Prosocial Strategies Research Articles

Conflict Resolution under the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper analyzes whether the COVID-19 pandemic affected individual’s chosen method to resolve conflict. Applying a difference-in-difference approach by sex, we use a representative panel of adults living in 82 cities from across Mexico to measure changes in antisocial strategies (violence) and prosocial strategies (non-confrontational methods and dialogue) to resolve disputes. During the COVID- 19 pandemic, men reduced their use of violence by 19.6% and women by 17.4%. There was a parallel rise in non-confrontation strategies used to solve conflict equal to 73.6% for men and 62% for women. The use of dialogue as a tool for resolving disputes increased by more in cities that banned the sale of alcohol. Alternative Twitter data corroborates the main findings, suggesting that individuals are becoming more prosocial during the pandemic.

Manager-Employee Communication: The Influence of Temperament and Leader-Member Exchange Quality on Employees’ Use of Upward Dissent Strategies

This study examined how the combination of innate temperament and leader-member exchange affects employees’ use of upward dissent strategies (prosocial strategies, circumvention, repetition, and threatening resignation). Data were collected through an online survey. The findings revealed that higher-quality LMX relationships meant participants were more likely to use prosocial strategies. In contrast, temperament had no relationship with the tendency to use prosocial strategies. Extroversion and neuroticism related positively to threatening resignation, LMX related negatively to threatening resignation. Neither neuroticism nor LMX was related to circumvention, but extroversion was positively related to both circumvention and repetition. This relationship was qualified by an interaction indicating that when a stronger LMX relationship was in place, extroverts were more likely to use circumvention and repetition strategies. Implications are discussed.

Prosocial Spectrum of Crowdfunding Projects

In online reward-based crowdfunding platforms, backers often pledge more money than necessary. This paper studies the magnitude, types, and motivations of such prosocial funding behavior, using a pledge-level data set from Kickstarter. First, prosocial funding was common (22% of backers), substantial (19% of the total pledge amount), and essential to 43% of successful projects. Second, there were significant variations in prosocial funding across the projects. On average, the prosocial funding as a percentage of the total pledge amount for a project in dance/theatre categories exceeded that of a project in games/design categories by more than 20%. There were two types of prosocial backers: funders who pay extra for rewards and donors who pay without requesting a reward. We propose funders and donors act according to a fair-exchange and a communal relationship, respectively. The proposed social relationships are consistent with the funding behavior according to project and creator characteristics. Moreover, about 90% of the variations in prosocial funding across the product categories were driven by donors. Thus, the perceived needs in funding rather than the fair values of offerings is the main driver for the prosocial behavior in crowdfunding. Overall our results underscore the importance of prosocial funding and the need for creators to tailor their prosocial strategies according to the target (funders vs. donors).

Moral disengagement, victimization, empathy, social and emotional competencies as predictors of violence in children and adolescents

Abstract Decreasing violence is an important objective for the society. Although the topic has been addressed in different studies, most of them are cross-sectional, focus on one context or include few variables. This research aims to investigate to what extent moral disengagement and victimization are risk factors, and empathy and social and emotional competencies are protective factors for the development of violent behavior one year later in different contexts, such as school or home. Children and adolescents were the target population since violent behavior usually starts early in life. A sample of 871 students from different schools in Andalusia (Spain) was selected for this longitudinal research with a year of follow-up. Moral disengagement was more important in the prediction of violent behaviors and peer violence than in direct violence towards adults. Bullying victimization was a risk factor for violence one year later at home and at school. Differences in empathy and social and emotional competencies between perpetrators and non-perpetrators were found. Male gender and a young age were predictors of violence. Reducing victimization at school could be important in decreasing violence in different contexts in the future. Training parents in social and emotional competencies could be useful for the young people who learn the strategies for problem solving from parents. Teaching more prosocial strategies for problem solving to young people with violent behavior could help them to re-evaluate the benefits and costs of violence and to decrease the use of moral disengagement.

Protective overcoming behavior in naval professionals with signs of occupational burnout

Purpose. Evaluation of protective overcoming behavior in naval professionals with (or without) signs of occupational burnout.Materials and methods. The study enrolled 250 naval professionals aged from 25 to 45 years. Subjects were divided into two groups — without (group 1 (n=91 men)) and with (group 2 (n=159 men) signs of occupational burnout who showed strategies and models of coping behavior, psychological defense mechanisms by set of psychodiagnostic tests.Results and discussion. It was found that naval professionals without signs of occupational burnout use more constructive strategies and behavior patterns when coping with stress — active, prosocial and indirect behavior strategy and they represent significantly higher values of developed psychological defenses in comparison with individuals with signs of occupational burnout who use passive, asocial and direct behavior strategies.Conclusion. In order to prevent occupational burnout in surveyed individuals, it is advisable to conduct training in use of constructive coping and the best psychological defenses.

