Showing papers on "Prosocial behavior published in 1978"

Comparison of Three Models for Predicting Altruistic Behavior.

Abstract: This study compared three models for predicting altruistic behavior. Blood donations were examined as a function of intention (Fishbein's model), moral norms and ascription of responsibilit y (Schwartz's model), and attitudes and self-monitoring (Snyder's model). Donating behavior was shown to be predicted best as a function of intentions and attitudes (R — .49), while intentions were best described as a function of attitudes, social norms, and moral norms (R — .55). These results supported Fishbein's.model, with the qualification of adding a direct attitude-behavior link. Only qualified support was found for Schwartz's model, and no support was found for Snyder's model. Comparison of the present results with those of several prior studies suggests that the specific combination of variables that best predicts altruistic behavior depends on the particular conditions under which predictions are formed, notably the time interval separating measurement of the person's beliefs and observation of his/her behavior. As social psychology has expanded the breadth and depth of its investigation, so has the number of alternative conceptualizations used to explain the same phenomena expanded. Where once only a small amount of research and perhaps a single theory were available, now large quantities of research and multiple theories exist. While many of these different theories are elaborations or restatements of previous concepts, many are also sufficiently different to invite comparison and integration. Resolutions of this sort are one of the important tasks in advancing our knowledge and in suggesting new directions in which to proceed. This study was designed with such a purpose for one particular area: evaluating the relative utility of three models in the prediction of one form of helping behavior, namely, donating blood. Specifically, we focused on the theoretical

The Case for Teaching Social Skills in the Classroom: A Review

Abstract: Schools traditionally have viewed the process of equipping students with the necessary academic skills, i.e., reading, writing and arithmetic, as being their primary, and in some cases, sole function. Although considered to be a major socializing institution, and as such the purveyor of not only academic skills but social behaviors and attitudes as well, schools have historically placed little emphasis upon formal social skill instruction. It appears, however, that the development of certain prerequisite social skills may be crucial to the academic instructional experience as well as the overall school success of the individual student. The concept of \"social skill\" has been defined by Libet and Lewinsohn (1973) as the ability to emit behaviors that are positively or negatively reinforced and not to emit behaviors that are punished or extinguished by others. Taking a similar position, MacDonald and Cohen (Note 1) describe a social skills training program as requiring participants to: \"(1) perform those behaviors evaluated as prosocial, (2) refrain from performing those behaviors not evaluated as prosocial, and (3) reinforce

Empathy and Moral Development in Adolescence

Abstract: The relationship between empathy and two measures of moral development (prosocial moral reasoning and helping) and parental socialization practices was examined using a sample of 72 ninth, eleventh, and twelfth graders. Empathy was significantly related to moral reasoning for both sexes and to helping for males. Maternal child-rearing practices were related to sons' empathy; mothers of highly empathic boys were nonpunitive, nonrestrictive, egalitarian, encouraged their offspring to discuss their problems, and set high standards for their sons. Females' empathy was not associated with parental socialization practices, perhaps due to a ceiling effect. While the relationship between children's cognitive role-taking abilities (understanding the perspectives of others) and level of moral development has been well established, the role of affective role taking or empathy (matching one's own feelings with the corresponding feelings of someone else) is less clear. Yet it is entirely reasonable to hypothesize that affective role-taking ability is a significant antecedent of helping behavior and of level of moral judgment. Data bearing on the problem are limited and not entirely consistent, however; some investigators have found positive relationships between measures of empathy and helping among adults (Mehrabian & Epstein, 1972), but children's empathy has not been consistently related to either moral judgment or generosity (Fay, 1970).

Psychological and Biological Perspectives on Altruism

Abstract: This paper presents the case for viewing altruism as an inherent part of human nature. The argument is first made that 'inclusive fitness', the key concept in modern evolutionary biology, dictates that (a) humans are programmed not only to be egoistic but also, under certain conditions, to help another at cost to themselves; and (b) what was selected was not altruistic action but mediators of action, because this provided the necessary flexibility. Psychological evidence is then presented that complements this view. Thus (a) there appears to a general human tendency to help others in distress, which has properties analagous to egoistic motivation and yet comes into play independently of egoistic motivation; and (b) the evolutionary requirements for a mediating mechanism appear to be met by empathy, e.g., it is reliably aroused in humans in response to misfortune in others, it predisposes the individual toward helping action and yet is amenable to perceptual and cognitive control, and its physiological bas...

