A construct divided: prosocial behavior as helping, sharing, and comforting subtypes

Abstract

The development and maintenance of prosocial, other-oriented behaviors has been of considerable recent interest. Though it is clear that prosocial behaviors emerge early and play a uniquely important role in the social lives of humans, there is less consensus regarding the mechanisms that underlie and maintain these fundamental acts. The goal of this paper is to clarify inconsistencies in our understanding of the early emergence and development of prosocial behavior by proposing a taxonomy of prosocial behavior anchored in the social-cognitive constraints that underlie the ability to act on behalf of others. I will argue that within the general domain of prosocial behavior, other-oriented actions can be categorized into three distinct types (helping, sharing, and comforting) that reflect responses to three distinct negative states (instrumental need, unmet material desire, and emotional distress). In support of this proposal, I will demonstrate that the three varieties of prosocial behavior show unique ages of onset, uncorrelated patterns of production, and distinct patterns of individual differences. Importantly, by differentiating specific varieties of prosocial behavior within the general category, we can begin to explain inconsistencies in the past literature and provide a framework for directing future research into the ontogenetic origins of these essential social behaviors.

Parental brain‐derived neurotrophic factor genotype, child prosociality, and their interaction as predictors of parents’ warmth

“…Notably, the correlation between the mother reports and the experimental assessments was relatively low, which implies that two different aspects of prosocial behavior may have been estimated. It has been previously argued that prosocial behavior can be divided into three subtypes that stem from distinct social cognitive abilities: helping, sharing, and comforting (Dunfield, 2014). Additionally, compliant and self‐initiated prosocial acts have also been shown to be distinct aspects of prosocial behavior (Eisenberg, Cameron, & Tryon, 1984).…”

The multidimensional nature of early prosocial behavior: a motivational perspective

“…The first account, here presented as the cue-based account, focuses on the different social-cognitive constraints that are imposed by helping, comforting, and sharing [2]. That is, it is assumed that a general motivation to alleviate the negative state of others drives young children's prosocial actions, but that it requires particular social-cognitive skills to successfully THE PLURALITY OF EARLY PROSOCIALITY 8 do so in the different contexts.…”

“…Whereas earlier research often used composite measures of prosocial behavior that summarized or averaged across a variety of more specific behaviors, recent research has started to emphasize the multidimensional nature of prosocial behavior and to study these different dimensions in greater detail [1]. This emphasis on the heterogeneous forms of early prosocial behaviors has fueled the current debate on the psychological mechanisms subserving prosocial actions in early childhood [2,3,4]. In early childhood research, most of the studies have focused on three specific forms -helping, sharing, and comforting -that will therefore be in the focus of the current article.…”

The fulfillment of others’ needs elevates children’s body posture.

“…Though interesting, it should be noted that the adult experimenter in Aknin, Hamlin, and Dunn (2012) prompted children to share with the recipient (see also Brownell et al, 2009). The respective motivation of such solicited helping may be different from spontaneous helping behavior (Dunfield et al, 2011;Dunfield, 2014;Knafo, Israel, & Ebstein, 2011; see also Hepach, Vaish, & Tomasello, 2013). Therefore the question remains whether children's spontaneous helping behavior is accompanied by a positive emotion providing a sort of affective reward for helping.…”