Open AccessProsociality in Relation to Developmental Tasks of Emerging Adulthood
Author(s) -
Iwoowakowska
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
psychologia rozwojowa
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2084-3879
pISSN - 1895-6297
DOI - 10.4467/20843879pr.20.024.13432
Subject(s) - prosocial behavior , psychology , autonomy , interpersonal communication , developmental psychology , context (archaeology) , social psychology , interpersonal relationship , identity (music) , paleontology , physics , political science , acoustics , law , biology
Prosociality, understood as the capacity to act in a way that benefits others, is an important feature for emerging adults to fulfill their personal needs and fulfill developmental tasks. This life period is a time of exploration within various areas of life, enabling individuals to try out and choose own worldview, lifestyle, work and preferred patterns of interpersonal relationships. This review aims at bringing together the evidence on how prosociality (prosocial orientations, values, behaviors) or deficits in such features may be linked to the fulfillment of three basic human needs as conceptualized by the self-determination theory in emerging adults. The relation of prosociality to the three tasks in the context of development in emerging adulthood: (1) reaching autonomy from the family of origin, (2) achieving own identity and (3) establishing positive relationships with others, are outlined based on a literature review. Implications for future research are also provided.