Prosocial Models Research Articles

Methods of developing stress resistance of law enforcement officers at the stage of professional training

The results of theoretical analysis of modern directions, approaches and methods of stress management have been presented. It has been determined that the classification of methods of stress management depends on the type of psychotherapy, the direction of work with stress, time parameters of interaction with stress factors, the method of influencing the functional state, the method of anti-stress influence, etc. Based on the analysis of various scientific approaches, the methods of developing the ability to handle stress from law enforcers who study in higher education institutions with specific learning conditions are systematized and divided into three branches: prevention, neutralization and correction of stress, and recovery of organism resources.
 A series of trainings aimed on the formation and development of stress resistance and resource conservation among police officers at the stage of professional training were presented. For the first year cadets of Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs a training program “Adaptation” was developed, the purpose of which is to develop skills and abilities of self-organization of the person that are essential for studying in higher education institutions with specific learning conditions; development of responsibility, social courage, high standards of behavior and motivation of achievement; development of active and prosocial models of behavior. For the second year cadets, a training program “Stress and Lifestyle” was developed, the purpose of which is the formation of rules of psycho-hygiene and mastering the methods of self-regulation of stress. For the third year cadets there is a training “Professional stress”, which task is to develop responsibility for personal development and promote self-realization and the formation of a cadet as a self-sufficient creative person. Also for the third year cadets we offer personal growth training “Life design of the person”, the purpose of which is to form the need for an active life position, willingness for self-development, self-improvement and increase of responsibility for one’s own life.
 On the basis of the research, conclusions were made on the expediency of the integrated implementation of the training system as a mean of forming and developing stress resistance and enhancing the existing personal resources of police officers at various stages of professional training.

Roads diverged: An examination of violent and nonviolent pathways in the aftermath of the Bosnian war*

AbstractDespite renewed interest among criminologists in war and genocide, still understudied are the implications of mass violence for human development and behavior over the life course. By drawing on detailed life history data gathered from 55 male Bosnian refugees and nationals, in this work, I examine the shared beginnings of men who experienced the Bosnian war and genocide (1992–1995) in their youth, as well as examine their divergent pathways over time and across two distinct postwar contexts. My findings reveal that violent pathways are shaped by the confluence of social–psychological mechanisms (e.g., the normalization of violence) and exogenous risk factors (e.g., family disruption and loss of male role models). Compared with nonviolent men, who emphasize themes of catharsis and resilience, and the emulation of prosocial models of masculinity, violent men's narratives are distinguished by themes of persecution and exile, the emulation of violent role models, and contextual barriers to attaining valued masculine identities. Beyond the experience of war, these findings have implications for understanding how early experiences of chronic violence and community disruption shape turning points and cultural frames over the life course, and they indicate that studies of violent pathways should grant greater primacy to the social–historical context and the meaning individuals ascribe to their experiences.

A portable method of eliciting respect for social norms

Recent models of prosociality suggest that cooperation in laboratory games may be better understood as resulting from concern for social norms than from prosocial preferences over outcomes. Underlying this interpretation is the idea that people exhibit heterogeneous respect for shared norms. We introduce a new, abstract task to elicit a proxy for individual norm-following propensity by asking subjects to choose from two actions, where one is costly. We instruct subjects that “the rule is” to take the costly action. Their willingness to incur such a cost reveals respect for norms. We show that choices in this task are similar across five countries. Rule-following is correlated with norm-consistent behavior in dictator games, providing support for our interpretation.

Modeling Prosocial Behavior Increases Helping in 16-Month-Olds.

In two experiments, the imitation of helping behavior in 16-month-olds was investigated. In Study 1 (N=31), infants either observed an adult model helping or not helping another individual before they had the opportunity to assist an unfamiliar experimenter. In one of two tasks, more children helped in the prosocial model condition than in the no model control condition. In Study 2 (N=60), a second control condition was included to test whether infants imitated the prosocial intention (no neediness control). Children in the prosocial model condition helped more readily than children in the no model condition, with the second control condition falling in between. These findings propose that modeling provides a critical learning mechanism in early prosocial development.

Does observability affect prosociality?

The observation of behaviour is a key theoretical parameter underlying a number of models of prosociality. However, the empirical findings showing the effect of observability on prosociality are mixed. In this meta-analysis, we explore the boundary conditions that may account for this variability, by exploring key theoretical and methodological moderators of this link. We identified 117 papers yielding 134 study level effects (total n = 788 164) and found a small but statistically significant, positive association between observability and prosociality (r = 0.141, 95% confidence interval = 0.106, 0.175). Moderator analysis showed that observability produced stronger effects on prosociality: (i) in the presence of passive observers (i.e. people whose role was to only observe participants) versus perceptions of being watched, (ii) when participants’ decisions were consequential (versus non-consequential), (iii) when the studies were performed in the laboratory (as opposed to in the field/online), (iv) when the studies used repeated measures (instead of single games), and (v) when the studies involved social dilemmas (instead of bargaining games). These effects show the conditions under which observability effects on prosociality will be maximally observed. We describe the theoretical and practical significance of these results.

