Development of Prosocial Behavior and Its Cultivation in Schools

As the population continues to decline, securing people to carry out social roles is becoming an issue in local communities. One theory suggests the potential of schools as an environment for fostering prosocial behavior that seeks to benefit others

• Dilution of mutual aid and reciprocity in local communities
• Prosocial behavior is behavior intended to benefit others
• Prosocial motivation and adolescence
• The importance of receiving evaluation and approval from others for prosocial behavior
• Implications from parenting style research
• The Possibility of an "Ethical Learning Community"
• Points to note when introducing "ethical learning communities" in Japan

Weakening of mutual assistance and reciprocity in local communities

In today's world, where the birthrate is declining, the population is aging, and there is no prospect of a significant expansion of public welfare, attention is being focused on mutual support between residents in local communities. The importance of social capital is increasingly being emphasized as a way to encourage mutual support between residents. Social capital is a concept that is often defined as the connections between people that consist of three elements: trust, networks, and the norm of reciprocity. Of these, reciprocity refers to the establishment of relationships of mutual assistance, mutual support, and give-and-take, and can be said to be an element that directly influences mutual support within a community

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However, it is possible that interaction among local residents has been weakening in recent years. According to the "Public Opinion Survey on Social Awareness" conducted by the Cabinet Office, the percentage of people who answered "I interact with people in my community" ("I interact with people often" + "I interact with people to some extent") to the question "To what extent do you interact with people in your community?" was 56.6% in 2021, but fell to 52.9% in 2023 (a direct comparison is not possible due to differences in survey methods, but the percentage in 2002 was 69.5%).

In addition, a trend of weakening of community interaction is also seen in response to the question "To what extent do you think community interaction is desirable?" The percentage of people who selected the option "Participating in local events and meetings, and helping each other when in need" was 32.2% in 2021, but fell to 29.8% in 2023. Similarly, the percentage of people who "participate in local events and meetings" fell from 28.8% in 2021 to 27.2% in 2023. Conversely, the percentage of people who only have superficial or formal interactions with their neighbors rose from 17.8% to 21.1%, indicating that more people are seeking shallow or formal relationships.

Prosocial behavior isbehavior intended to benefit others.

It is necessary to explore ways to enhance mutual support and reciprocity within communities, and prosocial behavior, or prosociality, becomes an important concept.

Prosocial behavior refers to actions intended to benefit others, while prosociality refers to the disposition of a person involved in performing prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior includes altruistic actions, which are purely acts of helping others out of concern for them without expecting anything in return, and helping actions, which also include acts of helping others with the aim of obtaining external rewards or avoiding exclusion from others.

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Prosocial behavior is behavior that contributes to the formation and maintenance of human relationships out of altruistic intent, and areas where many people engage in prosocial behavior tend to have stronger social connections. Conversely, areas with strong social connections encourage further prosocial behavior (Uchida 2020). In relation to local communities, prosocial behavior can also be seen as supporting others inside and outside the community, proactively initiating (community management) activities, and contributing to the community (ibid.).

Numerous studies have shown that prosocial behavior contributes to improving the well-being of the actor. For example, Helliwell et al. (2017) used survey data from 30,000 people in the United States to show that people who volunteered had higher levels of happiness. Also, Moynihan et al. (2015) revealed that engaging in work with prosocial motivation and confirming the results of that work is related to high levels of well-being.

Thus, prosocial behavior is beneficial to both the recipient and the performer, and cultivating the qualities to engage in prosocial behavior is of great significance.

Prosocial motivation and adolescence

Prosocial motivations are said to include autonomous (intrinsic) and regulated (extrinsic) motivations, and the more regulated the motivation, the lower an individual's subjective well-being and self-esteem tend to be.

These differences in the effects of different types of motivation become important when children enter adolescence. Adolescence is said to be the period between childhood and adulthood, beginning around the age of 10. During this period, children begin to relativize and question the values ​​and norms that have been passed down from their parents through intergenerational socialization (e.g., Oyama 2019). After scrutinizing them, they begin to internalize the values ​​and norms they deem good, and gradually begin to form their own selves.

Prosocial behavior also reflects the value of social desirability, and therefore becomes an object of scrutiny during adolescence. Research on the frequency of prosocial behavior has shown that, globally, there is a period in early adolescence when the frequency of prosocial behavior decreases (Yamamoto 2022). Yamamoto (2022) argues that prosocial behavior up to childhood is accompanied by a sense of being controlled by surrounding adults, including parents, and that prosocial behavior based on controlling motivation decreases during the process of self-formation. Furthermore, he states that this decrease in the frequency of occurrence of prosocial behavior is a developmentally typical event that occurs in the process of transitioning to autonomous motivation (Yamamoto 2022). However,

the transition from controlling motivation to autonomous motivation in prosocial behavior does not happen in one leap. Eisenberg et al., leading experts in prosocial behavior research, classified the developmental changes in prosocial motivation into six stages (quoted from Yamamoto (2022)): (1) "Hedonistic/Self-Attention Oriented Stage", (2) "Other-Demands Oriented Stage", (3) "Acceptance, Interpersonal Relationship Orientation, and Stereotype Orientation Stage", (4) "Empathy Oriented Stage", (5) "Transition Stage from Empathy Orientation to Internalization", and (6) "Strongly Internalized Stage" (see table for details).

