Pro-Social Behavior and Aspects of Mental Health : MindsetOpediaNPWC Blogs

Pro-Social Behavior and Aspects of Mental Health

Varalika Mishra and Shruti Jha, Council Members, WICCI NPWC

Pro-social behavior includes a wide range of actions such as helping, sharing, comforting, and cooperating. The term itself originated during the 1970s and was introduced by social scientists as an antonym for the term anti-social behavior.

The benefits of pro-social activities have been well-supported in the literature. Pro-social acts have been shown to boost a number of mental states including life satisfaction, well-being, and psychological flourishing. Pro-social behavior fosters a better sense of self-esteem for the person who does it and a sense of community. Healthy communities are built on pro-social behavior that helps protect the health, safety, and happiness of their residents.

Behavior such as caring, helping, sharing and volunteering are encompassed under the

category of pro-social behavior. While pro-social behavior's is often presented as a single,

uniform dimension, some research suggests that there are different types. These types are

distinguished based on why they are produced:

Proactive : These are pro-social actions that serve self-benefitting purposes.

Reactive : These are actions that are performed in response to individual needs.

Altruistic : These include actions that are meant to help others without any expectations of

personal gain.

Researchers also suggest that these different types of pro-social behavior's are often likely to

be motivated by differing forces. For example, pro-active pro-social actions were found to

often be motivated by status-linked goals and popularity within a group. Altruistic pro-social

behavior's, on the other hand, were more closely linked to being liked by peers and

achieving shared goals.

In order to build and increase prosocial behavior's in adults, one must strive to demonstrate

and encourage helping behavior's. Helping others is a common aspect of everyday life, yet,

people take a step back from this, which leaves one to wonder: WHY ?. After all, should we

help others in situations where we expect little or nothing in return. This is a complex issue,

and one to which there is as yet no final answer. However, research findings have identified

three possible motives as the ones most likely to play a role in the above.

The first of these involves the unselfish motive to help others who are in need of our help.

This is known as the empathy–altruism hypothesis, and it suggests that when we encounter

people who need help, we experience empathy, we somehow share their feelings or needs and so are motivated to help them. Their needs, not our own, are of primary importance, and we act accordingly: We help them.

A second, and sharply contrasting, possibility is known as the negative state relief

hypothesis. According to this view, when we see another person in need of help, this induces

negative feelings in us. To relieve these, we help the person. Notice that although the result is the same, we offer our assistance, the motivation underlying this action is very different. We are concerned with our feelings, and we help not because we care about or empathize with the other person, but simply because helping them makes us feel better.

Finally, a third view emphasizes the role of genetic factors. According to this genetic

determinism hypothesis, we help others because doing so increases the likelihood that our

genes, or ones similar to them, will be passed on to the next generation. According to this

view, then, we will offer help only to others who are somehow similar to ourselves and

therefore likely to share some of our genes. Thus, we are especially likely to offer help to

people who are related to us rather than to total strangers.

Researchers have also have suggested that five key things must happen in order for a person

to take action. An individual must notice what is happening, interpret the event as an

emergency, experience feelings of responsibility, believe that they have the skills to help and

finally make a conscious choice to offer assistance.