How does the evolution of the mammalian autonomic nervous system help to explain religious prosociality?

ABSTRACTHuman cooperation relies extensively on evolved neurobiological mechanisms of positive affect and social engagement. Nevertheless, current models of religious prosociality – aimed at explaining the role of religion in the evolution of cooperation – are grounded in the fear of supernatural punishment. We propose an expansion of research on religious prosociality to encompass the breadth of physiological adaptations supporting social engagement, and suggest Polyvagal Theory as a methodologically and theoretically useful starting point: measuring variations in heart rate, which reflect underlying autonomic physiology adapted specifically for threat and social engagement, may provide a more comprehensive understanding of the role of religion in the evolution of cooperation.

Motivation in caring labor: Implications for the well-being and employment outcomes of nurses

For nurses and other caregivers there is a strong emphasis on prosocial forms of motivation, or doing the job because you want to help others, even in formal, institutionalized care settings. This emphasis is based in gendered assumptions that altruistic motivations are the “right” reasons for being a nurse and lead to the best outcomes for workers and patients. Other motivations for pursuing care work, particularly extrinsic motivation, depart from the prosocial model of care and may be indicative of substandard outcomes, but little research has examined variation in care workers' motivations for doing their jobs. In this study, we use survey data collected from 730 acute care hospital nurses working within one health care system in the Midwestern United States to examine whether different sources of motivation for being a nurse are related to nurse job burnout, negative physical symptoms, and turnover intentions. Our findings suggest that nurses who have high intrinsic and extrinsic motivation actually have better perceived health and employment outcomes (i.e., less likely to say that they will leave, lower burnout, fewer negative physical symptoms) than those with high prosocial motivation, who are more likely to report job burnout.

"First Stop Dying".

This article offers an ethnographic account of the "self-projects" of inmate graduates of Louisiana State Penitentiary's (aka "Angola's") unique prison seminary program. Angola's Inmate Minister program deploys seminary graduates in bivocational pastoral service roles throughout America's largest maximum-security prison. Drawing upon the unique history of Angola, inmates establish their own churches and serve in lay-ministry capacities in hospice, cellblock visitation, tier ministry, officiating inmate funerals, and through tithing with "care packages" for indigent prisoners. Four themes of positive criminology prominently emerge from inmate narratives: (a) the importance of respectful treatment of inmates by correctional administrations, (b) the value of building trusting relationships for prosocial modeling and improved self-perception,

Eliciting Respect for Social Norms

Recent models of prosociality suggest that cooperation in laboratory games may be better understood as resulting from a concern for social norms than from prosocial preferences over outcomes. Underlying this interpretation is the idea that people exhibit heterogeneous respect for shared norms. We elicit individual norm-following propensity by asking subjects to choose from two actions (A or B), where action B is costly. The instructions state “the rule is to do B,” and willingness to incur the cost of B reveals respect for norms. Behavior in this task is correlated with norm-consistent behavior in dictator games, providing support for our interpretation.

Characteristics of adolescents who intervene to stop the risky and dangerous behavior of their friends

Adolescents value protecting friends from harm and report that they do intervene as bystanders in friends’ risky and dangerous behavior. Moreover intervention can be effective in reducing such behaviors. The Protection-Risk Framework was used to explain bystander intervention. There were 962 students from 13 Australian high schools (mean age at time 1=13.44 years) surveyed in their 9th grade and again 1-year later when students were in 10th grade. We found that protective factors of self-efficacy, support, prosocial models, social control, and ease of opportunity related to greater intervening behavior after 12-months. Among those who reported that they had intervened in a 3-month period, a cumulative measure of protective factors was associated with their reports of intervening. Risk factors were non-significant predictors after accounting for earlier, time 1, bystander intervening behavior and demographic factors. The findings highlight potential mechanisms to promote adolescents’ looking out for their friends and provide an assessment over time of bystander behavior. The theory-guided inquiry into such behavior provides a foundation on which to better develop our understanding of benefits to adolescent friendship in the injury field.

Groupwork interventions for women and children experiencing domestic abuse: Do they work and do they last?

