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Cognitions related to empathy in five- to eleven-year-old children.

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Author

  • Hans Bengtsson
  • Lena Johnson

Summary, in English

Studied developmental changes in the conceptualization of empathy by testing and interviewing 16 kindergartners, 16 1st graders, and 16 4th graders. All age groups expected a child to empathize with liked peers more than with disliked peers. Whereas kindergartners expected emotional reactions to be equally strong in response to both types of peers, older Ss predicted weak and qualified empathic reactions to disliked peers. Taken in conjunction with the Ss' explanations of their emotion choices, this result suggests age differences with regard to the integration of separate items of information; few kindergartners knew how to control empathic arousal purely by means of thoughts. Mentalistic strategies used by older Ss to maximize or minimize empathic arousal are discussed.

Publishing year

1987

Language

English

Pages

1001-1012

Publication/Series

Child Development

Volume

58

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Psychology

Keywords

  • Empathy
  • Social cognition
  • social development
  • early and middle childhood

Status

Published