Intrinsic Rewards in School Crime

Abstract: The systemic structure of a school provides opportunities for both prosocial and antisocial behavior. Actions in a school may be motivated by (1) the extrinsic mechanisms of discipline and grades, (2) the means-end relationship of school behavior to students’ long-term goals, and (3) the immediate intrinsic satisfactions obtainable in different activities. This chapter treats the third type, intrinsic motivation. Using previous research, the authors propose that the state of enjoyment occurs when a person is challenged at a level matched to his level of skills. According to the model, the experience of meetable challenges requires the perception of a constrained set of possible actions, clearly defined goals, and opportunities for unambiguous feedback. The system of rules in a formal game provides these prerequisites. The systemic structure of a school can also provide the conditions of enjoyable involvement. Ideally, learning should involve systemic involvement in sequences of challenges internalized by students. However, evidence indicates that such involvement is rare and is often subverted by the school itself. Without such opportunities, antisocial behavior provides an alternate framework of challenges for bored students. Disruption of classes, vandalism, and violence in schools are, in part, attempts by adolescents to obtain enjoyment in otherwise lifeless schools. Restructuring education in terms of intrinsic motivation would not only reduce school crime but would also accomplish the goal of teaching youths how to enjoy life constructively.

Toward a Theory of Empathic Arousal and Development

Abstract: Empathy has long been a topic of interest in psychology, but its nature and development have not been systematically treated I have for some time been working on a comprehensive theoretical model for empathy, and in this paper, I present the most recent version of this model

Psychology: From Research to Practice

Abstract: Section I Developmental and Educational Practice.- Assessment of Sensory and Behavioral Functions in Infancy.- Growing Up Social.- Memory Strategies in Learning: Training Children to Study Strategically.- Televised Aggression and Prosocial Behavior.- Application of Basic Research in Reading.- Section II Psychological Practice and Social Problems.- Attitude Change.- Decision Counseling: Theory, Research, and Perspectives for a New Professional Role.- Uses and Abuses of the Polygraph.- Section III Clinical Applications of Basic Research.- Introduction-Health Care: Good Intentions Are Not Enough.- The Consequences of Prematurity: Understanding and Therapy.- Early Visual Experience in Humans: Evidence for a Critical Period in the Development of Binocular Vision.- The Production and Perception of Speech by a Misarticulating Child.- Clinical Applications of Biofeedback: Current Status and Future Prospects.- Section IV Application of Psychophysics and Human Performance Information.- Maneuvering the Mammoth.- Applications of Signal Detection Theory.- Subjective Effort in Relation to Physical Performance and Working Capacity.- A Psychophysical Contribution to Air Safety: Simulator Studies of Visual Illusions in Night Visual Approaches.

Instigation of Attribution Processes by Attributional Questions

Abstract: Subjects received help from a confederate that either was or was not situationally facilitated. Half of the subjects then rated the confederate's prosocial dispositional qualities, while the other half did not. Subsequent ratings of the confed- erate revealed attributional mediation of perceived attractive- ness only for subjects who had been asked attribution questions.

The Role of Example and Moral Exhortation in the Training of Altruism.

Abstract: GRUSEC, JOAN E.; SAAS-KORTSAAK, PETER; and SIMUTIS, ZITA M. The Role of Example and Moral Exhortation in the Training of Altruism. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 920-923. Children saw an adult who modeled donation behavior and/or who preached either about the importance of sharing or about the importance of helping others. Example prompted more donations than did exhortation, although the latter was somewhat effective. Fewer children who had been exposed to only preaching or only example helped the experimenter pick up dropped objects than did children who had received no treatment at all. Boys who had been exhorted to share shared more pencils with fellow students than boys who had been exhorted to help. 3 weeks later the amount of donation was the same in all treatment conditions. Finally, more children who had been exhorted to help others collected craft materials for sick children than did children who had received no treatment.

The Environmentally Concerned Citizen: Some Correlates

Abstract: The present research is concerned with exploring individual environmental responsibility from the operational or deepened marketing perspective of private and public strategic decision-making. The theoretical foundation underlying the research design in this investigation is social responsibility (altruism, prosocial behavior, aiding, or helping) theory. More specifically, the relationship between the social responsibility correlates of internal-external control, social responsibility, social class, age, and income and multiple attitudinal and behavioral measures of environmental responsibility is examined. Differences between Sierra Club and/or Audubon Society subjects and general population on attitudinal and behavioral measures of environmental responsibility were found to be significant and in the predicted direction.

Training aggressive adolescents in prosocial behavior.

Abstract: The initial outcomes and current directions of a research and treatment program focusing upon Structured Learning Therapy (SLT) are the concerns of this paper. SLT is a psychoeducational approach used successfully in the past with psychiatric and other clients and is now designed to teach prosocial behaviors to aggressive adolescents. Evaluations of such training efforts to date have been largely positive. However, still more favorable skill development outcomes should follow from differential implementation of SLT in which trainee-trainer-treatment matches are prescriptively arrived at and in which major attention is devoted to transfer of training techniques designed to maximize real-life utilization of training gains. The present article describes SLT and its usage with aggressive adolescents, and details guidelines by which prescriptiveness and transfer enhancement may be implemented.

