Dr. Tajuddeen A. Williams

Analysis of Helping Behaviors

· Personal Essays

In 2011, on May 22, there was a tornado outbreak in Joplin, Missouri. Entire homes were destroyed; families were displaced. There were at least 162 people who were killed. With peak winds at over 200 miles per hour, it is listed as one of the most catastrophic events to hit the area. The Joplin tornado affected more than 17,000 people overall. It has taken more than two years for the town to rebuild.

There was a huge outpouring of charity when the town was struck by this catastrophe. Many people and organizations came to help the town rebuild. Several thousand volunteers made their way to Joplin to let the people know that they are not alone and that they were there to help them rebuild. They showed and amazing amount of empathy. Money poured in from all over the nation. Materials were also donated as in the case with Chef Robert Irvine from The Food Network. After seeing the devastation, he wanted to help out in any way he could. He was able to do so by not only cooking and preparing food for the people, but with the help of other celebrity chefs and in conjunction with the American Red Cross, he was able to renovate the Boys and Girls Club of Southwest Missouri which is located in Joplin (Woodin, 2012).

Despite the widespread volunteerism and donating of money, not everyone felt that need to help. The Westboro Baptist Church, one of the most hated organizations in America, felt the need to protest in Joplin, Mo on the one-year anniversary of the tornado (ABC News Radio, 2011). On the organization’s website, they made an update that reflected that they were “thanking God” for the 125 dead in Joplin. This is a group that is notorious for protesting dead soldiers’ funerals. They claim that all of the bad things that are happening is a result of the acceptance of gay and lesbian people.

Robert Irvine is a good example of “helping those who deserve help”. Here we had a community of people whose lives were turned upside down. Children were missing their parents, other families had been displaced, most of everything that people had were destroyed. This is part of attribution theory. “We are more likely to help someone if we believe the cause of the problem is outside the person’s control (Taylor, Peplau, & Sears, 2006).” As something that is listed as an “act of God”, this is a good example of something that was outside of the control of the people involved.

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