Measuring Prosocial Tendencies in Germany: Sources of Validity and Reliablity of the Revised Prosocial Tendency Measure.

Johannes Rodrigues,Johannes Hewig,Gustavo Carlo,Patrick Mussel,Natalie Ulrich

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02119

Abstract

The prosocial tendencies measure (PTM; Carlo and Randall, 2002) is a widely used measurement for prosocial tendencies in English speaking participants. This instrument distinguishes between six different types of prosocial tendencies that partly share some common basis, but also can be opposed to each other. To examine these constructs in Germany, a study with 1067 participants was conducted. The study investigated the structure of this German version of the PTM-R via exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlations with similar constructs in subsamples as well as via measurement invariance test concerning the original English version. The German translation showed a similar factor structure to the English version in exploratory factor analysis and in confirmatory factor analysis. Measurement invariance was found between the English and German language versions of the PTM and support for the proposed six-factor structure (altruistic, anonymous, compliant, dire, emotional and public prosocial behavior) was also found in confirmatory factor analysis. Furthermore, the expected interrelations of these factors of prosocial behavior tendencies were obtained. Finally, correlations of the prosocial behavior tendencies with validating constructs and behaviors were found. Thus, the findings stress the importance of seeing prosocial behavior not as a single dimension construct, but as a factored construct which now can also be assessed in German speaking participants.

Highlights

Prosocial behavior is a “voluntary behavior intended to benefit another” (Eisenberg et al, 2006, p. 647)
The public subscale was highly negatively correlated with the altruism subscale and not correlated with dire, anonymous or compliant prosocial behavior
There was no significant correlation between altruism and anonymous prosocial behavior, as well as altruism and emotional prosocial behavior

Summary

Introduction

Prosocial behavior is a “voluntary behavior intended to benefit another” (Eisenberg et al, 2006, p. 647). Prosocial behavior can be measured via active tasks, and via questionnaires targeting trait prosocial tendencies. The aim of the present study was to investigate the structure of prosocial tendencies in German-speaking participants via questionnaire. A translation and validation of a commonly used measure, the Prosocial Tendencies Measure, Revised (PTM-R; Carlo et al, 2003) was conducted. This would provide German researchers with the opportunity to evaluate the usefulness of this trait measurement of prosocial tendencies with Germanspeaking populations. We investigated the internal consistency, the factor structure, and the criterion based sources of validity evidence of a German-language version of the PTMR with external criterions mentioned below. The measurement invariance of the German-language version to the original English-language version of the PTM-R was investigated

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Conclusion