The Development of Empathy

The development of attachment bonds to other biological figures plays an important role in emotional development. Throughout life, an individual will form several relationships, some of which will be sincere and intimate while others will be superficial. However, collectively these relationships provide the foundation of our communities, families, and friendships and become essential to our survival as a species. A secure attachment bond can be classified as the interactive emotional relationship between a caregiver and infant involving the emotional responses of the caregiver to the infant 's cues (Bowlby, 1969). These emotional responses can be expressed in a variety of forms including gestures, sounds, or even movements. Thus, this interactive emotional relationship between the caregiver and infant brings the two closer together creating an environment that allows the infant to feel safe and secure, further developing their ability to communicate and interact with others (Bowlby, 1969).

At 6 weeks infants develop a social smile, at 3 month laughter and curiosity develop, at 4 months full responsive smiles emerge, from 4-8 months they develop anger, from 9014 months they develop a fear of social events, at 12 months the are fearful of unexpected sights and sounds, and at 18 months they are self-aware, feel pride, shame, and embarrassment. In the first two years, infants develop from reactive pain and pleasure to complex patterns of social awareness. Emotions in infants are produced from their body as opposed to their thoughts. Therefore fast and uncensored reactions are common in infants. During their toddler years, the strength of their emotions will increase.

In the video “Matteo's mess,” Oakley was observed showing empathy because he offered assistance to clean up Matteo’s mess; Oakley took the paper towel and wiped Matteo’s milk that spilled on the table. The High Scope Infant-Toddler Key Development Indicators (n.d), skill # 9, Empathy, indicates that “Children show empathy toward the feelings and needs of others.” Therefore, I conclude that Oakley demonstrated a developmental norm for his age when he offered assistance to clean.

The article, “A Social-Neuroscience Perspective on Empathy,” in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, explores both behavioral and cognitive studies and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies to understand how the emotional and affective states of others elicit an empathetic response in an individual, how the brain processes these emotions, and how it is essential for the brain to differentiate empathy from self-emotions. Additionally, the authors explain how an empathetic response to another’s emotions or affect is critical in social interactions. The authors define empathy as “the capacity to understand and respond to the unique affective experiences of another person.” They also state that there are three universal components of empathy, “(1) an affective response to another person, which often entails sharing the person’s emotional state; (2) a cognitive capacity to take the perspective of another person; and (3) emotional regulation.” These primary components of empathy drive the basic mechanisms for social interaction, which are the automatic tendency to mimic the

One of the most essential experiences in shaping the architecture of the developing brain is “serve and return” interaction between children and significant adults in their lives. During this process infants or young children naturally reach out for interaction through babbling, facial expressions, and gestures, and adults respond with the same kind of vocalizing and gesturing back at them (Center on the Developing Child, Harvard, 2013). This

Evolution is considered by many to be a process powered by selfishness, and a process in which only the “strongest” survive. However, contrary to popular belief, it is in fact empathy which has helped homosapiens survive through the ages. Empathy first originated with the evolution of maternal care within animals. Females had to know when their children were sick, in danger, or hurt. This is especially evident in complex animals like primates, dolphins, and elephants. In contrast to other animal groups, who are normally hostile to strangers of the same species, human beings and other primates in fact welcome strangers, as they know what it's like to experience starvation, loss, and disease. We know the value of cooperation, and this knowledge

Could the results of these experiments hypothesis show that the infants' and, therefore, our responses to negative social interactions are primarily neurological in origin? Do said results instead show that we are cognitively able to form judgements about negative social interactions at only three months of age?

The most frequently taught description of empathy in today’s college textbooks defines it as “emotional reactions that are focused on, or oriented toward, other people and include feelings of compassion, sympathy, and concern” (Baron & Branscombe, 2012). Furthermore, students are also learning that there may be a societal decline in empathy that is occurring among college students at a small but somewhat significant level. Unfortunately, there are currently no empirical answers for this decline. Empathy is an enigma that science has longed to understand and explain since Theodor Lipps and Edward Tichener named the earliest known concept of imitation and empathy, “Einfuhlung,” in the early 1900s (Gerdes, Lietz,

In a longitudinal study of synchrony and the development of morality, Feldman (2007) found that mother-infant synchrony measured in the first year of life (3 and 9 months) was directly associated with empathy level in childhood and adolescence (6 and 13 years). Specifically, the more mothers and infants matched and influenced each other’s behaviors during face-to-face play in infancy, the more empathy was expressed by the child during mother-child conversations that occurred during middle childhood and adolescence. In general, maternal warmth has been found to be an important factor in promoting empathy development. Toddlers and children who had parents who were observed to display more warmth toward them during a variety of interactions in

Animals have shown empathy in many ways. The first way they have shown empathy is through yawning. As “Wolves Howl Together, Hunt Together, and Yawn Together, Researchers Say,” says, “Yet the tendency for yawns to be contagious has been ‘linked to our capacity for empathy,’ both by looking at our behaviors and our biology”. This shows that animals yawning means they have empathy by yawning to others in their species. The third way they have shown empathy is by mourning for their dead. In “Why Elephants Never Forget,” by

An important piece in empathy is the early development of theory of mind. Theory of mind is an ability that helps us understand people’s mental states as thoughts, wants, motives and feelings (Astington & Edward, 2010). This essential ability is strongly sustained by social cognition (Flavell & Miller, 1998), the potential necessary for children to socialize with other people and consider their point of view (put themselves in someone else’s shoes) (Astington, 1993).

Sympathy does play a big role in a child's life. If a child has no sympathy, they will most-likely not care about others, have patience for others, or be fair to others. "The affective experience of sympathy in early childhood may lead to a general orientation to consider the needs of others and the early development of norms of fairness of care (see Knafo, Zahn- Waxler, Van Hulle, Robinson, & Rhee, 2008; Malti, Gumerum, et al., 2012) (Ongley et al., 2013). This study has limitations, but it also has strengths. "As a result, the current study provides valuable insight into the predictive tole of moral emotions in sharing behavior and thus contributes to our understanding of why humans develop the willingness to take the welfare of others into account" (Ongley et al.,

Counselors who work with pregnant adolescents and adolescents with sexually transmitted diseases must be aware of the ethical and legal issues that will arise, the individual characteristics of high risk youth, family problem related to at-risk youth, school issues that might impact at-risk youth, and the prevention, intervention and treatment options. In working with adolescents engaged in risky, sexual behavior, it is imperative for counselors to demonstrate empathy towards them. Counselors cannot be judgmental. They need to respect their client. To effectively counsel an adolescent like Amy Briggs in To Save a Life (2009), it is imperative for the counselor to educate themselves on the issues adolescents go through daily and to understand

Knowledge of empathic behavior is essential for an understanding of social and moral human development and prior to the technological advancement, empathy was not understood biologically.

Most definitions of empathy are based on the same core idea - empathy is the ability to understand and identify someone else’s thoughts and feelings, as if they were one’s own (wordreference online dictionary, 2016). Although it’s been said “there are probably nearly as many definitions of empathy as people working on the topic.” (de Vignemont & Singer, 2006, p.435) suggesting that there is no singular way to even define empathy, let alone explain its impact on our behaviour. Due to the sheer depth and complexity of empathy it’s understandable that each discipline within psychology presents it’s own explanation for why we experience it, and how it can affect our interaction with the world around us. Psychologists have been exploring empathy for decades, in hope of gaining a complete grasp of what it means and how it can vary between each person, therefore its important we look at different psychological perspectives to try to understand it’s many dimensions.