What Accounts for Prosocial Behavior? Roles of Moral Identity, Moral Judgment, and Self-Efficacy Beliefs

Based on Eisenberg et al.'s model of prosocial motivations, the present study examined what motivates preschoolers to display instrumental helping and how various motivations develop during the preschool years. The participants were 477 preschoolers aged 3–5 years assigned to one of five groups. In each experimental group, the experimenter emphasized an altruistic or egoistic helping motivation, namely, empathic concern, moral rules, praise or rewards. In the control group, no helping motivations were emphasized. Their instrumental helping was then measured by sorting cards for a sick child to play a game. The results show that each helping motivation had a positive effect on instrumental helping. Most of the motivational effects were similar across age, but the motivational effect of empathic concern increased obviously at the age of 5 years. Therefore, the present study reveals that both altruistic and egoistic motivations motivate preschoolers to help others. Most of the motivations develop steadily during the preschool years, but empathic concern as an altruistic motivation increases greatly at the end of the preschool years. The present study thus confirms the diversity of preschoolers' helping motivations with Eisenberg et al.'s model of prosocial motivations.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preschoolers' Helping Motivations: Altruistic, Egoistic or Diverse?

Hao

Dong

2021

“…MI can positively predict charitable behavior (Hardy et al, 2015) and ethical behavior toward organizations (Hertz and Krettenauer, 2016). MI is more strongly predictive of PB than moral judgment, suggesting that MI can bridge the moral judge-action gap (Patrick et al, 2018).…”

Section: Personality and Opbmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging Personality and Online Prosocial Behavior: The Roles of Empathy, Moral Identity, and Social Self-Efficacy

Leng

Guo

et al. 2020

Personality has been considered as important influential factors of prosocial behavior (PB). This study aims to investigate whether the personality-PB association revealed in the real world is applicable to cyberspace. Researchers further considered moral identity (MI), empathy, and social self-efficacy as mediators accounting for the association of personality and online prosocial behavior (OPB). Self-reported measures were administrated to 1398 participants from eastern China. Results showed (1) extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness were positively related to OPB, while neuroticism was negatively related to OPB; (2) perspective taking could serve as a mediator between all big five traits and OPB, social self-efficacy did the same job unless the predictor was agreeableness. Empathic concern and MI were less important mediators partly because OPB involves no face-to-face interaction. These findings show that personality has a significant effect on OPB through its influence on moral development.

“…Other studies focus on cognitive aspects such as intelligence (Guo et al, 2019). Studies that examine multiple predictors do so in a manner that compares the relative contribution of separate mechanisms (e.g., Patrick et al, 2018) or by amalgamating a number of singular, global predictors (e.g., identity and empathy mediation between intelligence and behavior; Guo et al, 2019), rather than providing a wholesome and accommodating approach. Amalgamation introduces issues of decreased explanatory power (Batson, 1998).…”

Section: Prosocial Behavior At Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prosocial Behavior at Work Through the Lens of Character Strengths

Freidlin

Littman-Ovadia

2020

Character strengths (CSs) are positive traits that have been shown to efficiently and effectively promote a host of positive outcomes, outside and inside the workplace. Despite their theoretical moral basis, they have not been systematically and wholly explored as antecedents of, and correspondingly unused as, mechanisms to increase prosocial behavior (PB) at work. Prosocial behavior at the workplace is desirable, with research pointing to a host of organizational benefits. The utilization of CSs toward PB at work seems like a missed opportunity, given that CSs have been demonstrated as robust positive mechanisms and given that they are characterized by qualities that are accommodating of the complexity of PB: distinct, value-laden, manifest behaviorally, cognitively and emotionally, are plural and sensitive to individual differences and are capable of balancing positive and negative outcomes. The current article will encourage further understanding, examination and implementation of CSs at the workplace, specifically for prosocial purposes, by exploring their conceptual fit and by reviewing initial empirical evidence.