Experiencing Social Psychology: Readings and Projects

Abstract: 1. Research and Ethics in Social Psychology. 2. Attitudes and Behavior. 3. Social Cognition. 4. The Self and Others. 5. Gender Roles. 6. Conformity. 7. Group Processes. 8. The Social and Cultural Environment. 9. Prejudice and Discrimination. 10. Aggression and Violence. 11. Affiliation, Attraction and Love. 12. Altruism and Prosocial Behavior. 13. Applications of Social Psychology.

Behavior Problems in Secondary Schools.

Abstract: VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper by Feldhusen was to examine the issues of adolescent problem behavior in school. Causes for antisocial behavior and school-based prevention programs were included in this review. The focus was on behavior problems resulting from interactions between students and teachers, administrators, and other students. METHODOLOGY: This study was a non-experimental, exploratory review of the literature of antisocial behavior at school of junior high and high school students. The definition of antisocial behavior for this study included, "all forms of antisocial, aggressive, and disruptive behaviors which violate school expectations and which interfere with the orderly conduct of teaching" (p. 17). FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: Several reports from 1977 are used to document the prevalence and the increase of violence in the schools, including the Report of the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency to the Senate Committee (Senator Birch Bayh), the National Institute of Education's Safe School Study Report to the Congress, and a survey by the National School Boards Association. A book published in 1977, The Unruly School, reports major trends in school antisocial behavior: 1) simple misbehaviors have changed to acts of violence against persons and property, 2) antisocial behavior has increased much faster than the high school population, 3) the intensity of violent acts has greatly increased, 4) school administrations are using increasingly legal responses, 5) security guards are being used increasingly, and 6) schools are institutionalizing methods of dealing with the violence. The National Education Association's teacher surveys of 1974 and 1976, along with the Gallup Poll of The Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, showed discipline in the classroom as the major problem facing public schools. The correlates of the behavior problems fall into four categories: "1) psychological and sociological variables; (2) television; (3) political and social influences, and (4) the school itself" (p. 20). According to Jessor and Jessor (1977) the correlates of problem behavior are synonymous with developmental trends of youth: "growth of independence, decline of traditional ideology, increase in relativistic morality, increase in peer orientation, and increase in modeling of problem behavior" (p. 20). A longitudinal study by Lefkowitz, Huesmann, Walder and Eron (1973) reported parental rejection and SES variables the best concurrent predictors for both boys and girls, while SES and TV violence viewing were good long-range predictors for them. For boys alone, IQ and TV violence viewing were good predictors, and for girls, identification with the mother. Another longitudinal study by Feldhusen, Thurston and Benning (1973) found that "aggressive-disruptive youngsters were substantially disadvantaged in terms of the home, family, and parental situation when compared with prosocial youngsters" (p. 20). The study also identified school factors for aggressive-disruptive children: an IQ deficit averaging 9 points, significantly lower reading and math achievement test scores, more tendency to drop out, lower rank at graduation if they stayed, and lower teacher ratings of personality and social skills. The best long-range predictors they identified were the teacher's original assessment of behavior, IQ, reading scores, and father's educational level. Peer and gang influences are briefly reviewed by the author as being significant factors, and the influence of TV viewing is treated in a review by Liebert (1974) on the relationship between TV viewing and aggression. He concluded that "...beyond a reasonable doubt...watching television violence produces antisocial attitudes and behavior..." (p. 22). The influence of the schools themselves is summed up by the author in reviewing several books and studies, which put much of the blame on anticipated or real failure in school. Elliott and Voss (1974) state that "School is the critical generating milieu for delinquent behavior by bringing together in one setting all of the facilitating conditions for adverse behavior" (p. 22). McPartland and McDill (1977) assert that schools promote delinquent behavior by not involving students in the decisions that affect their lives while in school. Both of these studies concluded, however, that family variables were the major cause of delinquent behaviors rather than the school. The author concludes that the causes of high school discipline are many, but that "they derive principally from weakened home and family structure, the heavy dose of crime and violence modeled by TV, school experiences which precipitate a failure-frustration-aggression sequence, and school and societal conditions which make it easy and rewarding for youth to engage in violence and crime as an effective adaptation or coping mechanism" (p. 23). The cures for the above problems are reviewed, but the author feels that valid approaches supported by evaluative research evidence are few. Those that seem to be most effective are approaches growing out of the behavior modification or management systems, based on reinforcement theories. Limitations of these would include the necessity of training and outside assistance for classroom teachers. Other approaches include the academic or educational, with a special academic program with behavioral objectives given to disruptive students. There were several individual programs reviewed by the author. One used collaboration between students, community, parents, school board, staff and administration. Another used enforced orderliness. A positive school climate was developed by a third, with nonthreatening success experiences offered. Other programs were developed to strengthen academic and social behavior. The Senate Subcommittee (Bayh, 1977) presented recommendations, summarized as 1) programs should be developed by school boards and state educational agencies, to prevent violence, delinquency and vandalism; 2) programs to reduce violence, delinquency and vandalism should be developed cooperatively within the school by teachers, parents, students and administrators; and 3) the Federal government needs to enact programs to assist the states, cities and schools. The NIE report recommended controlling discipline in the schools, using devices and security personnel. They also suggested increasing interaction among teachers, students and principals, with joint planning to deal with discipline problems. Individual teacher behaviors were also discussed, stressing as positives the personal acceptance of students, verbal reinforcement, correction of behavior problems when they happen, and making the class positive and exciting. AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS: The solutions to the problems of violence in schools are not well known, with little research evidence, except in the field of behavior modification or management. Nevertheless, the author makes the following recommendations: 1) Research evaluation of programs, developed as theoretical models, needs to be done at the Federal and State levels. 2) Schools with behavior problems need to organize task forces to survey the problems and develop programs to correct them. These task forces need to include teachers, parents, students and administrators. 3) Teachers and administrators need to have in-service programs stressing behavior management techniques. 4) School rules need to be developed by teachers, students, parents and administrators. 5) Curricula should be developed to help all students achieve success. 6) Crime and delinquency need to be prosecuted, not condoned. 7) Basic skills need to be stressed and taught in an effective manner. 8) A positive, humanistic climate needs to be developed, first by the principal. 9) Severe discipline problems should be handled by special short-term treatment instead of suspension. 10) Involve students in developing self direction and self control. 11) A bridge from school to work should be developed with special vocational and career programs for students with severe behavioral problems. 12) A diagnostic system should be coordinated by guidance counselors, with programs planned for severe discipline cases. 13) Positive behaviors should be recognized. 14) In schools with severe behavior problems, devices and security personnel should be employed. 15) Education schools should train teachers in the art of classroom management, and should work closely with schools and teachers to combat problems. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado) KW - Literature Review KW - Late Childhood KW - Late Adolescence KW - Early Adolescence KW - Junior High School Student KW - Senior High School Student KW - Grade 7 KW - Grade 8 KW - Grade 9 KW - Grade 10 KW - Grade 11 KW - Grade 12 KW - Student Aggression KW - Student Behavior KW - Student Crime KW - Student Violence KW - Child Antisocial Behavior KW - Child Aggression KW - Child Behavior KW - Child Crime KW - Child Delinquency KW - Child Offender KW - Child Problem Behavior KW - Child Violence KW - Aggression Causes KW - Behavior Causes KW - Delinquency Causes KW - Violence Causes KW - Property Crime KW - Vandalism KW - Juvenile Antisocial Behavior KW - Juvenile Behavior KW - Juvenile Aggression KW - Juvenile Crime KW - Juvenile Violence KW - Juvenile Delinquency KW - Juvenile Problem Behavior KW - Juvenile Offender KW - School Crime KW - School Violence KW - School Based KW - Program Recommendations KW - Aggression Prevention KW - Behavior Prevention KW - Crime Prevention KW - Delinquency Prevention KW - Violence Prevention KW - Prevention Recommendations

