Prosocial activity of future teachers

Introduction. The leading trend in educational work with students of pedagogical specialties is training the graduates who are ready to carry out the projects focused on the benefit of another person and society as a whole. The aim of the study is to identify the dominant prosocial tendencies, individual propensity for altruistic behavior, types of prosocial behavior that reflect the tendency to provide assistance depending on the nature of the situation, as well as to identify the involvement of students – future teachers in prosocial activity.Materials and Methods. The study included the students of the specialty of Education and pedagogical Sciences (n=222 people). In the study of attitudes to prosocial behavior, an online survey was used. The methods used were the method of assessing the level of prosociality on the altruism scale (SRA), a modification of the portrait value questionnaire (PVQ) by Sh.Schwartz, the method "Measuring prosocial tendencies" (G. Carlo and B. A. Randall, 2002). The study also used the method of focus groups aimed at studying the opinions of prosocial actors-volunteers of the St. Petersburg State Institute of Psychology and Social Work, Ivanovo State University and the Mordovian State Pedagogical University named after M. E. Evseviev (n=28 people). The obtained empirical data were interpreted and processed using qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis, including the analysis of percentages, the Kruskal-Wallace test, the Friedman test, and the Pearson correlation analysis. The calculations were made on the basis of the statistical software package SPPS 22.Results. The dominant altruistic tendency of future teachers is to help a friend, the dominant valueis care, and the dominant type is emergency prosocial behavior, which acts as a kind of response to a situation in which help is required. The motives and barriers of prosocial activity of young people are summarized, and the possibilities of universities to support voluntary initiatives are evaluated.Discussion and Conclusions. The results of the research can be used in the development and implementation of programs aimed at the formation of prosocial activity of future teachers, as well as in the implementation of educational work with students.

History of Sexual Assault Perpetration and Violence-Related Prosocial Tendencies Among Men by Fraternity Affiliation Status

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine self-reported sexual assault perpetration history, as well as violence prevention-related prosocial tendencies, among fraternity men, unaffiliated men with membership intentions, and unaffiliated men without membership intentions with data from 262,634 college men in the United States. Results indicate that fraternity status was related to sexual assault perpetration, both prior to and while at their current institution of higher education; both perpetration history and fraternity status significantly related to diminished violence prevention-related prosocial tendencies. The findings have important implications for future research and practice to reduce the incidents of sexual assault on college campuses.

Observation of rescue behaviour in wild boar (Sus scrofa)

Here, we provide unique photo documentation and observational evidence of rescue behaviour described for the first time in wild boar. Rescue behaviour represents an extreme form of prosocial behaviour that has so far only been demonstrated in a few species. It refers to a situation when one individual acts to help another individual that finds itself in a dangerous or stressful situation and it is considered by some authors as a complex form of empathy. We documented a case in which an adult female wild boar manipulated wooden logs securing the door mechanism of a cage trap and released two entrapped young wild boars. The whole rescue was fast and particular behaviours were complex and precisely targeted, suggesting profound prosocial tendencies and exceptional problem-solving capacities in wild boar. The rescue behaviour might have been motivated by empathy because the rescuer female exhibited piloerection, a sign of distress, indicating an empathetic emotional state matching or understanding the victims. We discuss this rescue behaviour in the light of possible underlying motivators, including empathy, learning and social facilitation.

Hubungan antara Empati dengan Tingkah laku Prososial dalam kalangan Pelajar Kejuruteraan Universiti

Prosocial behavior is any form of act or activity that is intended to help or give another person the benefit without expecting any reward. One of the factors that can contribute to prosocial behavior is empathy. This study was conducted to identify the relationship between empathy and university students’ prosocial behaviors at one of the schools of engineering. A total of 94 fourth-year engineering students were selected by employing a simple random sampling method in this study. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), and the Prosocial Tendencies Measure (PTM) questionnaires were used to measure empathy and prosocial behavior. The study used descriptive statistical analysis through scores, mean and frequency to measure the level of empathy and prosocial behavior, while inferential statistics used t-test to measure differences in prosocial behavior by gender, and Pearson's correlation to identify the relationship between empathy and prosocial behavior. The findings of the study show that the levels of empathy and prosocial behavior of the respondents are moderate. There was no significant difference of prosocial behavior based on gender. Correlation analysis revealed that there was a relationship between empathy and prosocial behavior. All the dimensions of empathy which are “fantasy”, “perspective-taking”, “empathic concern” and “personal distress” have significant positive relationships with prosocial behavior.

