ABSTRACT

Providing help can have positive consequences for those that help, including higher performance evaluations, the development of trusting relationships, social status, and more positive mood states. These effects, however, do not materialize uniformly and the existing literature on the emotions that people experience when they help provides an unclear picture of when helping increases positive affect and decreases negative affect. We distinguish between the unique roles that positive and negative affect play in enabling individuals to navigate potentially rewarding or threatening situations. Specifically, we distinguish between the approach and reward-seeking roots of positive affect and the defence-related roots of negative affect. Using this distinction as a theoretical lens, we identify unique boundary conditions around the relationships between helping and positive and negative affect. We first test our hypotheses in a within-subjects field study of dental clinic employees, showing that the dual pathways between helping and positive and negative affect are uniquely qualified by social support and avoidance temperament, respectively. We then provide additional support for the moderating role of avoidance temperament on the relationship between helping and negative affect in a between-subjects field experiment.

摘要

提供帮助会对那些提供帮助的人产生积极的影响，包括更高的绩效评估、信任关系的发展、社会地位和更积极的情绪状态。然而，这些影响并没有统一实现，现有的关于人们在帮助时所经历的情绪的文献提供了一个不清楚的画面，说明帮助何时增加积极影响和减少消极影响。我们区分了积极和消极影响在使个人能够驾驭潜在奖励或威胁情况方面发挥的独特作用。具体来说，我们区分了积极情感的方法和寻求奖励的根源以及消极情感的防御相关根源。使用这种区别作为理论镜头，我们围绕帮助与积极和消极影响之间的关系确定了独特的边界条件。我们首先在牙科诊所员工的受试者内实地研究中测试我们的假设，表明帮助与积极和消极影响之间的双重途径分别受到社会支持和回避气质的独特限定。然后，我们为回避气质在受试者间实地实验中对帮助和负面影响之间的关系的调节作用提供了额外的支持。