Research On The Relationship Between College Students’ Power Sense And Pro-social Behavior:The Mediating Role Of Empathy And The Moderating Role Of Interpersonal Relationship Orientation

As one of the positive social behaviors,prosocial behavior can promote the physical and mental health of individuals and the harmonious development of society.It has been widely concerned by scholars at home and abroad.Power,as an individual’s cognition of one’s own ability to influence others,has an important influence on individual’s social behavior,social relations,decision-making and other aspects.It has also attracted more and more attention in the field of psychology.At present,the domestic research on prosocial behavior has been relatively mature,but for power,especially the relationship between power and prosocial behavior study is less,the result also presents inconsistency,between different research results means that there are some intermediary and control variables,which will further exploration.Therefore,on the basis of previous researches by scholars,this paper adopts two research methods,questionnaire survey and experiment,aiming at college students,to explore the relationship between power and prosocial behavior,as well as the role of empathy and interpersonal relationship orientation in the two.This study uses two sub-studies to test whether the relationship between power and prosocial behavior,the mediating role of empathy between the two,and whether the orientation of interpersonal relationships plays a regulatory role.Research 1investigated 493 college students as the research object,using questionnaire survey methods to initially measure the impact of college students’ power on prosocial behaviors,and to explore whether empathy is the intermediary mechanism between the two;research 2 investigated 216 college students as the research objects,using experimental methods to activate power of college students,further verify the results of research 1,and introduce interpersonal relationship orientation as a moderating variable to explore whether interpersonal relationship orientation plays a role in the direct predictive effect of power perception on prosocial behavior and the mediating effect of empathy to the role of regulation.The research conclusions are as follows:(1)Power has a significant negative predictive effect on the prosocial behavior of individuals.(2)Power has a significant negative predictive effect on individual empathy.(3)Empathy has a significant positive predictive effect on individual prosocial behavior.(4)Empathy plays a significant mediating role between power and prosocial behavior.(5)The direct predictive effect of power on prosocial behavior and the mediating effect of empathy are both regulated by the orientation of communal relationship.Specifically,when the individual has a low communal relationship,power has a significant negative predictive effect on prosocial behavior,and the mediating effect of empathy is significant;when the individual has a high communal relationship,power has a negative predictive effect on prosocial behavior weakened,the mediating effect of empathy weakened.(6)The direct predictive effect of power on prosocial behavior is regulated by the orientation of exchange relationship.When the individual has a high exchange relationship,the negative predictive effect of power on prosocial behavior is significant;when the individual has a low exchange relationship,the negative predictive effect of power on prosocial behavior is weakened.