Abstract
The present study examined how agreeableness, self-transcendence values, and empathic self-efficacy beliefs predict individuals' tendencies to engage in prosocial behavior (i.e., prosociality) across time. Participants were 340 young adults, 190 women and 150 men, age approximately 21 years at Time 1 and 25 years at Time 2. Measures of agreeableness, self-transcendence, empathic self-efficacy beliefs, and prosociality were collected at 2 time points. The findings corroborated the posited paths of relations, with agreeableness directly predicting self-transcendence and indirectly predicting empathic self-efficacy beliefs and prosociality. Self-transcendence mediated the relation between agreeableness and empathic self-efficacy beliefs. Empathic self-efficacy beliefs mediated the relation of agreeableness and self-transcendence to prosociality. Finally, earlier prosociality predicted agreeableness and empathic self-efficacy beliefs assessed at Time 2. The posited conceptual model accounted for a significant portion of variance in prosociality and provides guidance to interventions aimed at promoting prosociality.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1289-1303 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |
| Volume | 102 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 1 2012 |
Keywords
- Agreeableness
- Empathic self-efficacy beliefs
- Longitudinal mediational model
- Prosociality
- Self-transcendence values
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Sociology and Political Science