Quixoteism: the motive whose ultimate goal is to increase the welfare of the world.

The professor Dr. Luis Oceja (right) and the Dr. Sergio Salgado (left) study the antecedents and consequences of Quixoteism

In this line of research is proposed the existence of an inedit kind of social motive that has been called “Quixoteism”. The proposal of this motive is part of a stream of Social Psychology research that is concerned with the study of the antecedents that contribute to the explanation of prosocial behavior and its promotion.

The Quixoteism characterization addresses three aspects: (a) the definition of his ultimate goal : improving the welfare of the world, (b) the proposal for a process that facilitates its activation: the presence of the transcendent change orientation, and (c ) obtaining empirical evidence to verify this characterization.

To date, the study of Quixoteism has promoted the development of a doctoral thesis (Salgado, 2009) and several presentations at international conferences (Oceja & Salgado, 2006, Oceja, Salgado & Caballero, 2007, Salgado & Oceja, 2008; Salgado, Oceja & Stocks, 2009). Work is currently in the generation of new research and developing articles that allow us to share the work done in specialized journals.

Oceja, L. & Salgado S. (2008). Quixoteism: A Social Motive that Leads to Perform a Heroic Behavior. 9th Annual Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). Albuquerque, Nuevo México, USA.

Oceja, L., Salgado S. & Caballero, A. (2007). Antecedentes y consecuentes de un nuevo motivo social: el Quijotismo. V Simposio de la Asociación de Motivación y Emoción. San Sebastián, España.

Salgado, S. (2009). Caracterización teórica y comprobación experimental de un nuevo motivo social: el Quijotismo. Tesis Doctoral. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Salgado, S., Oceja, L., & Stocks, E. (2009). Testing the link between the motive of Quixoteism and heroic behaviour. 10th Annual Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Conference, Tampa, USA.