Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior Essay Example

📌Category: Behavior, Psychology
📌Words: 966
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 11 July 2020

Prosocial behavior is behavior that is voluntary and is intended to benefit the side that needs the extra help that is given by people who practice prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior is not just invoked by one action, but can be enacted in three different categories of prosocial behavior. The three categories are compliant, emotional, and altruism. Altruism is motivated people to act on concern for others voluntarily and often caused by the person feeling sympathy for the person that is needing assistance and is bred into are social norms since childhood. Empathy for others is not just based on fact and everyone shows empathy the same but can vary between situations because not a single one human is the same, but rather we can expect a different reaction to situations. This makes it extremely difficult for us to measure what people show empathy for, because we are all raised differently and none of us have had the exact same events happen in our life. 

Altruism is often caused by empathy and sympathy that might be formed from an underlying concern that is instilled in them as early as the age of one year of age. “Batson (1991) argued that sympathy is associated with the desire to reduce another's distress or need and therefore is likely to result in altruistic behavior.”(Eisenberg, Nancy). The correlation be altruism and most of the other feeling and things allocated with prosocial behavior is linked back to altruism which is the root of prosocial behavior . The prosocial behavior can be seen all throughout society, for example the Haiti earthquake they had support come from all over the world to help build the society back up. The amount of prosocial behavior that occurs when a natural disaster strikes a nation is extreme and the United Nations practices prosocial behavior all over the world. There are many scientific studies throughout the years on prosocial behavior in young and old adults. Studies have shown how people act in a certain way, in which their circumstances are, and what they have experienced in their life, some may become upset and distressed over what they've experienced or seen throughout their life.

Studies have shown that there is a strong bond between groups of people that they know and their willingness to help those people over the people they do not know from another group. Stumer said “. They found that because attachment to the person in need is an important factor in the arousal of empathic concern…” this is showing that you are more likely to help people you have had interaction with and will bring out prosocial behavior in a person quicker than if that person they had never met before. 

This is evidence that prosocial behavior is formed at a young age and that is formed around their friends and family. Kids do show more empathy towards other people because even though they might not know the person it  has been taught to them at a young age that even though they have never met them, they have been taught to be kind to all people. Kids do not have their own moral compass but rather learn from how their parents have acted or told them to act. People's sense of empathy have been passed down from the parents or taught to them by their legal guardians or their influencers in their life.

 The source of everyone's empty can be traced back to either tragic events that happened in their life or Consequences that happened to them for speaking or doing something that they thought nothing of, but then were given a consequence for doing something that they didn't even know it was wrong. This is how prosocial behavior is influenced by one's empathy and how they were taught empathy. 

There's a specific article about prosocial behavior in children conducted by a five-man research team and They used a database that has research on over a thousand children, which were researched from birth to the age of fifteen. What they found through their research is “Examining responses for third- through sixth-grade students, Laible and her colleagues found connections between children's social information processing and their later prosocial and aggressive behavior” this is showing that prosocial behavior is a heavy influence and should be considered when raising a child so that they don't develop psychological problems in their adulthood and adolescence. 

The study shows that children that are influenced positively to have good relational experiences with peers can positively influence their prosocial behavior and empathy for others. If the children are not influenced positively to interact with their peers they will most likely lash out and be aggressive and introverted, and most likely develop psychological issues in their childhood or adolescence. 

Prosocial behavior is very important in early adolescence, if it is not taught when they’re  children they will most likely develop psychological disorders and be excluded from society or not participate in social behaviors. 

There are many terms associated with prosocial behavior altruism being one of the main factors is very important that people practice altruism, otherwise will be a society without empathy or sympathy for each other causing No need to converse with each other or help each other in any way shape or form. In conclusion prosocial behavior is very important to be practiced and taught by society or there would not be groups of like minded people, and the democratic governments throughout the world would not be able to function or exist. As people get older they start to not practice Prosocial behavior as much because they have already lived their life and experienced everything that they can through helping other people and caring for them. prosocial behavior is great but if someone practices prosocial Behavior too much they will fall into a pit that they cannot dig themselves out of such thing as giving too much help. Prosocial behavior is a factor that can not be ignored and needs to be recognized or society will crumble beneath our feet.

Bibliography 

Eisenberg, Nancy, et al. “Empathy-Related Responding: Associations with Prosocial Behavior, Aggression, and Intergroup Relations.” Social Issues and Policy Review, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Dec. 2010, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3017348/

Nichols, Robert. “Prosocial Behavior.” Lehigh University, 2016, www2.lehigh.edu/news/prosocial-behavior.

Penner, Louis A, et al. Prosocial Behavior: Multilevel Perspectives. www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070141.

 

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