Source: Created by the author based on the description in Yamamoto (2022)

According to this classification, motivation shifts from self-centered motivation to motivation that takes into consideration the existence of others, gradually reaching motivation based on internalized values. In Eisenberg's classification, many adolescents are at stages (3) or (4), that is, motivation based on the approval and empathy of others. This is consistent with Ito (2012), who states that the emergence of prosocial behavior changes from a stage influenced solely by values ​​to a stage influenced by both values ​​and efficacy (confidence in being able to behave prosocially)

Approval and acceptance of prosocial behavior by others is important

Given these characteristics of adolescence, fostering prosocial behavior in an environment where prosocial behavior is valued and approved is important. Tashjian et al. (2021) conducted a study of adolescents with an average age of 16 years and found that adolescents who have peer relationships that value their prosocial behavior are more likely to experience psychological rewards due to the positive feedback they receive from their peers. In contrast, adolescents who experience less appreciation for their prosocial behavior did not find a relationship between prosocial behavior and well-being (Tashjian et al., 2021). This suggests that peer recognition and approval of prosocial behavior motivates further prosocial behavior. Furthermore, Ozeki et al. (2008) investigated the impact of local relationships and culture on the prosocial behavior of junior high school students and found results supporting the finding that seeing adults more cooperative increases children's prosocial behavior

Implications from parenting style research

Research on the relationship between parental upbringing styles and children's prosocial motivations suggests that internalization of prosocial values ​​is more likely when children are presented with prosocial values ​​after their voices have been carefully listened to.

Karmakar (2017), who conducted a questionnaire survey of 610 young people aged 16-18, found that when parents adopt an authoritarian style that combines warm compassion and care with the demands for healthy development, children are more likely to engage in prosocial behaviors out of intrinsic motivation. Conversely, when parents adopt an authoritarian (dictatorial) style with less compassion and care, and more prohibitions and instructions based on the parents' convenience, prosocial behaviors are more likely to be driven by extrinsic motivation (Karmakar 2017). According to Karmakar (2017), under authoritarian parents, children feel safe and secure due to "gentle discipline" and "reciprocal parent-child relationships," allowing them to internalize conscientious behavior.

In summary, fostering prosocial behavior requires an environment where prosocial behavior is valued and prosocial values ​​are presented in a reciprocal relationship.

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Schools are a strong candidate for a place to prepare such an environment. Kaname (2019) presents data showing that people who grew up in families and communities rich in social capital tend to have a stronger sense of reciprocity and sharing of local resources, even if they later move to areas with less social capital. Therefore, even experiences in the limited group and space of school can have a positive impact on children's sense of reciprocity and, ultimately, their prosocial behavior

The Possibility of an "Ethical Learning Community"

In the United States, the concept of an "ethical learning community" has been established (Rikona and Davidson 2012), which aims to foster both intellectual excellence and moral maturity in an integrated manner within schools. An ethical learning community involves teachers, children, parents, and the community working together to make the school the best it can be.

According to Rikona and Davidson (2012), schools that form ethical learning communities practice the following six "principles":

① Maintaining a shared purpose and identity: Making the improvement of excellence and goodness the foundation of the school's educational purpose, identity, and sense of belonging to the community.

② Combining various practices with expected outcomes and related research: Confirming how existing practices are linked to the integration of excellence and goodness, that is, to performative and moral character.

③ Speaking out and demonstrating: Creating a democratic community that participates as much as possible in the pursuit of excellence and goodness. To this end, teachers, children, and parents are encouraged to speak out honestly and courageously.

④ Take personal responsibility for sustained self-growth: Treat yourself as a work in progress and do your best.

⑤ Take collective responsibility for excellence and goodness: Be considerate enough to ensure others are doing their best. Incorporate care fronting into relationships (a way of communicating needs and facing problems while valuing others).

⑥ Tackle challenging tasks: Address challenges that are often overlooked both inside and outside of school and that affect excellence and goodness.

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In relation to prosocial behavior, three factors are particularly important: (1) having a shared purpose, (3) speaking out and demonstrating through actions, and (5) showing consideration so that others can do their best. (1) Setting the development of prosocial behavior as a shared purpose leads to the overall sharing of the message that prosocial behavior is valued. (3) Speaking out and demonstrating through actions gives children opportunities to speak out and act on matters that affect them, leading to the formation of a community through two-way interaction. (5) Striving to ensure that others can do their best specifically encourages each other to take prosocial actions and increases the psychological reward of the actor by positively acknowledging and affirming these actions. Such psychological rewards are known to be an incentive for subsequent prosocial behavior and are an important element in internalizing the idea that prosocial behavior is valued.

As described above, an ethical learning community can be said to be a suitable environment for children to internalize prosocial behavior.

Points to consider when introducing "ethical learning communities" in Japan

However, since the concept of an ethical learning community originated in the United States and is based on American culture and ways of thinking, there are several points to consider when implementing it in Japan.

Firstly, in order to take collective responsibility for excellence, Rikona and Davidson (2012) suggest that it is important to be compassionate but also clearly point out to friends who are not doing their best. In this regard, in Japanese culture, it is possible that speaking directly to someone can be a major psychological hurdle, and it is necessary to consider separate measures to encourage mutual awareness in a culture that values ​​the group.

Secondly, while an ethical learning community requires best efforts to pursue excellence and goodness, it is important to keep in mind that this is one goal and not something that is immediately required of all children. Some children may not have a sense of psychological security due to various circumstances such as their home environment. For such children, the goal is to gain a sense of security and have their place guaranteed. It is necessary to consider such a multi-stage approach.

Thirdly, in order to realize an ethical learning community, it is considered important to treat teachers and staff the same way as the children. In other words, it is necessary to create opportunities for people to speak out about their lives and work, and to build a sense of collegiality where mutual support is valued and celebrated. This point is also cited as a major challenge in the current reform of teachers' working styles.

If these challenges can be overcome, realizing an ethical learning community in Japan is worth considering.

(This article was originally published in the November 2024 issue of 'EN-ICHI FORUM' and has been revised and expanded.)

References

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