A proposal for equine therapy intervention for children with ADHD from an animal protection perspective

Horses are more and more considered and known for their therapeutic benefits, especially in the case of autistic kids. Indeed, research and investigations have found that equine therapy helps to significantly reduce autism symptoms in children. This work investigates the benefits of the contact with horses for a different audience: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in kids. An intervention methodology thought and defined to address specifically to children with ADAH has been analysed, studied and tested. This methodology is based on the practice of equine therapy associated with prosocial strategies and dynamics. Through a social justification, data that shows interest and needs for such a project, the first results after a test on a child with ADHD combined with an academic literature review, this article shows the evidence that the intervention methodology - that is to say the combination of equine therapy associated with prosocial strategies and dynamism - is found to be efficient and viable to reduce ADHD symptoms in children.

Genere violence prevention and collective efficacy in young woman from violent contexts

An intervention program with women victims of gender violence is designed and addressed evaluating effects on social effectiveness by analyzing: perceptions, sensations and adverse behaviors that have an impact on their health and reduce their quality of life. Self-regulated group techniques were used. The sample consisted of 66 women, in the age range of 17 to 21 years, 33 women in the treatment group and 33 women in the control group. A workshop was designed to identify risk factors and promote coping strategies for proactive adaptation. For this effect, we worked with a quasi-experimental design using repeated measures, Ex ante (pretest)-intervention-Ex post (posttest), with a control group. It was carried out in a weekend mode for 11 weeks in a 6-hour workshop mode, a total of 66 hours. The intervention addressed pro-social strategies considering risk factors, endemic aspects of violence, among others, modulation of negative cognitive and behavioral processes and of physio-affective responses labeled to lead at risk to the evolution of individual pathologies that normally lead to depression processes, generalized anxiety, chronic stress and post trauma nature. The program exerted significant changes determined by the analysis of variance and of moderate to high effects demonstrated by Cohen’s d, the differences in pre and post-treatment means in pro-social aspects, in terms of risk factors, among others, in the Negative cognitive and behavioral processing and physio-affective responses that shaped traits of generalized anxiety, and post-traumatic stress in young women.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ КОПИНГ-ПОВЕДЕНИЯ ПОЖАРНЫХ-СПАСАТЕЛЕЙ С РАЗНЫМ СТАЖЕМ РАБОТЫ

The profile of preferred coping strategies in firefighters and rescuers was studied (depending on the length of professional experience). The survey involved 235 male fire and rescue workers aged 25 to 45 years, who were divided into three groups (1–6, 7–15 and 16–22 years of service). Using the personal questionnaire SACS (S. Hobfoll), preferences in choosing coping strategies were studied. It was found that the majority of firefighters and rescuers have prosocial and active strategies as priorities. Negative phenomena in overcoming stress and the proportion of people with passive behavior patterns were found to increase with increasing service life.

“Let's make a place where giants live!”: Children's communication during play with siblings and friends from early to middle childhood

AbstractThe present study examined children's co‐construction of shared meanings and internal state language during play with their sibling and friend from early to middle childhood. Sixty‐five 4‐year‐old children (T1) and 46 7‐year‐old children (T2) were observed in the home during two free play sessions with a sibling and with a friend at both time points. Shared meaning strategies during social play (e.g., extensions and positive responses) and during pretend enactment were coded. Shared meaning strategies were associated with relationship context; children used more positive shared meaning strategies with friends compared to siblings and more introductions with siblings than friends. Moreover, developmental differences were evident; specifically, children employed more simple strategies, semantic tying (e.g., building on to one's ideas) and prosocial strategies at T2 than T1. Differences were also evident during pretend enactment where children used simple strategies more at T2 than T1 and clarifications more at T1 than T2. Findings highlight children's sophisticated and flexible communication strategies used in the process of co‐constructing a shared understanding during play.Highlights The present study investigated children's shared meaning strategies used during play with their sibling and friend from early to middle childhood. Children were observed in separate play sessions and both relationship and developmental differences were found. The patterns of findings highlight important similarities and differences in children's co‐;construction of shared meanings with siblings and friends over time.

