The Effect Of Social Anxiety On Prosocial Behavior In Junior High School Students: The Mediating Effect Of Empathy And Intervention Research

Prosocial behavior refers to the behavior and tendency that people show humility,help,cooperation,sharing,and even self-sacrifice for the benefit of others.In recent years,some longitudinal studies have found that prosocial behavior decreases with the age of adolescents.Therefore,the research on how to promote the prosocial behavior of junior high school students is of great significance to the individual and the society.Previous studies have shown that empathy promotes prosocial behavior.Social anxiety as a negative emotion can reduce an individual’s prosocial behavior.According to Clark’s cognitive model of social anxiety,individuals with social anxiety are characterized by negative cognitive bias,fear of negative evaluation,and easy to misunderstand that others have hostile intentions.At the same time,individuals with social anxiety,because of nervousness,avoid social interaction,reduces attention,understanding,and concern for the state of others,that is,to hinder the individual’s empathy for others.The theory of understanding empathy from the cognitive level emphasizes that the generation of individual empathy depends on the perception and evaluation of other people’s emotional states,that is,individuals produce emotional empathy on the basis of cognitive empathy.Individuals with high empathic ability were more likely to have high levels of prosocial behavior.Therefore,this study intends to examine the relationship between social anxiety,cognitive empathy,emotional empathy and prosocial tendencies,and to improve prosocial behavior of junior high school students through intervention of comprehensive group psychological counseling.This research is mainly divided into two parts.In the first study,781 junior high school students in Chongqing and Ganzhou were surveyed to explore the relationship between social anxiety,cognitive empathy,emotional empathy and prosocial tendencies,to explore the chain mediating effect of cognitive empathy and emotional empathy on social anxiety and prosocial tendencies.In study 2,a comprehensive group psychological counseling activity was carried out for junior high school students with social anxiety.67 junior high school students were selected from study 1 and32 students in experimental group were given group psychological counseling for eight times,the control group of 35 students did not do any intervention treatment.By analyzing the data before and after the intervention,this paper explores the effectiveness of comprehensive group counseling in reducing social anxiety and promoting prosocial behavior.This research draws the following conclusions:(1)the prosocial tendency,the level of empathy and the level of social anxiety of junior high school students is above the middle level.(2)social anxiety can negatively predict cognitive empathy,affective empathy and prosocial tendency,while cognitive empathy and affective empathy can positively predict prosocial tendency;Cognitive empathy and affective empathy have a chain mediating effect between social anxiety and prosocial orientation.(3)the group counseling in this study has a certain effect and feasibility,which can effectively reduce junior high school students’ social anxiety,and then promote junior high school students’ prosocial behavior,and has a certain immediate effect and tracking effect.