Prosocial Behavior
Pro social behaviors are those intended to help other people. These actions are characterized by a
concern for the rights, feelings, and welfare of other people. Behaviors that can be described as pro
social include feeling empathy and concern for others. Prosocial 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 antisocial behavior.
Historically, the term prosocial behavior has been used only since the 1970s. Social scientists began
using the term as an antonym for antisocial behavior. A body of research evolved to illuminate the
psychology of giving, helping, and sharing.
Types of Pro social behavior
These types are distinguished based on why they are produced and include:
 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 expectation
Benefits of Pro social Behavior
 Mood-boosting effects: Research has also shown that people who engage in pro social
behaviors are more likely to experience better moods.1 Not only that, but people also who help
others tend to experience negative moods less frequently.
 Social support benefits: Having social support can be crucial for getting through difficult
times. Research has shown that social support can have a powerful impact on many aspects of
wellness, including reducing the risk of loneliness, alcohol use, and depression.
 Stress-reducing effects: Research has also found that engaging in pro social behaviors helps
mitigate the negative emotional effects of stress. Helping others may be a great way to reduce
the impact of stress in your life.
Psychologists suggested there are several reasons why people engage in prosocial behavior.
 Evolutionary influences: Evolutionary psychologists often explain prosocial behaviors in
terms of the principles of natural selection. While putting your own safety in danger makes it
less likely that you will survive to pass on your own genes, kin selection suggests that helping
members of your own genetic family makes it more likely that your kin will survive and pass
1
on genes to future generations. Researchers have been able to produce some evidence that
people are often more likely to help those to whom they are closely related.4
 Personal benefits: Pro social behaviors are often seen as being compelled by several factors
including egoistic reasons (doing things to improve one's self-image), reciprocal benefits (doing
something nice for someone so that they may one day return the favor), and more altruistic
reasons (performing actions purely out of empathy for another individual).
 Reciprocal behavior: The norm of reciprocity suggests that when people do something helpful
for someone else, that person feels compelled to help in return. This norm developed,
evolutionary psychologists suggest, because people who understood that helping others might
lead to reciprocal kindness were more likely to survive and reproduce.
 Socialization: In many cases, such behaviors are fostered during childhood and adolescence as
adults encourage children to share, act kindly, and help others.5
The bystander effect is one of the most notable examples of how the situation can impact helping
behaviors. The bystander effect refers to the tendency for people to become less likely to assist a
person in distress when there are several other people also present.
Religiosity/Spirituality
The term Spirituality comes from the word Spirit (to breathe) and there is general agreement that
spirituality is a living, dynamic process that is oriented around whatever the individual may hold sacred.
The sacred refers the concept of God and as well as other aspects of life that hold divine character and
significance due to their association with the holy.
Religion can be defined as a system of beliefs with certain rituals, and practices, which are
learned and demonstrated in places of worship. Religion differs from spirituality in that spirituality is
considered a way of living that predetermines how individuals respond to life experiences. Religion
includes the expression of spirituality through participation in organized communities and traditions that
share these ultimate concerns.
Purposes of spirituality:
 Finding a spiritual purpose involves not just discovering the meaning of life but also striving
to become your best self throughout life.
 Spirituality is a way of gaining perspective.
 It can relieve you from dependence on material things and help you to understand your life’s
greater purpose.
2
 Spirituality can also be used as a way of coping with change or uncertainty.
Pathways of spirituality:
These paths include traditional or nontraditional organized religious beliefs study,
1.
Traditional pathways:
 Prayer: The Pathway to Intimacy
 Fasting: The Pathway to Spiritual Nourishment
 Fellowship: The Pathway to Love
 Worship: The Pathway to God’s Presence
2.
Non-Traditional pathways:
1. Walking in the outdoors
2. Journaling
3. listening to music
4. Scientific study
5. Intimate relations with others
6. Participating in sociopolitical action
The Relationship Between Spirituality, Health-Related Behavior, and Psychological Well-Being
According to Alborzi and colleagues (2019) found the positive impact of spirituality on physical
health and mental health as well as on other positive health outcomes such as (subjective wellbeing, health-related quality of life, coping skills, recovering from mental illness, or less
addictive or suicidal behaviors).
The Impact of Spirituality/Religious on Health
In 2016 one study found the impact of spirituality on health, Recourse to spiritual powers leads
to reductions in anxiety and concern among patients and their families and allows people to
more easily accept and cope with their health disorders.
Altruism
The term of altruism was coined by French philosopher and sociologists Augusta comrate (1798-1958)
derived from Italian word “altru” meaning “to others” or “off others”. Altruism that carried out to
3
benefit others without anticipation of any kind of reward. Driven exclusively by empathy, focus on
others person wellbeing and finding out solution to their problem.
Types of altruism:
1. Kin altruism: It happens when you unselfishly support your family members and loved ones or
make personal sacrifices on their behalf. (Letting a loved one eat the last piece of cake when you
really want it, giving your sweater to a partner when it’s cold even if you just have a t-shirt)
2. Reciprocal altruism: It occurs when you help someone knowing that, at some point, they may
help you in the future as well. (Loaning a friend money, who helped you cover bills
Helping
your classmate with a project, who helped you study, Holding the elevator for your colleague, who
brought you a coffee).
3. Cultural group altruism: It involves supporting someone who’s part of a group you are
associated with, including ethnic and social groups. (Donating money to an organization that
supports people of your background, Donating items to people in your religious groups)
4. Pure altruism: It involves helping someone from a place of empathy knowing you will see no
benefit, often in high stake situations. (Giving a person who’s unhoused spare change and a new
pair of shoes , Holding open the door for a stranger , Helping an older adult walking with a cane
cross the street.)
5. Genetic altruism: As the name suggests, this type of altruism involves engaging in altruistic acts
that benefit close family members. For example, parents and other family members often engage in
acts of sacrifice to provide for the needs of family members.
Empathy
Empathy is the ability to emotionally understand what other people feel, see things from their
point of view, and imagine yourself in their place. Essentially, it is putting yourself in someone else's
position and feeling what they are feeling. Empathy means that when you see another person suffering,
such as after they've lost a loved one, you can instantly envision yourself going through that same
experience and feel what they are going through.
Foundations of Empathy
1.
Know you are social
Recent research indicates that our brains are "wired" for empathy, and our evolutionary history
identifies our ability to be highly collaborative and cooperative. In the last twenty years, brain
scientists have discovered physiological capacities that suggest humans possess a "Social
Brain," carried on a stream of mirror neurons, suggesting our brains are neurologically wired to
be social.
4
2. Just Like Me
Another foundation for Empathy is a type of “mind-set” that other people are just like you; they
generally want the same important things from their life and work, and just like you, they just want to
be effective, happy and successful too.When you realize this fundamental unity and similarity with
others, and you adopt this foundational mind-set, Empathy then naturally arises. “Hey, this person is
basically just like me. I can identify and empathize with them.”
3.
Cultivating Kindness
Another foundational “mind-set” to develop Empathy is to adopt a habit of generally wishing
people to be well and happy. This leads you to naturally develop a capacity for human kindness. When
you truly wish people to be well and happy and successful, you tend to become a kinder person. And
you also shift away from the limited Ego side of our nature which is often overly concerned with the
ego-based self-survival and self-ambition, often at the expense of others. When you are a kinder person,
people want to be around you because they know you care about them and wish them well
__________________________
5