Emotion understanding and the moral self-concept as motivators of prosocial behavior in middle childhood

Abstract

The moral self-concept reflects the view of oneself in terms of moral behavior and has been proposed to predict actual behavior. Theories also suggest emotions and emotion knowledge to predict prosocial behavior, but the interplay between the moral self-concept and emotions is largely unknown. This interplay is especially important to study in middle childhood, a relevant period for the ontogeny of the moral self-concept and when emotions regarding prosocial behavior are suggested to change. The current study explored the nature of the relation between the moral self-concept, prosocial behavior, and consequential emotions (Experiment 1) or anticipated emotions (Experiment 2) regarding prosocial behavior in 5-to 9-year-olds (together N=169). Moreover, we investigated whether emotions mediate the relation between the moral self-concept and prosocial behavior. Overall, the moral self-concept was positively related to prosocial behavior. In addition, emotional consequences as well as anticipated emotions explained age differences in sharing behavior. Moreover, the results hint to an indirect effect of the moral self-concept on sharing behavior through the anticipation of negative feelings when not-sharing. Interestingly, children who first reflected about the affective consequences of prosocial behavior seemed to share more. In line with theories, the results demonstrate that both the moral self-concept and emotions are relevant motivators of prosocial behavior in middle childhood.

App-based learning for kindergarten children at home (Learning4Kids): study protocol for cohort 1 and the kindergarten assessments

“…In addition, they were also asked, whether their own sharing behaviour was good and "why" or "why not" it was good, and whether another fictitious child who did not share should be punished (cf. [54][55][56]).…”

Peran pengaturan diri dan konsep diri terhadap prestasi pelajaran IPS

“…Peraturan intrinsik untuk kegiatan pembelajaran dan konsep diri adalah dua keadaan motivasi positif yang menumbuhkan fungsi optimal di sekolah yang dipengaruhi oleh kualitas ikatan emosional dengan orang lain (Ryan & Deci, 2017). Konsep diri mencerminkan pandangan diri dalam hal perilaku moral dan telah diusulkan untuk memprediksi perilaku aktual (Christner, Pletti, & Paulus, 2020). Konsep diri berperan penting dalam lingkungan sosial siswa (Marsh & Martin, 2011;Marsh, Xu, & Martin, 2012).…”

A question of morals? The role of moral identity in support of the youth climate movement Fridays4Future

“…MI, in contrast, might bypass this problem as the natural need for self-consistency should motivate people to act according to their self-identity [ 15 ]. And indeed, studies using the MI framework suggest that MI is a good predictor for actual behavior: For example, MI has been significantly associated with moral behavior in general, such as prosocial behavior, ethical behavior, civic engagement, and avoidance of antisocial behavior on a large number of studies [ 10 , 11 , 16 , 18 , 22 – 24 ]. It also has been found to be linked to lower ingroup bias in intergroup resource allocations [ 25 – 27 ], feelings of guilt when not acting in a moral way [ 28 ] as well as willingness to sacrifice time for a prosocial cause [ 26 ].…”