The relationship of cultural values, attitudes, social environment and perceived control with prosocial behaviors

Prosocial behaviors that contribute to the establishment of social bonds between people are defined as behaviors exhibited in order to benefit others. In this study, prosocial behaviors were investigated in the context of Planned Behavior Theory (PDT). In the study, the basic components of PDT; The relationships between attitudes towards behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control with intention and behavior towards prosocial behaviors were examined. In addition, the relationship between personal norms and individualist-collectivist cultural values added to the model, apart from the basic components of PDT, with intention and behavior towards prosocial behaviors were also examined. In this direction, a comprehensive measurement tool was developed in order to evaluate prosocial behaviors in the research. The validity and reliability studies of the developed measurement tool were tested in two pilot studies. The sample of the main study consisted of 1008 adult participants (739 Female, 269 Male) aged between 18 and 56 living in various provinces of Turkey. The "Positive Social Behaviors Assessment Scale" developed in the current research was applied in order to evaluate attitudes towards prosocial behaviors, subjective norms, personal norms, perceived behavioral control, intention towards behavior and behavior. "Individualism and Collectivism Scale (INDCOL)" was used to determine individualistic and collectivist cultural values. As a result of the path analysis using the AMOS program; attitudes towards prosocial behaviors, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were found to be significant in explaining intentions towards prosocial behaviors. In addition, it was observed that the personal norms added to the PDT model were a strong determinant of intention and behavior towards prosocial behaviors and significantly increased the predictive ability of the model. Finally, horizontal collectivistic values were found to be positively and significantly correlated with both intention towards prosocial behavior and prosocial behavior. In addition, the fact that vertical collectivism was negatively associated with intention towards prosocial behaviors and horizontal individualism was positively associated with prosocial behaviors revealed the importance of equality and hierarchy on prosocial behaviors beyond individualism and collectivism. The findings were discussed within the framework of the relevant literature. KEYWORDS: Prosocial behaviors, Planned behavior theory, Individualistic and collectivist cultural values