Predicting Prosocial Behavior: A Model for Specifying the Nature of Personality-Situation Interaction

Abstract: The issues of consistency in behavior has been extensively discussed by personality and social psychologists in the last few years. To what extent is behavior consistent across many situations, and to what extent is it predictable in a single situation on the basis of our knowledge of the situation and the persons in it? It has long been assumed that behavior is a function of the person, the situation, and the interaction between the two. Under certain circumstances most people may act similarly in a particular situation, because the situation activates very basic common goals or needs, such as the desire for survival or for respect by one’s peers. Usually, however, people will behave differently in a particular situation as a function of their individual characteristics (Bowers, 1973; Ekehammar, 1974).

Generalization of Cooperative Behavior Across Classroom Situations

Abstract: Three behavior-disordered preschoolers who had low rates of cooperative behavior served as subjects in a classroom setting. Observations were made throughout phases of Baseline, Intervention I, Reversal, and Intervention II, and within a multiple baseline design. For participation in a low-frequency assembly task, children gained access time to high-frequency activities. Data were also collected during free-play occasions during which contingencies were not manipulated. Results indicated an increase in cooperative behavior and proximity within task-specific (e.g., assembly) situations. There was additional evidence of generalization of such behavior during free-play periods. The outcomes indicate the feasibility of group behavior change by simple systematic contingency rearrangement of existing classroom activities. Results also support generalization of programmed gains to nonprogrammed behavior classes within the same environment.