Among broad personality traits,
Honesty-Humility
has been most consistently and most strongly linked to prosocial behaviour (Thielmann et al., 2020).
A trait for being helpful:
Agreeableness
Graziano and his colleagues (e.g., Graziano & Tobin, 2009; Graziano, Habishi, Sheese, & Tobin, 2007) have explored how agreeableness—one of the Big Five personality dimensions (e.g., Costa & McCrae, 1988)—plays an important role in prosocial behavior.
Behaviors that can be described as prosocial include
feeling empathy and concern for others
. Prosocial behavior includes a wide range of actions such as helping, sharing, comforting, and cooperating.
Regression analysis further showed that Personality Traits (Extraversion, Openness,
Agreeableness
and Conscientiousness) were positive predictors of Prosocial Behavior, where Agreeableness was found the strongest predictor among all.
Accordingly, other research groups identified
agreeableness
as the Big Five dimension of personality most closely associated with prosocial and altruistic behavior (Habashi et al., 2016; Zhao and Smillie, 2015).
Over time, prosocial behavior is associated with
greater psychological well-being, better social relationships, and better physical health
, including greater longevity. Thus, prosocial behavior is valuable for both those who receive help and those who do the helping.
Examples of prosocial behavior might include:
A person donating money to charity
, even though he/she receives no tangible benefit from doing so. Stopping to help a stranded motorist. A monkey grooming another monkey.
Social and situational factors that can influence prosocial behaviors include
the interpretation of others’ needs, the relationship to others
, the reciprocal altruism, the number of bystanders, the normative pressure to help, and the evaluation of the cost to help (Batson, 1998).
- Provide feedback on progress towards reaching specific prosocial goals.
- Practice manners prior to going into the community.
- Explain rules and expectations of a new situation and give a reminder before that event.
- Use social stories to prepare individuals for new situations.
In the same vein, empathy plays a critical role in promoting prosocial behaviour and helps to
reduce others’ distress
and to reduce aggression. … Witnessing another’s distress (step 1) can lead to an aversive affective arousal combined with a physiological stress response (step 2).
Which personality trait is most associated with helping?
By experimentally manipulating empathy, Habashi and colleagues William Graziano (Purdue University) and Ann Hoover (University of South Carolina Upstate) show that
agreeableness
is the dimension of personality most closely associated with emotional reactions to victims in need of help and people’s willingness to help.
What has been linked to aggressive behavior?
As an adult, you might act aggressively in response to negative experiences. For example, you might get aggressive when you feel frustrated. Your aggressive behavior may also be linked to
depression, anxiety, PTSD
, or other mental health conditions.
Which of the following personality traits is associated with aggressive behavior?
Specifically, our findings indicate that
high Neuroticism
is associated with both increased aggression and mental distress in violent offenders.
What type of person helps others?
Someone who truly lives for nothing other than helping others, regardless of the impact it might have on his or herself, is
altruistic
. Someone who is willing to periodically help others at their own expense is charitable. Someone who generally has a positive impact on society is benevolent.
What is altruistic personality?
Altruism is
the unselfish concern for other people
—doing things simply out of a desire to help, not because you feel obligated to out of duty, loyalty, or religious reasons. It involves acting out of concern for the well-being of other people.
What is the Big Five trait of agreeableness?
Agreeableness. This personality dimension includes attributes such as
trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other prosocial behaviors
.1 People who are high in agreeableness tend to be more cooperative while those low in this trait tend to be more competitive and sometimes even manipulative.
