THE ROLE OF EMPATHY AND MORAL REASONING IN ADOLESCENTS' PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
THE ROLE OF EMPATHY AND MORAL REASONING IN ADOLESCENTS' PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
Author(s): Zora Raboteg-ŠarićSubject(s): Psychology of Self, Behaviorism, Evaluation research
Published by: Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar
Keywords: Empathy; Moral; Prosocial behavior; Adolescents;
Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between adolescents' empathy and maturity of moral reasoning with their self-reported prosocial behaviour. Fourteen year old adolescents (N=311) were administered scales measuring emotional empathy, fantasy and prosocial behaviour. Kohlberg's structured moral dilemmas were used to measure moral judgement maturity. Data were analysed by means of a hierarchical regression analysis with emotional empathy, fantasy and moral reasoning and their interactions as predictors and prosocial behavior as a criterion variable. Intelligence, social desirability tendencies and sex of subjects were taken as control variables. The results showed that higher prosocial behaviour could be best explained by higher emotional empathy.
Journal: Društvena istraživanja - Časopis za opća društvena pitanja
- Issue Year: 6/1997
- Issue No: 30+31
- Page Range: 493-512
- Page Count: 20
- Language: English