Empathic Responding in Toddlers: The Role of Experience and Observation of Comforting Behavior
Keywords:
empathy development, empathic behavior, similar experience, model of prosocial act
Abstract
Although human empathy has genetic background, numerous studies revealed the great power of social contributors in empathy development. Researchers found a positive correlation between number of factors in mother-child relationship, between level of socialization and the level of empathic development in toddlerhood. This study is designed to enrich the understanding of the social factors, which assist in acquisition of complex behavioral repertoire for empathic responding. We examined whether the similarity of negative experience and familiar behavioral model of comforting facilitate empathic acts (e.g. comforting or sharing) of toddlers. We measured empathic responses to other’s frustration in children who have previously experienced a similar frustrating event (did not find a toy) vs. those who have not such experience, and in those subjects who have been exposed to an adult's model of comforting behavior vs. have been not. We also recorded participants' emotional reactions to experimental events. Results showed that the similarity of the negative emotional experience did not significantly influence on the empathic behavior of toddlers, while the familiar model of comforting act promoted more frequent empathic acts. The results were discussed in relation to the existing data on the role of similar experience in empathic behavior and on the association between parental style, social competence and prosocial development.
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References
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26. Stotland, E., & Dunn, R. E. (1963). Empathy, self-esteem, and birth order.The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66(6), 532-540.
27. Strayer, J., & Roberts, W. (2004). Children’s anger, emotional expressiveness, and empathy: Relations with parents’ empathy, emotional expressiveness, and parenting practices. Social Development, 13(2), 229-254.
28. Taylor, Z. E., Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., Eggum, N. D., & Sulik, M. J. (2013). The relations of egoresiliency and emotion socialization to the development of empathy and prosocial behavior across early childhood. Emotion, 13(5), 822-831.
29. Van der Mark, I., van Izendoorn, M., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. (2002). Development of empathy in girls during the second year of life: Associations with parenting, attachment, and temperament. Social Development, 6, 451-468.
30. Zahn-Waxler, C., & Radke-Yarrow, M. (1990). The origins of empathic concern. Motivation and Emotion, 4, 107-130.
31. Zahn-Waxler, C., Radke-Yarrow, M., Wagner, E., & Chapman, M. (1992). Developmentofconcernfor others. DevelopmentalPsychology, 2, 126-136.
2. Barnett, M. A. (1984). Similarity of experience and empathy in preschoolers. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 145(2), 241-250.
3. Barnett, M. A., Tetreault, P. A., Esper, J. A., & Bristow, A. R. (1986). Similarity and empathy: The experience of rape. The Journal of Social Psychology, 126(1), 47-49.
4. Barnett, M. A., Tetreault, P. A., & Masbad, I. (1987). Empathy with a rape victim: The role of similarity of experience. Violence and Victims, 2(4), 255-262.
5. Batson, C. D. (2009). These things called empathy: eight related but distinct phenomena. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
6. Bischof-Köhler, D. (1991). The development of empathy in infants. In M. E. Lamb & H. Keller (Eds.), Infant development. Perspectives from German speaking countries (pp. 245-273). Hillsdale, MI: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
7. Brownell, C. A., Svetlova, M., Anderson, R., Nichols, S. R., & Drummond, J. (2013). Socialization of early prosocial behavior: Parents’ talk about emotions is associated with sharing and helping in toddlers. Infancy, 18(1), 91-119.
8. Davis, M. H. (1994). Empathy: A social psychological approach. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
9. Decety, J., & Jackson, P. L. (2004). The functional architecture of human empathy. Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews, 3(2), 71-100.
10. Decety, J., & Jackson, P. L. (2006). A social-neuroscience perspective on empathy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(2), 54-58.
11. Eisenberg, N., & Eggum, N. D. (2009). Empathic responding: Sympathy and personal distress. The Social Neuroscience of Empathy, 6, 71-83.
12. Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., & Sadovsky, A. (2006). Empathy-related responding in children. In M. Killen & J. G. Smetana (Eds.), Handbook of moral development (pp. 517-549). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publ.
