@article{oai:nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp:00029997,
 author = {GHERGHEL, Claudia and TAKAI, Jiro},
 journal = {名古屋大学大学院教育発達科学研究科紀要. 心理発達科学},
 month = {Jan},
 note = {In this paper, research investigating the positive outcomes of engaging in prosocial behavior on the well-being of the benefactor is reviewed. We focused on mediating (basic psychological need satisfaction) and moderating factors (culture, motivation, moral discourse), interpreting findings from the perspective of self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000). In the first part, literature probing for the association between prosocial behavior engagement and well-being was reviewed. Correlational (e.g. Meier & Stutzer, 2008), experimental (Martela & Ryan, 2016a) and interventional studies (Layous, Nelson, Oberle, Schonert-Reichl, & Lyubomirsky, 2012), have shown that individuals experience satisfaction from other-oriented behavior. Next, the mediating mechanism of this relationship was discussed, in particular, from the framework of self-determination theory. Evidence was gathered supporting that engagement in prosocial behavior satisfies individuals’ need to feel connected to others (relatedness need), need for autonomy in one’ action (autonomy need), and need for social competence (competence need), and that the satisfaction of these three psychological needs mediates the association between prosocial behavior engagement and well-being (Nelson, Layous, Cole, & Lyubomirsky, 2016). Although most research on the relationship between prosocial behavior and well-being had been conducted on Western samples, some cross-cultural studies have replicated these findings using participants with different cultural backgrounds, suggesting that the association between kindness and well-being is a cultural universal (Aknin et al., 2013). In the second part, focusing on the conditions under which engagement in prosocial behavior increases well-being, we reviewed research on the effects of autonomous and controlled motivation to help across cultures. Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) suggests that engaging in an activity for autonomous reasons (personal will, interest, enjoyment) leads to more satisfaction than engaging in an activity for controlled reasons (external coercion). Research on Western samples shows that autonomously motivated helping is conducive to positive affect, while helping someone in order to meet social expectations is not (Weinstein & Ryan, 2010). However, crosscultural studies reveal that not all individuals perceive social expectations as controlled reasons for action. For example, people from more collectivistic cultures experience agency and satisfaction by doing what is expected of them (Buchtel et al., 2018; Miller, Das, & Chakravarthy, 2011). These results suggest that individualists conceive agency and obligation to be incompatible, while collectivists reveal congruence between obligation and a sense of personal choice, as they have internalized social responsibilities to a greater degree (Chirkov, Ryan, & Kim, 2003). To explain the greater congruence between agency and obligation in collectivistic cultures, we referred to the Indian concept of dharma, which portraits fulfilling one’s duty as natural (Miller, 1997), and to Confucian Role Ethics, which conceptualizes wanting to meet one’s obligations as an expression of freedom (Rosemont & Ames, 2016). In the final part, directions for future research were discussed. More research is needed in order to clarify whether psychological need satisfaction has similar mediating effects on the association between prosocial behavior engagement and well-being in different cultures, how the congruence between obligation and agency can be tapped into by self-determination measures, whether the relationship between benefactor and beneficiary influences the degree of internalization of social obligations for participants from different cultures, and whether the type of morality discourse used in different cultures could account for the observed cultural differences in internalization of social expectations.},
 pages = {17--30},
 title = {Prosocial behavior and well-being in different cultures},
 volume = {66},
 year = {2020}
}