DEVELOPMENT OF PROSOCIALTY AND FORMATION OF INGROUP RELATIONSHIPS IN ADOLESCENCE

Abstract

The issue of the interrelationship between the adolescents' social development and the processes of group formation is explored in present research. 32 adolescents (M = 11.2 years (at the beginning of the study), 13.4 years (at the final stage) were involved into the present research.
Analyzing the features of group dynamic in the newly formed school community, the author claimed that establishing a new structure of ingroup relationships and the student’s personal development are interrelated phenomena. The particular attention was paid to the development of
important social traits such as prosociality. The article raises issue about the features of adaptation to new conditions of school life and adolescents' assessment of their social competences. It is noted that the real prosocial behavior is positively correlated with the indicators of social adaptation, whereas no any significant correlations with other varieties of adaptive processes (mental and psycho-physiological)
were found. The ingroup individual’s status and his / her attitudes towards the classmates are discussed. It was found that the positive atmosphere of acceptance in the group encouraged establishing the positive subjective orientations and attitudes towards classmates. The correlation between individual’s ingroupstatus and his or her attitudes toward classmates had a moderate level (r = 0,44 p<0.05). Furthermore,
there is the relationship between the peer acceptance and adolescents' willingness to help others. As important determinants of prosocial behavior, four subtypes of empathy (positive, negative, cognitive and active) were studied. Obtained results showed that students’ prosocial behavior correlated with their empathic attitudes, especially with active empathy. Besides that, it was found that, instead of the other subtypes, active empathy had some gender-related features: girls had stronger tendency to perform behavior associated with the active empathy. In conclusion it is noted that interrelationship of negative social status and prosocial development in adolescence requires the further exploration.