13. Ensor, R., & Hughes, C. (2005). More than talk: Relations between emotion understanding and positive behaviour in toddlers. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23(3), 343-363.
14. Garner, P. W., Dunsmore, J. C., & Southam-Gerrow, M. (2008). Mother-child conversations about emotions: Linkages to child aggression and prosocial behavior. Social Development,17(2), 259-277.
15. Gross, R. L., Drummond, J., Satlof-Bedrick, E., Waugh, W. E., Svetlova, M., & Brownell, C. A. (2015). Individual differences in toddlers’ social understanding and prosocial behavior: disposition or socialization? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 600. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00600
16. Hodges, S. D., Kiel, K. J., Kramer, A. D., Veach, D., & Villanueva, B. R. (2010). Giving birth to empathy: The effects of similar experience on empathic accuracy, empathic concern, and perceived empathy. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(3), 398-409.
17. Hoffman, M. L. (2008). Empathy and prosocial behavior. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland-Jones, & L. F. Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions(3rd ed., pp. 440-455). New York/London: Guilford Publ.
18. Kochanska, G., Forman, D. R., & Coy, K. C. (1999). Implications of the mother-child relationship in infancy for socialization in the second year of life.Infant Behavior and Development, 22(2), 249-265.
19. Laible, D. J., & Carlo, G. (2004). The differential relations of maternal and paternal support and control to adolescent social competence, self-worth, and sympathy. Journal of Adolescent Research, 19(6), 759-782.
20. Mikulincer, M., Gillath, O., Halevy, V., Avihou, N., Avidan, S., & Eshkoli, N. (2001). Attachment theory and reactions to others’ needs: Evidence that activation of the sense of attachment security promotes empathic responses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 6, 1205-1224.
21. Nichols, S. R., Svetlova, M., & Brownell, C. A. (2009). The role of social understanding and empathic disposition in young children’s responsiveness to distress in parents and peers. Cognition, Brain, Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 13(4), 449-478.
22. Oberman, L. M., Winkielman, P., & Ramachandran, V. S. (2007). Face to face: Blocking facial mimicry can selectively impair recognition of emotional expressions. Social Neuroscience, 2(3-4), 167-178.
23. Preston, S. D., & De Waal, F. B. (2002). Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25(01), 1-20.
24. Ruby, P., & Decety, J. (2004). How would you feel versus how do you think she would feel? A neuroimaging study of perspective-taking with social emotions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(6), 988-999.
25. Sommerville, J. A., Schmidt, M. F., Yun, J. E., & Burns, M. (2013). The development of fairness expectations and prosocial behavior in the second year of life. Infancy, 18(1), 40-66.
26. Stotland, E., & Dunn, R. E. (1963). Empathy, self-esteem, and birth order.The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66(6), 532-540.
27. Strayer, J., & Roberts, W. (2004). Children’s anger, emotional expressiveness, and empathy: Relations with parents’ empathy, emotional expressiveness, and parenting practices. Social Development, 13(2), 229-254.
28. Taylor, Z. E., Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., Eggum, N. D., & Sulik, M. J. (2013). The relations of egoresiliency and emotion socialization to the development of empathy and prosocial behavior across early childhood. Emotion, 13(5), 822-831.
29. Van der Mark, I., van Izendoorn, M., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. (2002). Development of empathy in girls during the second year of life: Associations with parenting, attachment, and temperament. Social Development, 6, 451-468.
30. Zahn-Waxler, C., & Radke-Yarrow, M. (1990). The origins of empathic concern. Motivation and Emotion, 4, 107-130.
31. Zahn-Waxler, C., Radke-Yarrow, M., Wagner, E., & Chapman, M. (1992). Developmentofconcernfor others. DevelopmentalPsychology, 2, 126-136.
Published
2018-11-06
How to Cite
ЮдинаТ. О., & КотоваТ. Н. (2018). Empathic Responding in Toddlers: The Role of Experience and Observation of Comforting Behavior. Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, 14(2), 262-276. https://doi.org/10.17323/1813-8918-2017-2-262-276
Issue
Section
Current Studies in Cognitive Development: Social Learning, Communication