This paper draws selectively on the findings of a study exploring the impact of a concurrent groupwork programme for mothers and children (6-7 years of age) who have experienced domestic abuse. This group was delivered by statutory child and welfare services in Ireland in conjunction with a voluntary sector child support service. This paper illustrates how participation in the groupwork programme impacted positively on the relationship between the participating mothers and their children and also explores what benefits were sustained over time. Employing a mixed methods approach, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from three distinct populations and at three points in time. The findings of this study confirm the usefulness of the group environment in helping participants share the full extent of their personal experiences in a therapeutic and supportive setting. Participant outcomes included pro-social modelling of positive parenting, awareness raising and information sharing regarding the impact of the experience of domestic abuse on both child development and parenting capacity. These factors were reported by participants to have impacted on the quality of the mother-child relationship. This paper concludes by highlighting the key features of the groupwork programme which were central to facilitating and sustaining these positive outcomes.

Call for research on bystander intervention to prevent sexual violence: the role of campus environments.

An important next step for the field is to determine what setting-level factors beyond the individual are critical to fostering campus environments that support pro-social, helpful bystander intervention action to prevent sexual violence. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a research agenda to investigate key areas of the campus environment and their potential influence on bystander intervention. To create the research agenda, a number of steps were followed including: (1) systematically reviewing the larger bystander literature to identify key environmental areas, (2) assessing what research is available specific to college campuses and sexual assault in each of these areas, and (3) outlining future research to address each of these areas on college campuses and determine their applicability to sexual violence situations. Five main groups of factors were found to influence bystander intervention beyond the individual, group and situational levels, including: social norms, sense of community, pro-social modeling, policies, and the physical environment. Certain areas of research on environmental influences on bystander intervention are more developed such as social norms, with little research on areas such as policies and the physical environment. However, further research is needed in each of the identified five areas to help identify how college campuses can support bystander intervention.

Are We Still Giving Our Money to Beggars? Prosocial Intention in between of Religion, Emotion, Corruption, and Government Policy Advocacy

This research aimed to describe the dynamics of begging behavior in big cities in Indonesia, explain the psychological and social of the behavior, as well as examine the compatibility of the prosocial behavior decision-making model with the behavior of giving money to beggars by inhabitants of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. This research used a qualitative method namely interview with 20 participants (9 males, 11 females) age of 21-46 years old of various occupations (student, lecturer, trader, employee, etc.) and ethnicities (Chinese, Javanese, Betawinese, and Maduranese) who still give money or goods to beggars when this research was conducted. During the interview process, the authors provided intervention to participants in the form of fear communication and minimal counseling with the purpose to divert their intention of giving to beggars into giving of the donation through authorized disseminator of social assistance. This research found that factors such as religion, compassion, institutional corruption, and law enforcement play important roles in determining preferred target of prosocial behavior. Nevertheless, the cognitive-emotional intervention conducted by the authors was successful, which was indicated by the fact of 12 of the 20 participants agreeing to divert their target of prosocial behavior. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p1817

The Social Motivation Hypothesis for Prosocial Behavior

Existing economic models of prosociality have been rather silent in terms of proximate psychological mechanisms. We nevertheless identify the psychologically most informed accounts and offer a critical discussion of their hypotheses for the proximate psychological explanations. Based on convergent evidence from several fields of research, we argue that there nevertheless is a more plausible alternative proximate account available: the social motivation hypothesis. The hypothesis represents a more basic explanation of the appeal of prosocial behavior, which is in terms of anticipated social rewards. We also argue in favor of our own social motivation hypothesis over Robert Sugden’s fellow-feeling account (due originally to Adam Smith). We suggest that social motivation not only stands as a proximate account in its own right but also provides a plausible scaffold for other more sophisticated motivations (e.g., fellow-feelings). We conclude by discussing some possible implications of the social motivation hypothesis on existing modeling practice.

Parsing protection and risk for problem behavior versus pro-social behavior among US and Chinese adolescents.

This study investigates the different roles played by protective factors and risk factors-and by particular protective and risk factors-when the concern is with accounting for adolescent problem behavior than when the concern is with accounting for adolescent pro-social behavior. The protective and risk factor literature on adolescent problem behavior reveals considerable conceptual and operational ambiguity; an aim of the present study was to advance understanding in this domain of inquiry by providing a systematic conceptualization of protection and risk and of their measurement. Within the systematic framework of Problem Behavior Theory, four protective and four risk factors are assessed in a cross-national study of both problem behavior and pro-social behavior involving large adolescent samples in China (N=1,368) and the US (N=1,087), in grades 9, 10, and 11; females 56%, US; 50%, China. The findings reveal quite different roles for protection and risk, and for particular protective and risk factors, when the outcome criterion is problem behavior than when it is pro-social behavior. The protective factor, Controls Protection, which engages rule and regulations and sanctions in the adolescent's ecology, emerges as most important in influencing problem behavior, but it plays a relatively minor role in relationship to pro-social behavior. By contrast, Models Protection, the presence of pro-social models in the adolescent's ecology, and Support Protection, the presence of interest and care in that same ecology, have no significant relationship to problem behavior variation, but they are both the major predictors of variation in pro-social behavior. The findings are robust across the samples from the two very diverse societies. These results suggest that greater attention be given to protection in problem behavior research and that a more nuanced perspective is needed about the roles that particular protective and risk factors play in reducing problem behavior and in promoting pro-social behavior.

