Prosocial Behaviour

• prosocial behaviour;

  is any behaviour of benefit to someone else - it includes actions that are cooperative, affectionate or helpful to others. such behaviour may or may not be costly to the person engaging in such behaviour - it is often as beneficial to that person as to the person being assisted
• altruism;

  is an especially important type of prosocial behaviour. it is based on a desire to help someone else rather than on possible rewards for the person doing the rewarding.

  it is assumed that altruism depends on empathy - the ability to share another's emotions and understand their point of view
• do young children exhibit prosocial behaviour?


  Freud and Piaget; children's tendency to engage in antisocial rather than prosocial behaviour.

  Schaffer (1996) "the child emerged from these accounts as a selfish, self-centred, aggressive, and uncooperative being, with little ... understanding of anyone else's needs"
• Zahn-Waxler et al (1992) found children between 13-20 months showed empathic concern on 10% of occasions when someone was in distress (not caused by the child). this doubled among children of 23-25 months.
• Zahn-Waxler also found young children engaged in prosocial behaviour in response to someone's distress. (marked increased with age in response to distress NOT caused by the child)
• Svetlova et al (2010): studied 3 kinds of prosocial behaviour in 18-30 months.

  1. instrumental helping: assisting someone to achieve an action based goal e.g. finding a toy
  2. empathic helping: showing concern about another person
  3. altruistic helping: giving up an objects owned by the child.
• Svetlova cont.: children showed more instrumental helping, less empathic helping and little altruistic helping - altruistic helping was rarely costly and mostly produced in response to an adult's direct request rather than spontaneous
• Carpendale et al (2015): much "helping" behaviour in young children is not based on cooperation and altruism. instead it indicates an interest in participating in the activity of others.
• Daniel et al (2016): children between 18-54 months found that their mother's warmth and the father's warmth were both associated with increased prosocial behaviour by their offspring.
• Knafo et al (2011): 45% of individual differences in prosocial behaviour in young twins were due to genetic factors.
• in young children, 24-36 months, 25% of individual differences in empathy depended on genetic factors. the amount of prosocial behaviour shown by children depended on part of their empathy level.
• stages in the development of empathy by Hoffman.

  
• evolutionary perspective; high motivation to keep their genes alive (a conscious and unconscious want)

  1. inclusive fitness - organisms' need to reproduce to keep their genes going
  2. kin selection - organisms are selected to favour their own offspring and other genetically related people.
• evolutionary perspective cont.:

  
• Tomasello et al (2012): interdependence hypothesis - altruistic behaviour developed when our ancestors discovered the benefits of mutualistic collaboration (cooperation between people mutually beneficial).
• research shows the importance of genetic relatedness or kinship, especially in life-and-death situations
• Fellner and Marshall (1981) found 86% of people were willing to be a kidney donor for their children, 67% for their parents, and 50% for a sibling
• Hackman et al (2015) emotional closeness and genetic relatedness.

  as predicted; the amount sacrificed was greater for biological kin than friends when the effects of emotional closeness were removed

  
• Fehr and Fischbacher (2003) the role played by individuals' desire to have a reputation for altruism. participants decided whether to help another person who could not reciprocate that help - help was provided by 74% of those who would gain a reputation for altruism.
• Roos et al (2014) third-party punishment is most effective in groups characterised by strong social ties (individuals who interact frequently) and low mobility (individuals cannot easily switch groups)
• Roos et al (2014) cont.: recipients of third-party punishment have the strongest motive to cooperate with other members of their group and to behave altruistically. he discussed support for their argument with different groups.
• empathy-altruism hypothesis and negative-state relief model;

  people also behave altruistically towards non-relatives = reciprocal altruism "ill scratch your back if you scratch mine"

  Trivers (1971) argued reciprocal altruism is most likely to be found in two conditions;

  1. costs of helping are low and benefits are high
  2. can identify those who cheat by receiving help but not helping in return
• empathy-altruism cont.: many individuals behave altruistically even when those they help are unlikely to reciprocate.

  Fehr and Fischbacher (2003): it allows those individuals to gain a reputation for behaving altruistically - this increases the changes they will be assisted by others in the future.
• empathy-altruism cont.:

  
• Empathy-altruism hypothesis (Batson):

  
• Negative state relief model (Cialdini)

  
• societal norms: involve treating others fairly e.g. distribution norm (goods should be distributed equally).

  Third-party punishment e.g. (this reduces selfishness and increase cooperation)

  
• competition and personal success found in individualistic cultures reduces cooperation and altruism e.g. USA.
• collectivistic cultures e.g. Kenya, on the group's needs rather than the individual's means children are often given major family responsibilities that develop altruistic behaviour
• Fijneman et al (1996): living in collectivistic cultures expect more help from others than those living in individualistic cultures. both kinds of cultures are similar in that individuals anticipate giving only a little more help than they expect to receive.
• how to encourage children to be more prosocial;

  • television; Valkenburg et al (2016) limitations; children who are already prosocial are more likely to watch prosocial tv. the affects of prosocial tv are short-term (rather weak or even non-existent), Sagotsky et al, 1981
• how to encourage children to be more prosocial cont.:

  video games; Greitemeyer and Mugge (2014) playing prosocial video games increased prosocial emotions, cognitions and behaviour and also reduced aggressive behaviour. effects were reasonably consistent although relatively small in size.
• studies show an association between playing prosocial games and prosocial behaviour.

  Valkenburg et al (2016); playing prosocial games enhances prosocial behaviour to that exhibiting prosocial behaviour leads to increased game playing
• parental influence; parents are easily the most important adults in children's lives.

  Schaffer (1996): several types of parental behaviour are of special value in teaching children to be prosocial and altruistic
• parental influence cont.:

  • provisions of clear and explicit guidelines: e.g. you must not hit others it will hurt them
  • emotional convictions: guidelines to children should be given in a fairly emotional way
  • parental modeling: parents should behave altruistically towards their children
  • empathic and warm parenting: parents should have a good understanding of their children's needs and emotions
• parental influence - provisions of clear and explicit guidelines

  Krevans and Gibbs (1996): children exhibited more prosocial behaviour when their mothers repeatedly told them to consider the effects of their behaviour on others
• parental influence - emotional convictions

  children showed altruistic behaviour twice as often when their mother frequently used emotional explanations
• parental influence - parental modeling

  Burleseon and Kunkel (2002): mothers' comforting skills predicted their children's emotional support skills
• parental influence - empathic and warm parenting

  Robinson et al (1994): children having a warm and loving relationship with their parents were most likely to show prosocial behaviour
• genetic importance;

  Knafo-Noam et al (2015): did a twin study and discovered 69% of individual difference in children's prosociality were due to genetic factors.