Development of Empathy

Reference:

Ungerer JA, Robyn Dolby ,Brent Waters,Bryanne Barnett,Norm Kelk, & Vivian Lewin(1990). "The Early Development of Empathy: Self-Regulation and Individual Differences in the First Year. Motivation and Emotion,14:93-106

Abstract:

A Longitudinal study of 45 mothers and their first in born was conducted to identify developmentally meaningful. individual differences in children's primitive empathic responding at 12 month of age, and to determine whether differebces in self regulating skills assessed at for months might underline any differences in empathic responding observed. personal distress responces to analogous to those observed in old children. and adults were identified in 1/3 of the sample in 12 months of age. These distress responses were associated with indices of poor self-regulatory skill in social context at 4 months of age. The results are interpreted in the broader framework of the development of self regulatory strategies in the early child-hood years.