Intuitive Prosociality

Prosocial behavior is a central feature of human life and a major focus of research across the natural and social sciences. Most theoretical models of prosociality share a common assumption: Humans are instinctively selfish, and prosocial behavior requires exerting reflective control over these basic instincts. However, findings from several scientific disciplines have recently contradicted this view. Rather than requiring control over instinctive selfishness, prosocial behavior appears to stem from processes that are intuitive, reflexive, and even automatic. These observations suggest that our understanding of prosociality should be revised to include the possibility that, in many cases, prosocial behavior—instead of requiring active control over our impulses—represents an impulse of its own.

The Structure of Prosocial Behavior: A Comment on Richaud, Mesurado, and Cortada (2013)

The question of how many factors are required to explain prosocial behavior in adolescents was examined. Richaud, Mesurado, and Cortada (2013) have tested two alternative models of prosocial behaviors. In this Comment we (1) discuss the theoretical basis for prosocial behavior models in adolescents and (2) propose possible alternative models as suggestions for further studies.

Juvenile offenders' perceptions of probation officers as social workers in Hong Kong

Summary There is virtually no information available on how juvenile offenders perceive the role of Hong Kong probation officers as social workers. This study explores 113 male juvenile probationers' perceptions of their probation officers and the probation service. Drawing from the existing literature, scales are developed to measure both domains. Findings These juvenile probationers generally perceived their probation officer as relatively authoritarian or punitive. Interestingly, juveniles supervised by females perceived officers to be more authoritarian or punitive than those supervised by males. Using exploratory factor analyses, two scales, Perceptions of the Assigned Probation Officer (PAPO) and Perceptions of the Job Nature of Probation Officers (PJNPO) are developed. An ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis shows that probation officers are perceived to be more authoritarian or punitive by older juveniles and those supervised by females. Applications These juvenile probationers’ perceptions are generally inconsistent with the operational objectives of the Hong Kong probation system, whereby probation officers are expected to be rehabilitative agents who facilitate community reintegration. Continuing civic education for young people, with an emphasis on providing accurate information about the probation system and the role of officers, would be desirable. Probation officers may also consider adopting the pro-social modeling approach that emphasizes pro-social values and behaviors in their interaction with probationers. Most importantly, a genuine working relationship between probation officers and probationers should be established. The supervision plan should be tailored to individuals' needs and capabilities, with a mutually-agreed outcome of crime desistance.

Involuntary Clients, Pro-social Modelling and Ethics

Workers with involuntary clients influence the behaviour of their clients. One of the methods by which workers influence their clients relates to the way they model, encourage or reinforce their comments and behaviours. Practitioners may be aware or unaware of this process and of the extent to which it can impact on clients. This paper describes the process of modelling and reinforcement and discusses some of the ethical issues it raises. It suggests some guidelines by which the process may be undertaken in an ethical manner and recommends the use of the ethics of care and concept of human dignity as additional theoretical resources to assist in working with this client group.

Does synchrony promote generalized prosociality?

Synchrony—the matching of rhythmic behavior in time—is a common feature of many social practices. Although recent studies have demonstrated that synchrony promotes prosociality, it remains unclear whether prosociality extends to targets outside the synchronous group. Studies on the related phenomenon of mimicry (i.e., the non-conscious imitation of another's behavior) show that matching behavior in form amplifies prosociality to those outside the mimicked pair. While these studies suggest that synchrony might also evoke generalized prosociality, the minimal group paradigm predicts that any increase in prosociality will be confined to synchronous performers. Study 1 investigated the cooperative specificity of synchrony by comparing the effects of synchrony on prosociality directed to co-performers and to non-performers. We found that synchrony-induced prosociality was not restricted to fellow synchronous performers. These findings offer initial support for a generalized prosocial model of synchronous performances. Study 2 investigated whether generalized prosociality occurred when the prosocial target was conceived as another group, rather than another individual. Consistent with the first study, we found that synchronous movements were associated with greater prosociality towards a non-performance group when compared to the level of prosociality observed from the control group activity. Collectively these findings offer initial support that synchrony may amplify prosociality to non-participants, whether conceived as individuals or as groups.