Alter Versus Ego: An Exploratory Assessment of Altruism

of individual performances may undermine or fail to maintain the system. These larger consequences of individual role bargains can be traced out, but they figure only rarely in the individual role decision. With respect to its utility in empirical research, this conception permits a more adequate delineation of social structures by focussing on their more observable elements, the role transactions. This permits such questions as: Would you increase the time and energy you now give to role relationship X? Or, granted that these are the ideal obligations of this relationship, how little can you get away with performing? Or, by probing the decision, it is possible to ascertain why the individual has moved from one role transaction to another, or from one role organization to another. Finally, this conception is especially useful in tracing out the articulation between one institution or organization and another, by following the sequence of an individual's role performance and their effects on the role performances of other individuals with relation to different institutional orders.