Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Oct 28:13:999105.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.999105. eCollection 2022.

Altruistic preferences of pre-service teachers: The mediating role of empathic concern and the moderating role of self-control

Maohao Li  1 , Wei Li  2   3 , Qun Yang  2   3 , Lihui Huang  4
Affiliations

Altruistic preferences of pre-service teachers: The mediating role of empathic concern and the moderating role of self-control

Maohao Li et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Empathy and altruistic behavior are more crucial abilities for pre-service teachers to possess when compared with other study fields. The relationship between empathy and altruistic behavior in Chinese pre-service teachers and their underlying mechanisms, however, has received relatively little attention in the literature. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to examine the links between study fields (i.e., pre-service teachers whose study field is pedagogy and non-pre-service teachers whose study field is non-pedagogy), self-control, emotional empathy (i.e., empathic concern), and altruistic preferences among undergraduates and graduates in five Chinese universities (the age range of participants is 18-20 years; 58.4% women) with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index-C Questionnaire, the Self-Control Scale, and the Chinese Self-Report Altruism Scale tests. The results showed a significant difference between pre-service and non-pre-service teachers in empathic concern and self-control. Furthermore, empathic concern and altruistic behavior tendency of pre-service teachers were significantly higher than those of non-pre-service teachers. Moreover, mediation analyses indicated that empathic concern partially mediated the relationship between study fields and altruistic tendency. Moderated mediation analysis further revealed that self-control buffered the relation between empathic concern and altruistic behavior tendency. These results demonstrate that altruistic tendency of pre-service teachers is influenced by empathic concern and self-control.

Keywords: altruistic tendency; empathic concern; non-pre-service teachers; pre-service teachers; self-control.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The proposed theoretical model.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Interaction graphs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ashforth B. E., Harrison S. H., Corley K. G. (2008). Identification in organizations: an examination of four fundamental questions. J. Manag. 34 325–374.
    1. Ashford S. J., Tsui A. S. (1991). Self-regulation for managerial effectiveness: the role of active feedback seeking. Acad. Manag. J. 34 251–280. 10.5465/256442 - DOI
    1. Barone D. F., Hutchings P. S., Kimmel H., Traub H. L., Cooper J. T., Marshall C. M. (2005). Increasing empathic accuracy through practice and feedback in a clinical interviewing course. J. Soc. Clin. Psychol. 24 156–171. 10.1521/jscp.24.2.156.62275 - DOI
    1. Batson C. D. (1997). Self-other merging and the empathy-altruism hypothesis : reply to Neuberg (1997). J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 73 517–522. 10.1037/0022-3514.73.3.517 - DOI
    1. Batson C. D., Coke J. S. (1981). “Empathy: A source of altruistic motivation for helping?,” in Altruism and Helping Behavior: Social, Personality, and Developmental Perspectives, eds Rushton J. P., Sorrentino R. M. (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum; ), 167–211.

LinkOut - more resources