“The dark side of helping”: A problematic activation pattern of the caregiving behavioral system

Helping behaviors are influenced by empathic skills, which enable sensitivity to others' needs, and by personal distress, which involves feelings of discomfort in response to others' suffering and leads to self-focused motivation to alleviate such discomfort. The concept of a caregiving behavioral system provides a useful framework for understanding variability in helping behaviors. Building on the two-dimensional model of attachment-system functioning, distinguishing between hyperactivation and deactivation, a similar model of a caregiving-system has recently been proposed. Across two studies on non-clinical adults, we tested predictions derived from this model, mainly aiming at identifying a problematic caregiving pattern marked by the coexistence of both hyperactivation and deactivation strategies and psychopathological symptoms. The main results of Study 1 indicated that this problematic caregiving pattern was characterized by high personal distress (reflecting excessive control) and low empathy (reflecting emotional indifference), consistent with the simultaneous reliance on hyperactivating and deactivating strategies. Study 2 revealed that the problematic pattern was associated with increased anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as executive dysfunction. Together, these findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of individual differences in helping behaviors and provide initial evidence for the psychopathological implications of a problematic pattern of caregiving-system functioning.