The Evolution of Prosocial and Antisocial Competitive Behavior and the Emergence of Prosocial and Antisocial Leadership Styles.

Evolutionary analysis focuses on how genes build organisms with different strategies for engaging and solving life’s challenges of survival and reproduction. One of those challenges is competing with conspecifics for limited resources including reproductive opportunities. This article suggests that there is now good evidence for considering two dimensions of social competition. The first, has been labeled as antisocial strategies, to the extent that they tend to be self-focused, threat sensitive and aggressive, and use tactics of bulling, threatening, and intimidating subordinates, or even injuring/killing competitors. Such strategies can inhibit care and affiliative social interactions and motivation. The social signals emitted stimulate threat processing in recipients and can create stressed and highly stratified groups with a range of detrimental psychological and physiological effects. Second, in contrast, prosocial strategies seek to create relaxed and secure social interactions that enable sharing, cooperative, mutually supportive and beneficial relationships. The friendly and low/no threat social signals emitted in friendly cooperative and affiliative relationships stimulate physiological systems (e.g., oxytocin, the vagus nerve of the parasympathetic system) that downregulates threat processing, enhances the immune system, and facilitates frontal cortical processes and general wellbeing. This article reviews the literature pertaining to the evidence for these two dimensions of social engagement.

The economic behavior of people living in apartment buildings

This article presents the results of a sociological study aimed at examining the strategies that people living in apartment complexes choose in terms of economic behavior in a situation when funds are being collected for major renovation. Under Russian federal law № 271-FZ, home owners must participate in major renovations of community property in apartment complexes on conditions of state co-financing. As a result, citizens are involved in producing a common good in the form of major housing renovation. Given such a situation, people could opt for both pro-social, based on monthly payments for major renovations, and egotistical strategies, which involve refusal to make mandatory payments. Analyzing the economic behavior of people living in apartment complexes in the vein of J. Coleman’s rational choice theory allowed for establishing three groups of factors which define the choice of either pro-social or egotistical strategies. The first group of factors acts on an individual level and defines the proportion of those gains and losses considered by an individual when deciding on whether to transfer funds for major renovations. These include subjective evaluation of the building’s technical state and financial status. The second group of factors is linked to expectations regarding the actions of other residents in terms of collecting funds for major renovations. The third group of factors manifests itself during interactions between apartment owners and the corporate actors implementing the major renovation program. Trust towards these actors becomes a crucial factor. The influence of the highlighted factors on choosing economic behavior strategies when it comes to collecting funds for major renovations was researched during a sociological study conducted in Yaroslavl using questionnaire method in 2015 and 2018. 600 respondents were surveyed in each of these studies. It was determined that the economic behavior of home owners in apartment complexes is subject to the following strategies: pro-social (“cooperation”, “conformal”) and egotistical (“maximin”, “competitive”, “aggressive”). When comparing the results of both studies, an increase in the amount of proponents of pro-social strategies is apparent. The highlighted tendency corresponds to an increase in the amount of funds collected for major renovations. Pro-social strategies are preferred by residents with average or high financial status, who consider the quality of completed major renovations to be good. These people are convinced that other residents transfer monthly payments in full, and they trust the governmental institutions implementing the major renovation program.

Is Inspiring Group Members an Effective Predictor of Social Dominance in Early Adolescence? Direct and Moderated Effects of Behavioral Strategies, Social Skills, and Gender on Resource Control and Popularity

Dominance in the peer group is important for adolescents. Resource Control Theory posits that both coercive and prosocial (positively assertive) strategies are associated with dominance. Combining Resource Control Theory with Socioanalytic Theory on personality, we hypothesized that inspiring group members would be an additional effective strategy. This study examined whether the three behavioral strategies and two types of social skills (social competence and manipulation) predicted dominance (resource control and popularity). Participants were 619 Dutch adolescents (Mage = 13.1; 47% female) in the first grade of secondary school. They completed peer reports (behavioral strategies and dominance) and self-reports (social skills). Only inspirational and coercive strategies substantially predicted dominance. Main effects of social skills emerged. Moderation between strategies and social skills was only observed for girls (e.g., coercive strategy use was associated with more popularity for girls with higher levels of social manipulation skills). This study furthered our understanding of the predictors of dominance in adolescence by including inspirational behavior and examining prosocial and antisocial skills.

Daily Use of Energy Management Strategies and Occupational Well-being: The Moderating Role of Job Demands.

