Empathy as a motivator of prosocial behaviour in children / by Jennifer Alexandra Poole.

67 Pages·2005·1.21 MB·English

by  Poole, Jennifer Alexandra.

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EMPATHY AS A MOTIVATOR OF PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN
CHILDREN
Jennifer Alexandra Poole
B.A. (Kons.), University of Waterloo, 1988
THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS (PSYCHOLOGY)
in the Department
of
Psychology
O Jennifer Alexandra Poole 1991
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
October, 199 1
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APPROVAL
Name: Jennifer A1e xandra Pool e
Degree: Master of Arts (Psychology)
Title of Thesis: Empathy as a Motivator of Prosocial Behaviour in
Children
Examining Committee:
Chairperson: Dr. Paul Bakan
Dr. C. McFarland
Dr. E. Arnes
Dr. R.A. Fabes
Department of Family Resources
and Human Development
Arizona State University
Date Approved:
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Titie of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay
Empathy as a Motivator of Prosocial Behaviour i n Children -
Author :
t S i gnature
Jennifer Alexandera : Pool e
( name
Abstract
Previous findings have indicated that empathy is a weaker motivator of
prosocid behaviour among children than adults. However, research with children
has typically involved a general measure of empathy and a contextually unrelated
measure of prosocial behaviour. In the present study, one purpose was to examine
whether prosocial behaviour towards a target person varied as a function of both
a target person-specific empathy measure and a general empathy measure. A
second purpose was to investigate whether empathy motivates allocentrically,
rather than egocentrically, directed prosocial behaviour by using an ease-of-
escape manipulation adapted from research with adults.
Children's empathy with characters depicted in seven videotaped vignettes
(Strayer's Empathy Continuum) was assessed for 180 ten-year-old girls providing
a general empathy measure. Children's person-specific empathy was also
assessed, using a videotape of s ten-year-old girl, who was in need of help with
her schoolwork. Prosocial behaviour was measured in terms of amount of time
offered to help. Half of the children thought that they would see this girl in the
future (difficult-escape condition); the other half thought that they would not see
her in the future (easyescape condition).
A 2 (high versus low person-specific empathy) x 2 (high versus low general
empathy) x 2 (easy versus difficult escape) ANOVA indicated that children with
high general empathy scores offered significantly more help than did those with
low general empathy scores. Contrary to expectations, children with high or low
person-specific empathy scores did not significantly differ in the amount of help
offered. While these findings support the general view of empathy as a motivator
of children's prosocial behaviour, they do not indicate that children are more
likely to help another person if their empathic responding is activated towards that
person. Additional findings confirmed past research indicating more help for the
target person in the difficult-escape than in the easy-escape condition. Although
mean differences varied in the directions expected for the general empathy and
ease-of-escape interaction, the interactions for empathy and ease-of-escape were
not significant. Therefore, the hypothesis that empathy motivates allocentric
prosocial behaviour could not be confirmed.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Dr. Janet Strayer and Dr. Cathy McFarlmd for their help in
the preparation of this thesis. I also extend thanks to the Burnaby School Board
for dlowing rne to conduct my research in the schools and to the many principals
and teachers, without whose cooperation, this study would not have been possible.
Most especially, I wouId like to thadc the 180 elementary school students who
participated in this study.
Finally, I would like to thank my husband, David, and my family and friends
for all of their support and encouragement.
Table of Contents
. ..
Approval Page
11
.- .
.
Abstract
111
.
Acknowledgements v
List of Tables vii
.
Introduction 1
Method 11
Subjects I I
.
Procedure 11
Results 17
.
Descriptive Statistics 17
Person-specific empathy measure 17
General empathic responsivity measure 17
.
Helping measure 18
Analysis of Variance . 18
.
Correlations Between Empathy and Helping 22
Correlation For General Empathy and Helping Without Lower
25% of EC Scores . 23
.
Discussion 23
.
References 3 3
.
Appendix A 45
Appendix B . 47
.
Appendix C 49
.
Appendix D 54
Appendix E . 55
Appendix F . 57
List of Tables
1 Predictions of Amunt of Children's Helping When Ease-
of-Escape is Varied and High vs. Low General Empathy
is Measured . 38
2 Predictions of Amount of Children's Helping When Ease-
of-Escape is Varied and High vs. Low Perssn-Specific
Empathy is Measured .
3 Means, Standard Deviations, and Ranges of Children's Scores
on Each of the Seven EC Vignettes and the Person-Specific
Vignette 40
4 Results of Four-Way ANOVA 41
5 Results of Three-Way ANOVA 42
6 The Means and Standard Deviations of Children's Helping for
the Person-Spedfic Empathy x Ease-of-Escape Interaction,
.
Collapsing Across General Empathy 43
7 The Means and Standard Deviations of Children's Helping for
the General Empathy x Ease-of-Escape Interaction,
.
Collapsing Across Person-Specific Empathy 44