Social Psychology Research

Abstract Introduction: Prosocial behaviors include behaviors such as empathy, altruism, cooperation with the aim of benefiting others, which improve the level of this behavior to facilitate interactions and the well-being of the community. so the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between affiliation motivation and prosocial behavior was mediated by empathy and self-efficacy.
Method: The research method was descriptive and correlational. The statistical population included students of Bu Ali Sina University of Hamadan. The sample size was 380 students who were selected using cluster random sampling method. Research instruments included Cuadrado et al.'s (2016) affiliation motivation, the Caprara et al. (2005) prosocial behavior, the Albiro et al. (2009) empathy, and Scherer et al. (1982) self-efficacy scales. Structural equation analysis method was used to analyze the data.
Results: The results showed that the direct effect of affiliation motivation on empathy (p <0.01, β = 0.32) and self-efficacy (p <0.01, β = 0.27) was significant. The direct effect of self-efficacy (p <0.01, β = 0.30) and empathy (p <0.01, β = 0.37) on prosocial behaviors is also significant. The results showed that the indirect effects of affiliation motivation through empathy (p <0.01, Z = 7.92) and self-efficacy (p <0.01, Z = 5.27) on prosocial behavior were significant.
 
Conclusion: Based on the results, concluded that affiliation motivation, empathy and self-efficacy have a significant effect on student prosocial behaviors, so to increase these behaviors, trainings to increase self-efficacy, affiliation motivation and empathy in the educational environment can be considered.
 

Abstract Past studies indicate that prosocial behavior enhances mood. Most of these studies have only investigated mood enhancement in the specific situation that has triggered empathy; while prosocial behavior does not necessarily take place in the same situation. The goal of this study is to investigate the enhancement effect of prosocial behavior on mood between empathy-triggering situation and an unrelated situation. 60 students studying in universities of Tehran participated in this experiment. After inducing empathy & primary mood measurement, the first group conducted a situationally relevant prosocial behavior, the second group conducted a situationally irrelevant prosocial behavior, & the third group participated in a control task. Afterward, the mood of participants was measured again. After controlling for pre-test scores, prosocial behavior did not have a significant effect on negative affect (P = 0/47); but had a significant effect on positive affect (P = 0/011). Pairwise comparisons revealed that situationally irrelevant prosocial behavior enhanced positive affect more than the control task (P=0/009). Lower estimation of prosocial behavior’s success, uncertainty about improvement of the receiver’s situation, and dual perspective taking may contribute to stability of negative affect. The lack of significant difference between related prosocial behavior and control groups, and the difference between unrelated prosocial behavior and control group, can be understood by predictions of how unsuccessful prosocial behaviors are to be. This suggests that mood enhancement due to prosocial behavior is more about success of prosocial behavior rather than improving welfare of empathy subjects.

Abstract This research aimed the Developing empathy skills program based on social cognition and study of it`s effectiveness on prosocial behavior in airport service staff. This research is a kind of semi experimental study with pre-test, post-test and follow-up with the control group. The research population consisted of all Airport Services staff of Iran Air employed at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran. 24 persons of cargo service purposefully were divided into two experimental and control groups. Then prosocial personality questionnaire (pbs) was performed on both groups. The experimental group received empathy skills in eight sixty-minute session. While members of the control group received no training. Data analysis showed that the experimental group compared with the control group after the meetings, found a significant increase in prosocial behavior (α=0.05). Finally, the findings showed that empathy skills training program based on social cognition could be used as an effective therapeutic-intervention program to improve prosocial behaviors in airport services staff.

Abstract Introduction: This research was conducted with the aim of causal explanation of the prosocial behavior based on mother’s meta-emotion philosophy and the emotions of shame and guilt.
Method: The research method is a descriptive-correlational study. The statistical society included all students of the secondary high school in Shiraz city in the academic year of 2016-2017, together with their mothers. Participants were 508 students (257 girls and 251 boys) and their mothers were selected by cluster sampling method. Measurement tools included Meta-Emotion Philosophy Questionnaire (Evelyne, 2006) that have been completed by mothers, Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale (Cohen. etal, 2011) and Prosocial Tendencies Measures (Carlo & Randall, 2002) that have been completed by students. The data was analyezed by structural equation modeling applying AMOS software.
Results: The result showed that final model has a good fitness. Also, findings of research hypothesis analysis showed that mother’s emotional coaching has a direct and positive effect on the prosocial behavior and emotions of guilt and shame. Also, emotions of guilt and shame showed direct and positive effect on prosocial behaviors. Based on the findings of the research, emotions of guilt and shame had the mediating role in the relationship between mother’s emotional coaching and prosocial behavior. Mother’s acceptance/awareness didnt show any effect on research variables.
Conclusion: In general, results of this research indicated the importance of moral emotiones in prosocial behavior.