Prosocial Behaviors around the World
The term prosocial behavior is generally understood to mean a voluntary act that is aimed at helping othersProsocialal practices are categorized by the urge to care for other peoples’ feelings or welfare. For instance, feeling empathy for someone or a stranger can be classified as prosocial behavior. This paper will help me shed new light on my take on my culture and South-African culture concern in prosocial behaviors.
Psychological view
From a scientific perspective, psychologists suggest several reasons can contribute to prosocial behavior. The primary reason that is noteworthy is the moderators of resource sharing factors. This factor brings out the highest possibility of people giving out more of their resources to relatives of closer genetic relatedness. Psychologists believe that prosocial behaviors are based on motivation and cognitive value; selectivity can occur (Vondervort et al. 2018). For instance, at preschool, I would always find it easy to share my stationeries with my sister and still hesitate to share with my distant cousin. The selectivity, conformity, values, and traditions instilled renders the promotion or inhibition of prosaic behaviors.
The Spectacular South African Culture
In the absolute sense, people ought to behave prosocially since, despite being morally correct, it also has benefits to society at large. My trip to South Africa has had me question our humanity. The diversity of the country is accompanied by brilliant empathy among the people. Research suggests that when people help mostly depends on the feeling of personal responsibility (Verhoeven 2017). Noteworthy is the significant gap between my culture and the South-African culture. For instance, at some point in their famous Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa, I somehow lost my way shortly after excusing myself from my escort. After so much attempt of trying to recall my earlier spot, a random lady approached me and offered to help after gesturing she noticed I was having a difficult time. The social approach here points out the norms of the social responsibility of a culture.
Situational Influence
Every day people are always in need of something, and some, however, are not able to meet requirements. For instance, in my city, when someone is involved in a car accident, there is a high likelihood of fewer witnesses reaching out to help due to assumptions. The situation of the occurrence of many people makes them think that one among them probably has asked for help. My people only help when they feel secure, which can rarely happen. However, this is not the case in South African culture. They value more than themselves and are relentless to help. According to (Verhoeven 2017), imagining you are in the same situation as a victim of a problem can cause prosocial behavior. One incident in support of the mentioned cause is of a woman who approached a group of women crying of hunger, homelessness, and domestic violence. The provision of food, temporary home, and further the negotiations involved to help sustain the woman’s marriage despite her being a stranger was influenced by the women putting themselves in her shoes. This practice is contrary to my culture; social behavior is influenced by social or personal standards.
Conclusion
The evidence of this study shows that prosocial behaviors exist among people but are still influenced by the situations, and more importantly, the culture that is instilled among the people. The aspect of valuing and caring is found in everyone, but it is limited to the values of ones’ culture or hereditary factors. My culture, as discussed above, promotes prosocial behavior based on security or contempt and personal standards. The South-African culture, however, displays prosocial behaviors diversely without putting into consideration any other factor besides the problem at handProsocialal behaviors are instill good morals in the society, and any culture should promote the practice of a prosocial nation.
References
Van de Vondervoort, J. W., Aknin, L. B., Kushnir, T., Slevinsky, J., & Hamlin, J. K. (2018). Selectivity in toddlers’ behavioral and emotional reaction prosocial and antisocial others. Developmental psychology, 54(1), 1.
Verhoeven, J. M. C. (2017). The effect of physical proximity on empathy on prosocial behavior through reading (Master’s thesis, University of Twente).