ADOLESCENTS SELF-REPORTS OF PROSOCIAL RESPONSES TO FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES - THE ROLE OF SYMPATHY-RELATED COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE, AND MOTIVATIONAL PROCESSES

This study examined the role of three sympathy-related processes-cogni tive, affective, and motivational-in adolescents' self-reports of pros ocial response to distress in friends and acquaintances. Questionnaire s and responses to a simulation involving four videotaped episodes in which an adolescent was victimized were used to assess sympathy-relate d processes and reported prosocial response in 89 high-school pupils. In general, both dispositional and situational measures of cognitive u nderstanding, perspective-taking, integrative goals, and sympathy were positively intercorrelated, and singly, they were positively associat ed with reported prosocial response. In the questionnaire data, a pred ominance of sympathy versus personal distress was associated with high er levels of reported prosocial response. Results were in the same dir ection for the simulation data, though not statistically significant. In both sets of data, a predominance of integrative goals versus self- enhancing goals was associated with higher levels of reported prosocia l response. These findings suggest that, in adolescents, affective and motivational responses can be differentiated along a dimension of oth er- versus self-orientation and that these orientations may be associa ted with different responses to distress in peers.