Individual Goffin´s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) show flexible targeted helping in a tool transfer task

Flexible targeted helping is considered an advanced form of prosocial behavior in hominoids, as it requires the actor to assess different situations that a conspecific may be in, and to subsequently flexibly satisfy different needs of that partner depending on the nature of those situations. So far, apart from humans such behaviour has only been experimentally shown in chimpanzees and in Eurasian jays. Recent studies highlight the prosocial tendencies of several bird species, yet flexible targeted helping remained untested, largely due to methodological issues as such tasks are generally designed around tool-use, and very few bird species are capable of tool-use. Here, we tested Goffin’s cockatoos, which proved to be skilled tool innovators in captivity, in a tool transfer task in which an actor had access to four different objects/tools and a partner to one of two different apparatuses that each required one of these tools to retrieve a reward. As expected from this species, we recorded playful object transfers across all conditions. Yet, importantly and similar to apes, three out of eight birds transferred the correct tool more often in the test condition than in a condition that also featured an apparatus but no partner. Furthermore, one of these birds transferred that correct tool first more often before transferring any other object in the test condition than in the no-partner condition, while the other two cockatoos were marginally non-significantly more likely to do so. Additionally, there was no difference in the likelihood of the correct tool being transferred first for either of the two apparatuses, suggesting that these birds flexibly adjusted what to transfer based on their partner´s need. Future studies should focus on explanations for the intra-specific variation of this behaviour, and should test other parrots and other large-brained birds to see how this can be generalized across the class and to investigate the evolutionary history of this trait.

Relative Deprivation and Prosocial Tendencies in Chinese Migrant Children: Testing an Integrated Model of Perceived Social Support and Group Identity

As a particularly vulnerable group, children from rural areas in China whose families migrate to urban areas often encounter social exclusion, prejudice, and discrimination as they adjust to city life. Hence, migrant children may experience a sense of relative deprivation when they feel they are treated unjustly when compared to their urban counterparts. Although previous research has demonstrated that relative deprivation is a risk factor for prosocial tendencies, this association has not yet been examined in the population of migrant children in China. Further, few studies have revealed the mediating and moderating mechanisms between relative deprivation and prosocial tendencies. Therefore, this study constructed an integrated model examining the possible mediating role of perceived social support and moderating role of in-group identity on the association between relative deprivation and prosocial tendencies. A large sample of 1,630 Chinese rural-to-urban migrant children (845 girls; Mage = 12.30, SD = 1.74) completed a battery of self-report questionnaires regarding relative deprivation, prosocial tendencies, perceived social support, in-group identity, and demographic variables. The results indicated that relative deprivation was negatively correlated with migrant children's prosocial tendencies and this connection was partially mediated by perceived social support. Moderated mediation analysis further indicated that in-group identity moderated the effect of perceived social support on prosocial tendencies, with a high level of in-group identity strengthening the positive association between perceived social support and prosocial tendencies. Parents, educators, and other members of society concerned about migrant children's psychosocial adaptation should provide adequate social support resources and help them foster positive in-group identity to migrant populations to mitigate the adverse effects of relative deprivation and promote their prosocial tendencies.

Carrion Crows and Azure-Winged Magpies Show No Prosocial Tendencies When Tested in a Token Transfer Paradigm

To study the evolution of humans’ cooperative nature, researchers have recently sought comparisons with other species. Studies investigating corvids, for example, showed that carrion crows and azure-winged magpies delivered food to group members when tested in naturalistic or simple experimental paradigms. Here, we investigated whether we could replicate these positive findings when testing the same two species in a token transfer paradigm. After training the birds to exchange tokens with an experimenter for food rewards, we tested whether they would also transfer tokens to other birds, when they did not have the opportunity to exchange the tokens themselves. To control for the effects of motivation, and of social or stimulus enhancement, we tested each individual in three additional control conditions. We witnessed very few attempts and/or successful token transfers, and those few instances did not occur more frequently in the test condition than in the controls, which would suggest that the birds lack prosocial tendencies. Alternatively, we propose that this absence of prosociality may stem from the artificial nature and cognitive complexity of the token transfer task. Consequently, our findings highlight the strong impact of methodology on animals’ capability to exhibit prosocial tendencies and stress the importance of comparing multiple experimental paradigms.

Prosocial tendencies and subjective well-being: The mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction

We linked self-determination theory and prosociality, and explored the mediating role of three dimensions of basic psychological needs satisfaction, namely, competence, autonomy, and relatedness, in the relationship between prosocial tendencies and subjective well-being. We explored these relationships using a cross-sectional research design with 1,106 Chinese adults. Results show that the public prosocial tendencies of men (vs. women) were higher, and competence, autonomy, and relatedness mediated the positive relationship between prosocial tendencies and subjective well-being. The indirect effect of relatedness was stronger than those of competence and autonomy, demonstrating the importance of relatedness in a collectivistic society like China. Our findings deepen understanding of the underlying mechanisms between prosociality and subjective well-being as mediated by basic psychological needs satisfaction, and may encourage people to engage in prosocial behavior.