Poster #64 - Not my problem: The interplay of ascription of responsibility and empathic traits in predicting prosociality

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

There is much interest in understanding factors that enhance positive youth development to develop strength-based models of human development. One important aspect of youth healthy functioning, social wellbeing, and moral development is prosocial behaviors (i.e., actions that benefit others; Carlo, 2014). Social Information Processing (SIP) specifies intervening mechanisms through which youth process contextual stimuli and cues, then develop goals, emotional responses, judgments, and enact behavioral tendencies that result from such experiences (Dodge & Crick, 1990). Although empathic concern (i.e., feelings of concern) relates to prosocial behaviors (Eisenberg et al., 2006), a youth’s tendency to take another’s perspective during social interaction may act upon this relation by determining what amount or kind of social information they attend to. Additionally, an individual’s capacity for perspective taking may influence how a youth ascribes social responsibility for others’ plight. Thus, based on SIP, we expect that both perspective taking and ascription of responsibility could predict empathic concern such that if others’ struggles are deemed undeserving of support, empathic concern might decrease and thus curtail prosocial actions. Participants were 323 college undergraduates (Mage=19.47 years; 258 female), who were administered measures of perspective taking and empathic concern (Davis, 1980), ascription of responsibility (Weinberger & Schwartz, 1990), and prosocial behaviors (public, anonymous, altruistic ,dire, compliant, and emotional; Carlo & Randall, 2002). Preliminary hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted that entered perspective taking (step 1) and ascription of responsibility and empathic concern (step 2) predicting each prosocial behavior type. Results of each final model (see Table 1) showed that for anonymous prosocial behaviors, perspective taking and ascription of responsibility were positive predictors. For dire and compliant prosocial behaviors, perspective taking, ascription of responsibility, and empathic concern were all positive predictors. For emotional prosocial behaviors, empathic concern was a positive predictor. For public prosocial behaviors ascription of responsibility was a negative predictor. For altruistic prosocial behaviors, ascription of responsibility was a positive predictor. These findings suggest an interplay of ascription of responsibility and empathy-related traits in predicting youth prosocial behaviors. Path analyses will be conducted to directly examine the mediating effects of ascription of responsibility and empathic concern in the relations between perspective taking and prosocial behaviors. Discussion will focus on the implications for the SIP model and multidimensional models of prosocial behaviors.

Authors

• Lina Brodsky, University of California - Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Gustavo Carlo, University of California, Irvine

• Alysia Cruz, University of California - Irvine

• Marixza Torres, University of California - Irvine