STIMULATING PERSONALITY PROSOCIAL TENDENCIES IN CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE

Abstract

The paper deals with the issue of the features of stimulating personality prosociality at the different stages of ontogenesis. Prosociality is considered as an integrative, hierarchical, conscious intrapsychic construct, which determines the main patterns of social-valued behavior. Its structure includes the inner core components and peripheral one. Inner core combines a prosocial identity, cognitive, emotional and motivational components. The peripheral part is represented by a behavioral component, which serves as an indicator of the evolution of this personality trait. The author considers the age-related genesis of personality prosociality as a lifetime evolution of the personal trait, expressed in a large diversity of developmental changes based on the shifts of the determinants and mechanisms that cause the varying levels and the features of prosocial activity. This idea is implemented in the author’s six-stage model of the genesis of personality prosociality: the stage of elementary, social-normative, normative-dispositional, positional, self-achieved, and integrative prosociality. It is noted that prosociality has a long way of formation and development. Despite the existing of natural human tendencies to cooperative help-giving behavior, there is a need for organized stimulating influences. The success of this process depends on the taking in to account the age-related features of the structure and mechanisms of the prosociality in organizing educational and correctional influences addressed to children as the subjects of socialization at the childhood and adolescence. It is distinguished several benchmarks and indicators of prosociality functioning at the different stage of ontogenesis In this regard the principles, tasks, goals and recommendations for stimulating prosociality at the each stage of childhood and adolescence are presented.