Abstract:

Introduction:
Prosocial behaviour is the highest form of social behaviour that ensures a good life. This aspect is already highlighted by Aristotle in the problem of virtues. According to him, moral action is conditioned by reasonableness, virtuous action follows from reasonableness, and the good life as such follows from virtuous action. Moral virtue causes one to choose the right end; rationality causes one to choose the right means to achieve the end. Hence the integrity between critical and moral thinking. The greatest obstacle is egocentrism. A child in the early years of life is egocentric, and this is because he has not developed thinking in the "I and thou" relationship. In adulthood, however, the egocentric tendencies should be abandoned. In adulthood we should already behave prosocially or we should have attained an altruistic form of behaviour. Contemporary society shows opposite tendencies than we would expect.

Methods and respondents:
For the above reason, we formulated the following scientific problem: "What tendencies of prosocial behaviour do university students have?”. Prosocial behaviour, or tendencies towards such behaviour, was measured using the prosocial Tendencies Measure – Revised (PTM-R). It was completed by N = 241 teaching students from three faculties of Prešov University in Prešov – the Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences, the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Sport. We used a proven version from Babinčák (2011), based on the version from Carl and Randall (2002) and Carl et al. (2003). The PTM-R tool consists of six scales (public prosocial behaviour, emotional, required, anonymous, altruistic prosocial behaviour and prosocial behaviour in critical situations) containing 23 claims about different types of prosocial behaviour and quantifying the extent to which the respondent identifies with them.

Results:
The Cronbach’s alpha of the total PTM-R score was 0.765. The overall score achieved using the PTM-R methodology among students on teaching programmes was quite high. The highest scores in prosocial behaviour were achieved by students from the Faculty of Arts. The lowest scores were achieved by students from the Faculty of Sport.

Conclusion:
Prosocial tendencies are part of prosocial behaviour. They develop gradually with the personality of the individual; the level of prosocial behaviour improves with age. A prosocial personality typical of a constant tendency to think about the well-being of others is part of the integrity of critical and moral thinking. The overall score achieved using the PTM-R methodology among students on teaching programmes in terms of disciplines was differently. It should be pointed out that the individual components of the personality can develop, but also change (in a positive or negative direction). Almost no one is paying attention to these changes through long-term research. In this paper, we discuss how to strengthen critical and moral reasoning in this regard in academic preparation.

Keywords:

Prosocial tendencies, PTM-R methodology, university students, prosocial behaviour from the point of view of the discipline.