We examine the relationships among employees’ use of energy management strategies and two occupational well-being outcomes: job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Based on conservation of resources theory, it was hypothesized that employees with high job demands would benefit more from using energy management strategies (i.e., including prosocial, organizing, and meaning-related strategies), compared to employees with low job demands. We tested this proposition using a quantitative diary study. Fifty-four employees provided data twice daily across one work week (on average, 7 daily entries). Supporting the hypotheses, prosocial energy management was positively related to job satisfaction. Moreover, employees with high job demands were less emotionally exhausted when using prosocial strategies. Contrary to predictions, when using organizing strategies, employees with low job demands had higher job satisfaction and lower emotional exhaustion. Under high job demands, greater use of organizing strategies was associated with lower job satisfaction and higher emotional exhaustion. Finally, use of meaning-related strategies was associated with higher emotional exhaustion when job demands were low. With this research, we position energy management as part of a resource investment process aimed at maintaining and improving occupational well-being. Our findings show that this resource investment will be more or less effective depending on the type of strategy used and the existing drain on resources (i.e., job demands). This is the first study to examine momentary effects of distinct types of work-related energy management strategies on occupational well-being.

Differences between resource control types revisited: A short term longitudinal study

AbstractHawley's influential resource control theory (RCT) posits that both coercive and prosocial strategies may yield social dominance, as indexed by resource control. Based on differences in youths’ relative use of these strategies, RCT a priori defines five distinct subtypes. Several studies by Hawley and colleagues have revealed substantial differences between subtypes in terms of obtained resource control and various social characteristics (e.g., agreeableness). The present longitudinal study (N = 394; Mage = 10.3; SD = 0.5) expands on previous work. Firstly, because several items used to assess strategies in RCT appear to confound strategy use with the resulting benefits (resource control), we disentangled between strategy use as such and obtained resource control. Secondly whereas previous work has been exclusively cross‐sectional, the present study was longitudinal. ANOVAs comparing subgroups provided support for some core tenets of RCT, but not for others. For instance, bistrategic children scored high on both resource control and perceived popularity. However, bistrategics engaged in elevated bullying, and whereas Hawley asserts that they are proficient in balancing ‘getting ahead’ with ‘getting along’, their behavior appeared to evoke clear negative reactions in the peer group at large. Findings also showed that non‐controllers did not experience more negative outcomes than their peers across all domains.

The Role of Prosocialness and Trust in the Consumption of Water as a Limited Resource

This research analyzes the role of prosocialness and trust in the use of water as a limited resource under situations of competition or cooperation. For this purpose, 107 participants played the role of farmers and made decisions about irrigating their fields in the web-based multiplayer game Irrigania. Before the simulation exercise, participants’ prosocialness and trust levels were evaluated and they were randomly assigned to an experimental condition (competition or cooperation). Repeated measures analysis, using the 10 fields and the experimental conditions as factors, showed that, in the cooperation condition, farmers and their villages used a less selfish strategy to cultivate their fields, which produced greater benefits. Under competition, benefits to farmers and their villages were reduced over time. Mediational analysis shows that the selfish irrigation strategy fully mediated the relationship between prosocialness and accumulated profits; prosocial individuals choose less selfish irrigation strategies and, in turn, accumulated more benefit. Moreover, moderation analysis shows that trust moderated the link between prosocialness and water use strategy by strengthening the negative effect of prosocialness on selection of selfish strategies. The implications of these results highlight the importance of promoting the necessary trust to develop prosocial strategies in collectives; therefore, the efficacy of interventions, such as the creation of cooperative educational contexts or organization of collective actions with groups affected by water scarcity, are discussed.

Капитальный ремонт как социальная дилемма в оценках экспертов

In the article the strategies and factors of subject’s behavior in the situation of social dilemma, dealing with the realization of measures of major overhaul of multifamily housing stock, are under consideration. By means of the analysis of the interviews of experts , who are the chairmen of Association of the owners of multiple dwelling in the town of Yaroslavl, the recommendation about the formation of prosocial strategies among the multiple dwelling owners in the situation of social dilemma of social good in the sphere of housing and communal services are formulated.

Competition and cooperation among different punishing strategies in the spatial public goods game.

