myself as on or the other. I volunteer for Habitat, the animal shelter, and donate blood every six weeks. I car pool, recycle, donate used goods to Goodwill. But I tend to think of myself as selfish – I want things the way I want them, I arrange my life to suit myself. I’m not sure what that makes me.

I think this is a tough question philosophically. Are altruistic people really acting selflessly, or are they behaving altruistically because they like the way they feel when they do kind acts? If it’s the second case, does that negate their altruism?

I personally would have a hard time describing myself as either.

I dont think i fall into either category. I dont really think its healthy to lean either way. Obviously being selfish is a bad thing, but always helping people can be bad too because you tend to forget about yourself a lot of the time and have a lesser quality of life because your too busy looking out for other people.

I personally think i have a good balance between the two. I help whenever i can but i wont let other problems interfere too much with my own wellbeing.

I too think I’m a blend of both character traits. I think sometimes my ability to define and adhere to boundaries portrays me as selfish. I have no problem with delegating, and I have no qualms with saying no, which people sometimes can’t deal with.

both.. it depends. sometimes i feel a bit slefish and sometimes the complete oposite.