Affective Balance, Team Prosocial Efficacy and Team Trust: A Multilevel Analysis of Prosocial Behavior in Small Groups

PLoS One. 2015 Aug 28;10(8):e0136874. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136874. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Little research has focused on how individual- and team-level characteristics jointly influence, via interaction, how prosocially individuals behave in teams and few studies have considered the potential influence of team context on prosocial behavior. Using a multilevel perspective, we examined the relationships between individual (affective balance) and group (team prosocial efficacy and team trust) level variables and prosocial behavior towards team members. The participants were 123 students nested in 45 small teams. A series of multilevel random models was estimated using hierarchical linear and nonlinear modeling. Individuals were more likely to behave prosocially towards in-group members when they were feeling good. Furthermore, the relationship between positive affective balance and prosocial behavior was stronger in teams with higher team prosocial efficacy levels as well as in teams with higher team trust levels. Finally, the relevance of team trust had a stronger influence on behavior than team prosocial efficacy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Affective Symptoms / psychology*
  • Cooperative Behavior
  • Female
  • Group Structure
  • Humans
  • Leadership
  • Male
  • Models, Psychological
  • Multilevel Analysis / methods
  • Social Behavior*
  • Students / psychology*
  • Trust / psychology*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This article was based on two research projects financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Grant PSI 2009-07423 and Grant PSI2014-58609-R in which Carmen Tabernero is the main researcher. The manuscript was written while Esther Cuadrado was a fellow doctoral researcher financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education within the framework of the National Program of university teacher training (2010–2014) under grant AP2009-2164.