Inspired by the fact that people have diverse propensities to punish wrongdoers, we study a spatial public goods game with defectors and different types of punishing cooperators. During the game, cooperators punish defectors with class-specific probabilities and subsequently share the associated costs of sanctioning. We show that in the presence of different punishing cooperators the highest level of public cooperation is always attainable through a selection mechanism. Interestingly, the selection does not necessarily favor the evolution of punishers who would be able to prevail on their own against the defectors, nor does it always hinder the evolution of punishers who would be unable to prevail on their own. Instead, the evolutionary success of punishing strategies depends sensitively on their invasion velocities, which in turn reveals fascinating examples of both competition and cooperation among them. Furthermore, we show that under favorable conditions, when punishment is not strictly necessary for the maintenance of public cooperation, the less aggressive, mild form of sanctioning is the sole victor of the selection process. Our work reveals that natural strategy selection cannot only promote, but sometimes also hinders competition among prosocial strategies.

THE MODEL OF PREVENTION OF VANDAL BEHAVIOR PROVIDED BY THE DEFORMATIONS AND DESTRUCTIONS OF VALUABLE SPHERE OF YOUTH

The aim of the present article is to discuss current opportunities for prevention of vandal behavior of young people, taking into account the structural features of valuable sphere of teenagers and young men. Methods . Methods involve psychognostic techniques such as an axiological questionnaire by S.Schwarz, a questionnaire «Motives of vandal behaviour» by I. V. Vorobyeva, O. V. Kruzhkova, S. A. Ostrikova; method of theoretical modelling. Results . Vandalism is described as a fairly common phenomenon among young people, which may be the result not only of deviant orientation of the individual, but also the result of a mismatch of individual values of teenager or young man and imposed by society requirements for his value orientations. 832 teenagers took part in the complex psychological studies. The following four different groups of respondents have been identified and studied: – with an agreed system of prosocial value orientations; – respondents with a mismatched (deformed) system of values; – respondents with a destructive (antagonistic) system of value orientations; – respondents with agreed antisocial system of value orientations. The model of prevention of vandalism among young people is developed on the basis of the psychological characteristics of these groups and the description of the genesis and causes of vandal behavior with following applying the method of theoretical modeling. This model is based on the principles of accounting axiological aspects of regulation of activity, consideration of personal values as a dynamic system, taking into account the degree of stability of the system of individual value orientations, differentiation and depth of the psychological impact of variation in the choice of forms and methods of psychological influence. The recommendations are proposed; the most appropriate psychological work aspects with each of the groups of respondents are described. Scientific novelty. The proposed authors’ model involves personal values that are considered as a dynamic system. Fundamentally new approach to prevention interventions is realised: the model focuses not so much on sanctions actions as on technologies of psychological influences on the problem personality; and formation of steady prosocial strategy of person’s behaviour. Practical significance. The research findings and the application of the proposed model can be useful while planning of educative work in terms of educational institutions by the teachers, administrators and parents, as it provides the possibility to organize selective and point events to prevent destructive behavior of pupils and students, taking into account the characteristics of their value and the scope of actual problems in the manifestation of activity.

Affective biases in English are bi-dimensional

A long-standing observation about the interface between emotion and language is that positive words are used more frequently than negative ones, leading to the Pollyanna hypothesis which alleges a predominantly optimistic outlook in humans. This paper uses the largest available collection of affective ratings as well as insights from linguistics to revisit the Pollyanna hypothesis as it relates to two dimensions of emotion: valence (pleasantness) and arousal (intensity). We identified systematic patterns in the distribution of words over a bi-dimensional affective space, which (1) run counter to and supersede most prior accounts, and (2) differ drastically between word types (unique, distinct words in the lexicon) and word tokens (number of occurrences of available words in the lexicon). We argue for two factors that shape affect in language and society: a pro-social benevolent communication strategy with its emphasis on useful and dangerous phenomena, and the structure of human subjective perception of affect.

‘An Earthquake Shocked Up the Land!’ Children's Communication During Play With Siblings and Friends

AbstractThe construction of shared meanings strategies (e.g., introductions, extensions) and use of internal state language (e.g., references to mental states) during play were examined across two relationship contexts (siblings and friends) in 65 focal kindergarten‐aged children (M age = 56.4 months; SD = 5.71 months). Strategies to construct shared meanings were associated with play session; specifically focal children employed introductions more often with their siblings whereas positive/neutral responses and prosocial strategies were used more frequently with their friends. Findings regarding birth order position indicated that older focal children were more likely to engage in non‐maintenance (e.g., negative) behaviors and explanations with their siblings whereas younger focal children employed extensions of play ideas more often with their siblings than friends. Associations between shared meaning strategies and internal state language were positively correlated across both relationship contexts, with more significant associations found in the sibling play session. Findings highlight the high level of sophisticated play interaction among children during play; these interactions were rich and varied and are discussed in light of recent research and theory.