This thesis explores the idea that those who have childhood victimization through abuse may be more likely to go into professions that directly help others as adults. This idea comes from Agnew's general strain theory and is an example of positive coping and prosocial coping. Coping is the response necessary when strains are introduced to an individual. They may be positive or negative. Prosocial coping is an individual using their coping mechanisms to help themselves by helping others in their community. This thesis uses data from the “National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), 1994-2008" Harris and Udry, North Carolina Chapel Hill. Questions about abuse and employment are coded and run through statistical analysis. These analyses are independent sample t-tests binary regression models. Findings are discussed and further research in this area is suggested.

Social media is a critical and omnipresent component in Millennials' lives. Using social media can lead to significant social change for societies both online and offline. Social media can be used as a tool to combat domestic and foreign terrorism and to protect our society. Prosocial perceptions and behaviors exhibited on a social media platform can transcend online social culture and produce replicas of those behaviors in the real world. Research in social activism portrayed by Millennials via social media is limited, and research regarding social media use and counterterrorism behaviors of Millennials has not yet been attempted. The current quantitative study assessed social media and its potential use for counterterrorism behaviors by Millennials by establishing if there were correlations between Millennials' social media usage and the existence or potential of using social media for counterterrorism behaviors. Reliability, exploratory factor analyses, as well as linear and hierarchical regression analyses were performed on a sample of 178 participants to establish if social media usage is predictive for counterterrorism behaviors while assessing if any variance is attributed to moderating variables. Positive relationships were found between social media preferences, networking power, and preferences for social responsibilities and counterterrorism behaviors. The survey used a modified instrument to address counterterrorism type behaviors in connection to social media usage, due to the inexistence of such instrument insofar. The results of the study contribute to social change by providing information on how to detect and increase counterterrorism behaviors and attitudes through social learning via social media platforms.

Classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) procedures have been shown to substantially increase academic performance. Other positive outcomes, incidentally observed, include enhanced prosocial behaviors and increased appropriate interactions among peers. This study examined the direct effects of a CWPT program on peer relations and academic performance. A mixed first- and second-grade general education classroom participated in a CWPT spelling intervention with a comparable control classroom. The study consisted of three phases-Baseline (4 weeks), Intervention (6 weeks), and Follow-up (4 weeks). Dependent measures included sociometric peer rating scales and spelling test scores. Results were analyzed by determining mean change for each participant and each social status group for both experimental and control classrooms. The data indicate that CWPT positively influenced students' peer acceptance and improved spelling performance.

The purpose of this study was to analyze whether cultural differences existed in forms of aggression and prosocial behaviors among 8 to 10 year old students in Ireland (N=145) and Puerto Rico (N=56) and if the prevalence of these forms of aggression differed between genders. Classroom teachers using the Children’s Social Behavior Scale – Teacher Form (Crick, 1996) rated all students in their classes on relational aggression, physical aggression, and prosocial behaviors. Three 2 (culture) by 2 (gender) analyses of variance were performed on each of the following dependent variables: relational aggression, physical aggression, and prosocial behavior. Teachers reported greater prevalence of relational aggression in Puerto Ricanstudents and greater prevalence of prosocial behavior among Irish students. Nosignificant differences were reported between cultures in physical aggression. Teachersreported higher prevalence of physical aggression among males compared to females andhigher prevalence of prosocial behavior among females when compared to males. Nosignificant gender differences were found in relational aggression. An interaction effectwas found in prosocial behavior with Irish females being higher in prosocial behaviorthan Puerto Rican females and Irish males. This research supports that culturaldifferences exist in relational aggression and prosocial behaviors among 8 to 10 yearviiolds. Gender differences in physical aggression and prosocial behaviors in this agesample were also supported. Future research, and the study's limitations were discussed.

