Motives & Elements of Kindness: The Interplay of Personal Traits & Prosocial Behaviors

Abstract

Prosocial behavior (engagement in voluntary helping) and self-compassion (kindness towards oneself) enhance well-being and resilience, supporting mental health and fostering community cooperation, especially important in times of rapid societal changes and increasing challenges. This dissertation examines the multifaceted relationships between social information processing, individual traits, and kindness across three interconnected studies. The overarching aim is to explore how factors such as self-efficacy, empathic concern, perspective-taking, and emotional regulation influence kindness, whether that kindness be directed outward (prosocial behavior) or inwards (self-compassion).

Study 1 explores the impact of self-efficacy and positive affect on self-compassion, demonstrating that higher self-efficacy significantly enhances self-compassion; this suggests that belief in one’s own abilities can cultivate empathy towards oneself. Study 2 focuses on the role of perspective-taking, empathic concern, and the ascription of social responsibility in prosocial behaviors. Findings suggest that a strong internal ascription of social responsibility (“we are all responsible for one another”) differentiates between altruistic and self-serving motivations for helping behaviors. Study 3 delves into the interactions between attribution bias, self-regulation, and empathic concern, revealing that self-regulation and empathic concern are positively related to altruism and negatively related to self-serving helping.

The findings underscore the importance of individual emotional and cognitive processes in shaping prosocial actions and suggest practical applications for enhancing such behaviors through targeted educational and psychological interventions. By providing empirical support for these intricate relationships, this research contributes to theoretical advancements in understanding prosocial behavior and offers significant implications for practical applications in educational and therapeutic settings.