Strategies to Promote Prosocial Behaviour (DP IB Psychology)
Revision Note
Prior commitment to promote prosocial behaviour
The ultimate aim behind promoting prosocial behaviour is to reach a wide audience, to communicate the core values behind prosocial behaviour, for example:
to exercise care of and kindness to others
to be a responsible citizen, a custodian of the planet
to uphold the legal, moral and ethical values/guides of society (e.g. one’s home city, country or the world in general)
Prosocial behaviour may be promoted via several different sources, for example:
governments (e.g. TV adverts asking people to recycle)
schools (e.g. nurturing key prosocial behavioural traits in children)
global corporations (e.g. Coca Cola’s ‘Open Happiness’ campaign that put the emphasis on spreading positive ‘vibes’ and prosocial acts rather than on profit)
Prior commitment is based on the idea that people are more likely to behave in a prosocial way if they have already been encouraged to feel responsible for providing assistance to someone or to a cause
Prior commitment involves getting active and willing participation in a prosocial act from someone who may not have initially set out to behave prosocially
The operationalising of prior commitment in people is a key step towards prosocial behaviours such as crime prevention as it fosters in people the idea of shared responsibility and a duty of care towards others
In essence, prior commitment involves securing an agreement or intention from people to behave prosocially
Promoting prosocial behaviour in school settings
School exerts a great influence on children:
friendships are formed
skills and talents are honed
interpersonal skills are practised
A child’s experience of school sets them up for life academically and socially
The promotion of prosocial behaviour can be seen in initiatives such as:
anti-bullying programmes‘
‘buddy’ mentoring systems
community programmes e.g. picking up litter, raising money for good causes
Promoting prosocial behaviour in schools can have valuable outcomes which go beyond academic attainment, for example:
Understanding that focusing on the self above all else is ultimately detrimental for everyone
Behaving prosocially brings huge benefits to an individual
Deriving a sense of community and belonging
Research which investigates promoting prosocial behaviour
Dickerson et al. (1992): operationalising prior commitment to using less water
Flook et al. (2015): instigation of a kindness-based curriculum in a primary school
Dickerson et al. (1992) and Flook et al. (2015) are available as ‘Two Key Studies of Promoting Prosocial Behaviour’ – just navigate the Social Responsibility section to find them.
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