This paper introduces a dynamic model to illustrate how the self, the work, and the environment interactively influence the experience of work meaningfulness during the employment period. While individuals might enter an organization with intent to improve or protect others¡¦ well-being, their perceived degree of work meaningfulness might be strengthened or weakened within jobs. Other factors from their work and the environment could come into play. Specifically, the proposed model presents how the interplay between prosocial motivation, perceived task significance, and perceived external prestige of an organization affect the experienced meaningfulness of work jointly. This paper tests the model by surveying employees from the high-tech sector and the police sector using the questionnaire method. The results show that individuals who have prosocial motivation indeed experience a sense of work meaningfulness initially. Even when individuals are prosocially motivated, the perceived external prestige of their organizations positively affects their experience in meaningfulness of work. Furthermore, the perceived level of task significance of one¡¦s work overpowers the existing prosocial motivation when it comes to altering the perception of work meaningfulness. The findings indicate that factors from different dimensions could alter the experienced meaningfulness of work together, and the relation between prosocial motivation and work meaningfulness is dynamic.

Episodic simulation refers to the construction of imagined, hypothetical events that might occur in one's personal future. Damage to our capacity for episodic simulation can produce grave consequences, impairing our ability to anticipate, plan, and prepare for the future. New theoretical approaches have begun to uncover the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying episodic simulation, but much remains to be examined. The purpose of this dissertation is to further investigate the mechanisms supporting episodic simulation as well as the functions it serves. In the first study of the dissertation I examine age-related deficits in imagining the future, remembering the past, and describing the present (Paper 1). These findings replicate known deficits in older adults in episodic simulation and memory, yet provide evidence of non-episodic processes that also shape their expression. I next examine component cognitive and neural processes that are recruited to generate imagined events (Paper 2). Distinct regions of the hippocampus were active when encoding, tracking novelty, or constructing imagined events, suggesting a multifaceted role of the hippocampus in supporting episodic simulation. Finally, I present evidence that episodic simulation and memory can be used to facilitate empathy, that is, intentions to help a person in need (Paper 3). People are more willing to help a person in need after imagining or remembering helping that individual. Furthermore, the episodic vividness of these imagined or remembered events heightened intentions to help. These findings elucidate a previously unconsidered mechanism for facilitating empathy, and, in doing so, open the possibility for a new functional account of episodic simulation. I close by discussing the promise of this line of work that aims to provide new insights into the relationship between episodic simulation, memory, and empathy. / Psychology

Often overlooked in the study of theory of mind (ToM) development, the understanding of motivational states, such as goals and desires, is both an important capacity in its own right and also a likely precursor to more advanced social and cognitive skills. This dissertation explored infants' and toddlers' reasoning about agents' motivational states, linking those representations to the domains of language and prosocial development. Parts I and II of the dissertation asked about toddlers' abilities to use representations of others' motivational states to guide helping behaviors. Part I used a spontaneous helping paradigm with two goal objects, one previously liked and the other disliked. Three- but not 2-year-olds helped appropriately by giving an actor her desired object, reflecting prosocial concern for others' specific desires at age 3. Part II probed the understanding of goals and helping of 14- and 24-month-olds. After establishing that toddlers encode simple reaching actions as goal-directed, a series of 4 experiments using an object-giving paradigm investigated toddlers' abilities to use goal representations to guide helping. The results indicate that 24- but not 14-month-olds used representations of prior goals to inform their helping behaviors; 14-month-olds were capable of using only current goals to guide helping. Part III of the dissertation asked whether there is continuity in the developmental relationship between language and ToM by investigating links between toddlers' understanding of motivational states and their vocabulary size. Experiment 1 found no correlation between the vocabulary size of typically hearing toddlers and their performance on tasks measuring motivational state understanding. Experiment 2 compared the same motivational state understanding of typically hearing toddlers and deaf toddlers with smaller vocabularies, finding no differences in performance between groups. The results of these experiments indicate that the link between language and false belief that is present at age 4 does not extend to motivational state reasoning in the toddler years. Together the findings of this dissertation highlight important limits and boundary conditions on young children's reasoning about motivational states. Further research is needed into the developmental trajectory and mechanisms of theory of mind reasoning. / Psychology

