Phd in PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE

Thesis title: Prosocial Behavior across different ages: adolescents and adults

Existing research has shown that prosocial behavior (i.e., voluntary and intentional actions aimed at benefiting others (Eisenberg & Miller, 1987)) confers widespread and lifelong benefits, but its expression requires the ability to understand and respond to the perspectives and needs of others (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1990; Caprara et al., 2010; Van der Graaf et al., 2018; Eisenberg & Spinrad, 2014; Spinrad & Eisenberg, 2024). Specifically, research has shown that prosocial behavior has long-term beneficial effects on human functioning across the lifespan. Recently, research has benefited from intensive longitudinal (ILD) data to investigate different levels of functioning (stable, trait/state-specific, or intra/interindividual), allowing insight into what happens in everyday life. In this context, the role of prosocial behavior remains unexplored. Therefore, this doctoral research aims to examine the determinants of prosociality in everyday life, specifically empathic self-efficacy (i.e., the belief in one's ability to understand and recognize the needs and feelings of others; Bandura, 1997) and sympathy (i.e., an empathetic and other-oriented emotional response that involves concern for the suffering of others; Eisenberg, 2000), in order to provide new perspectives on the development of prosocial behavior across the lifespan. Within the theoretical frameworks of Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (1986, 1997, 2001) and Eisenberg's work on prosocial development and empathy-related responding (2003, 2006, 2010), the present research comprises three studies investigating prosocial behavior across different ages: adolescents and adults. The first study examines discrepancies and agreements among informants in the context of prosocial behavior, using a sample of Chilean adolescents. Short-term longitudinal data, collected over four waves across 18 months, were analyzed using a Single-Trait Multi-State (STMS) model. The second study explores the daily associations between Perceived Empathic Self-Efficacy and prosocial behavior, using ILD collected over 21 consecutive days from two samples of Italian adolescents and young adults. The data were analyzed using Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling (DSEM; Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2017). The third study focuses on Sympathy, examining their daily covariation as well as the relation between their dynamic errors. Data collected from a sample of 166 UK adults, using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) over 28 consecutive days, were analyzed with an extended DSEM. The overall findings highlight the relevance of both empathic self-efficacy and sympathy in everyday life as mechanisms that support voluntary prosocial engagement and therefore remain important factors in fostering prosociality from adolescence to adulthood.