Pro-social Development

Question 1

• Prosocial behaviour definition

Answer 1

o Action that benefits other people

Question 2

• Altruism definition

Answer 2

o More restricted
o Usually reserved for prosocial action that occurs at a net cost to the actor

Question 3

• Social cognitive theory of prosocial development

Answer 3

 Expectations of others, self-reactions linked to personal standards, self-efficacy beliefs for behaving pro-socially

Question 4

• Cognitive-developmental theory of prosocial behaviour - 3 stages

Answer 4

o under 7 years
 children are likely to share when it leads to a desired external outcome
o Primary school
 More likely to be motivated by the welfare of others than their own welfare
o Adolescence
 Universal principles of moral fairness “do unto…”

Question 5

• Parental warmth and altruism

Answer 5

o Loving parents help reduce children’s preoccupations with their own needs; used non contingently can create an atmosphere of self-indulgence which impedes consideration for others
o Age appropriate demands promote social competence
o Parents need to state forcefully to toddlers that socially responsible behaviour is required
o Prescriptive rather than post-scriptive approach
o Need to firmly enforce directives related to prosocial behaviour – to establish the standard

Question 6

• Inductive reasoning, particularly victim-centred reasoning promotes pro-socialness

Answer 6

o It encourages children to imagine themselves in the other person’s place and experience the other’s feelings and thoughts; fosters respect for the rule: suggest how children can make up for wrongdoing; helps children read distress cues in others in others
o Needs to be expressed with indignation
o Strengthen altruistic tendencies, especially for young children, by acknowledging their behaviour and making person attributions

Question 7

• Two possible aspects of parenting to empathy development – parental warmth and parental positive expressiveness - Zhou et al 2002

Answer 7

o 1. Parental warmth – parental warmth/responsivity reflects parents’ tendencies to provide support, affection, sensitivity to the child’s needs, express approval and direct positive emotion towards the child
o 2, parental positive expressiveness – “a persistent pattern or style in exhibiting nonverbal and verbal expressions that often but not always appear to be emotion-related” – boys are encouraged less than girls to be expressive

Question 8

• Although girls more ____, greater expressivity, higher in ____ ____ and lower in ____ ____ than boys – the linkage between parenting variables and children’s (both boys and girls) empathy involved the same psychological variables

Answer 8

o Empathic, social competence, externalising behaviour

Question 9

• Parent-driven model fits the data well” mothers’ positive expressivity mediated the relation between ____ ____ and ____ ____ – supports the notion that a family environment that satisfies children’s own emotional needs and thereby minimises self-concern and foster empathy

Answer 9

o Positive expressivity, parental warmth, children’s empathy

Question 10

• Evidence for a bi-directional relationship between ____ and ____ ____.

Answer 10

o Parenting, prosocial behaviours
o That is, early prosocial behaviours promote maternal warmth

Question 11

• Socialisation influences

Answer 11

o Modelling
o Necessary to overcome the bystander effect.

Question 12

• Moral reasoning and Altruism - In response to party-broken leg vignette

Answer 12

o Younger children are more hedonistic (“I like birthday cake, so Mary should go to the party”; stereotyped (“It’s nice to help”) and sometimes focus on the recipients needs’ (“Mary should help because the girl’s leg hurts)
o For older children the reasons are more needs oriented and general (“If everyone helps, we would all be better off”)
o Needs-oriented reasoning relates to more prosocial conduct – possible through the link with empathy

Question 13

• Reasons related to prosocial behaviour

Answer 13

o Wenzelm Filisetti & Looney (2007) showed that internal reasons for behaving pro-socially were predicted by empathy and perspective taking
o Perceived expectations of teachers were related to internal reasons as well as those based on threats of punishment. Peer expectations related to internal, self-focused, and other focused reasons

Question 14

• Pro-socialness and Aggression - Caprara et al (2000)

Answer 14

 Evidence that pro-socialness may protect against aggressive development
 The important counterintuitive finding to emerge was that the path to peer acceptance and academic achievement in adolescents was through prosocial behaviour not aggressive behaviour
 Examining the 100 children whose academic achievement scores were available in the third grade showed that later academic achievement was independent of early academic achievement
 Remarkably earlier pro-socialness was the prime predictor of later achievement
 Early prosocial behaviour predicts subsequent academic achievement
 Strong peer preferences for pro-social peers

Question 15

• Development of ____ ____ ____plays an important protective role in the externalising problem behaviours

Answer 15

o Concern for others

Question 16

• A strong send of efficacy to manage negative affect is associated with:

Answer 16

o Low proneness to depression concurrently and distally (directly and mediationally through academic and empathic self-efficacy)
o Concurrent delinquency directly and through academic efficacy, and to distal delinquency through perceived self-efficacy to resist peer pressure for transgressive conduct
o Perceived self-efficacy to manage positive affect only contributes to the three domains through the action-oriented (academic, self-regulatory, and empathic) forms of self-efficacy