Prosocial behaviour is an important building block of children's future social relationships and overall life achievement. The purpose of this study is to increase our knowledge of how various social pathways influence the developmental trajectories of prosocial behaviour in children between the age of 4 and 11. Conceptually, this study rests on the family stress model and its mediating effects, augmented by parental perceptions of neighbourhood social relationships moderating those family pathways. Research is conducted using data from Statistics Canada's National Longitudinal Survey on Children and Youth (NLSCY), and latent growth models (LGM) in four parenting domains: positive interaction, effectiveness, consistency, and rationality. The study supports the hypothesis that family pathways, such as parental depression, family dysfunction, and parenting practices, mediate the relationship between family SES and children's prosocial development. Study findings also demonstrate the important direct effect sizes of all parenting practices on children's prosocial growth. Results suggest that the magnitude of the direct effects of parenting practices on prosocial behaviour, which are non-negligible and positive, are to a great extent negatively affected by the variables defined in the family stress model. Moreover, this research provides new insights about the types of moderation, and the focus of these moderating effects on the family stress model. Thus, findings support the hypothesis that parents' perceptions of neighbourhood cohesion and social support mitigate one or more family pathways more proximal to the child. Overall, this research study contributes in a distinctive manner to the current literature on children's prosocial behaviour development.

Prosocial behaviours are a diverse group of actions that are integral to human social life. In this dissertation I propose and test a three-factor model of prosocial behaviour. Specifically, in a series of four studies I examined the ability of infants and toddlers to engage in helping, sharing, and comforting behaviour. Additionally, I examine the consistency with which children produce these behaviours longitudinally over time and the associations between these three subtypes of prosocial behaviour and social cognitive perspective taking, effortful control, affective perspective taking, and temperament. In Study 1, I found that 18-month-old infants were able to engage in helping and sharing, but not comforting behaviour. In Study 2, I found that between 18 and 30 months, there was no individual consistency in the production of prosocial behaviours, either across types (helping, sharing) or times (18, 24, or 30 months). Moreover, I found that even at 30 months of age, young children were not recognizing and responding to the emotional needs of others. In Study 3, I examined the relation between helping and sharing and three measures of social cognitive perspective taking and general cognitive development. I found unique relations between the behavioural correlates and the measures of prosocial behaviour. Specifically, I found that sharing was associated with imitation and that helping was associated with general cognitive development. Finally, Study 4 demonstrated that helping was the most frequent prosocial behaviour that the children engaged in, and it did not increase over time. I also observed a significant developmental increase in comforting behaviour from 2 to 3 years. Additionally, I found low rates of sharing behaviour that were stable over time. Importantly, I observed consistency in the production of prosocial behaviour within each subtype and defined a three-factor structure that differentiated between the helping, sharing, and comforting tasks. Further, I observed a significant association between effortful control and comforting behaviour, but no other significant associations between any of the subtypes of prosocial behaviour and the behavioural correlates (effortful control, affective perspective taking, and temperament). The implications for the construct of prosocial behaviour and the presence of a “prosocial disposition” are discussed. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-20 15:08:27.842

This study investigated children's social learning of prosocial behaviors in a transgressor context. Two-to three-year-olds (24-47 months, N = 54) saw videos of an adult help another adult in distress by performing a novel prosocial action. Children were then led to believe that they had transgressed to cause their parent's pain and sadness. It was hypothesized that children in the experimental condition who watched the video and then transgressed would be more likely to perform the novel action (imitation) and to display non-demonstrated prosocial behaviors (goal emulation) relative to children in two control conditions: (a) children who did not view the video but transgressed and (b) children who viewed the video but witnessed a neutral interaction. Children in the experimental condition were no more likely to imitate or emulate than children in the control conditions, suggesting that children have difficulty applying socially learned prosocial behaviors in a transgressor context.