Shyness Weakens the Agreeableness-Prosociality Association via Social Self-Efficacy: A Moderated-Mediation Study of Chinese Undergraduates

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Peng Sun¹  Zhen Liu²  Qingke Guo¹  Junyi Fan¹ 

[1] School of Psychology, Shandong Normal University;Beijing Key Lab of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University;Guangxi University and College Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Applied Psychology, Guangxi Normal University

关键词: agreeableness;    prosocial behavior;    shyness;    social self-efficacy;    moderated mediation model;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01084

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Using a sample of 1383 undergraduate students ( M age = 20.06, N female = 817), this study tested a moderated mediation model in which shyness moderated the association between agreeableness and prosocial behavior, as well as the relation between agreeableness and social self-efficacy (SSE). Results showed (when gender, age, and family socio-economic status were controlled) that agreeableness exerted a positive effect on prosocial behavior (PSB) toward three types of recipients (i.e., family members, friends/acquaintances, strangers), and this effect was mediated by SSE and moderated by shyness. The relationships between agreeableness and PSB were more positive under low shyness than that under high shyness condition. In addition, shyness also moderated the first stage of mediation model (i.e., the agreeableness-SSE association), showing that the relation between agreeableness and SSE was more positive under low shyness than that under high shyness condition. Identifying the moderation effect of shyness provides evidence that personality traits may operate in an interactive manner. This may shed new light on why there are inconsistent findings regarding the agreeableness-prosociality association.

【 授权许可】

CC BY