Tirth Bhatta (Sociology), Nirmala Lekhak (Nursing), and their colleagues developed a brief, reliable, and valid altruism scale that is useful for assessing this important prosocial orientation and resource among older adults and other age groups. Despite growing interest in the health significance of altruistic orientations, surprisingly little attention has been given to developing valid and reliable measures of this construct that are suitable for use among older adults and other age groups. We argue that the availability of a brief altruism scale with strong psychometric properties can be useful for planning programs and policies that utilize older adults’ potential for making contributions to society. Recognizing older adults’ generosity of spirit and desire to help others also can counteract ageist attitudes. Measurement of altruism represents an important area of inquiry in the social sciences, given its association with human cooperation, helping others, and engagement in prosocial interactions.
