A Study of Empathy in the Early and Middle Childhood Years

Abstract

This chapter investigates children’s reactions to distress in the early and middle childhood years. Early childhood is investigated with a focus on personal responsibility, similarity with the peer, familiarity of the peer and experience with other children. The contextual study of empathy in middle childhood examines cognitive empathy as the understanding of distress, and emotional empathy as feelings for distress, and reactions from helpful recommendations to aggressive suggestions. The research looks at associations between cognitive understanding and vicarious emotion, as to whether empathy is a valid construct and whether empathy is indeed the focus of investigation.