权益分类	功能权益	普通用户	{{item.name}}会员
{{category.name}}	{{benefitItem.name}}

Specifying the relation of empathy and prosocial tendencies: Examining the physiological state of the helper and the role of emotional experiences of targets in need

明确同理心和亲社会倾向的关系：检查帮助者的生理状态和需要目标的情感体验的作用

基本信息

批准号：
321135581
负责人：
Dr. Claudia Sassenrath
金额：
--
依托单位：
Abteilung Sozialpsychologie
依托单位国家：
德国
项目类别：
Research Grants
财政年份：
2016
资助国家：
德国
起止时间：
2015-12-31 至 2020-12-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/321135581?language=en
关键词：
Specifying relation empathy prosocial tendencies

项目摘要

The present project addresses two innovative ideas regarding the well-documented beneficial effect of empathy on helping behavior (sometimes labeled as the empathy-altruism hypothesis; e.g., Batson et al., 1988; Batson, Chang, Orr, & Rowland, 2002; see Batson & Shaw, 1991 for an overview). Specifically, it is tested whether empathy with a person in need (i.e., the target) only leads to increased prosocial behavior (i.e., helping behavior) if the target expresses sadness in face of the need-causing event and not another negative emotion such as, for example, anger. Beyond that, the project will address an underlying mechanism of the empathy-helping association that has not been considered so far: the affective-motivational state of the helper assessed with psychophysiological measurements (impedance cardiography). Thereby, this project, for the first time, examines a so far neglected but likely boundary condition of the empathy-helping association: the emotional experience expressed by the target in need. Moreover, applying the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat (Blascovich & Tomaka, 1996) to the field of empathy allows for an online assessment of helpers current affective-motivational state while processing information about a target in need. This represents a methodological advancement given that so far, helpers affective states has been assessed mainly via self-reports (e.g. Batson et al., 1988; Cialdini, et al., 1987), which are prone to biases in introspection and demand characteristics (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977; Orne, 1962). Using impedance cardiography not only addresses these methodological shortcomings. It also contributes to an ongoing debate regarding the underlying determinants of empathy-induced helping, namely whether it is truly altruistically determined or whether it is egoistically determined by the wish to reduce a negative affective state in the helper. Specifically, the current project examines whether potential helpers empathizing with a sad target experience this as challenge (and not as threat) which in turn fosters helping the target in need. Helpers should see themselves as disposing of more resources to cope with the situational demands than the sad needy target because helpers are usually not affected by the situation in the same way as the target (i.e. they do not require help as the target does). Moreover, emotions experienced by a target in need inform potential helpers about how the target estimates his or her coping potential in the situation (cf. Frijda, 1986; Frijda, Kuipers, & Ter Schure, 1989): Sadness implies not having enough resources to cope with a situation whereas anger implies being able to cope with the situation. Furthermore, active helping behavior more likely results from challenge than from threat which is related to inhibitory tendencies (e.g., Pérez-Edgar, et al., 2010).

本项目涉及两个创新的想法，关于共情对帮助行为的良好记录的有益影响（有时被称为共情利他主义假设;例如，巴特森等人，1988年;巴特森，张，奥尔，和罗兰，2002年;见巴特森和肖，1991年的概述）。具体地说，它是测试是否同情一个有需要的人（即，目标）仅导致增加的亲社会行为（即，帮助行为），如果目标在面对引起需要的事件时表达悲伤，而不是另一种负面情绪，例如愤怒。除此之外，该项目将解决一个潜在的机制，移情帮助协会尚未考虑到目前为止：情感动机状态的帮助与心理生理测量（阻抗心动图）评估。因此，这个项目，第一次，探讨了一个迄今为止被忽视的，但可能的边界条件的共情帮助协会：情感体验所表达的目标需要。此外，将挑战和威胁的生物心理社会模型（Blascovich & Tomaka，1996）应用于共情领域，可以在线评估帮助者当前的情感动机状态，同时处理有关需要帮助的目标的信息。这代表了方法上的进步，因为到目前为止，帮助者的情感状态主要通过自我报告来评估（例如，巴特森等人，1988; Cialdini等人，1987），这是倾向于偏见的内省和需求特征（尼斯贝特和威尔逊，1977年;奥恩，1962年）。使用心阻抗图不仅解决了这些方法上的缺陷。它也有助于一个正在进行的辩论，共情诱导的帮助的基本决定因素，即是否是真正的利他主义决定的，或者是否是利己主义决定的希望，以减少一个消极的情感状态的帮助。具体来说，目前的项目研究是否潜在的帮助者同情一个悲伤的目标经验，这是一个挑战（而不是威胁），这反过来又促进帮助有需要的目标。协助者应视自己为比有需要的受助人者可动用更多资源来科普情境的需要，因为协助者通常不会像受助人者那样受到情境的影响（即他们不像受助人者那样需要帮助）。此外，需要帮助的目标所经历的情绪会告知潜在的帮助者，目标如何估计他或她在这种情况下的应对潜力（参见Frijda，1986年; Frijda，Kuipers，& Ter Schure，1989）：悲伤意味着没有足够的资源来科普一种情况，而愤怒意味着能够科普这种情况。此外，主动帮助行为更可能来自挑战，而不是来自与抑制倾向相关的威胁（例如，Pérez-Edgar等人，2010年）。