Cognitive Domain Of Empathy

Humans are complex beings with many parts that come together to make us who we are. One such thing that plays a part in human complexity is Empathy. Empathy has been defined as “a concept involving cognitive as well as affective or emotional domains. The cognitive domain of empathy involves the ability to understand another person’s inner experiences and feelings and a capability to view the outside world from the other person’s perspective. The affective domain involves the capacity to enter into or join the experiences and feelings of another person. The affective relationships that elicit emotional response are conceptually more relevant to sympathy than to empathy” by the American Journal of Psychiatry which is sponsored by the American
How a parent interacts with their child, how they approach the topic of emotions, how they express emotions, how they treat their child, how compassionate they are towards their child. There is also a distinctive effect that synchrony between mother and child has on a child's empathic development. The more synchrony shown between mother and child in early infancy the deeper empathic reactions shown later on between mother and child. Infants also use facial mimicry to internalize the emotional experiences of others such as their parents, this helps them slowly develop more of an emotional sort of empathy. An infant might mimic their parent or siblings facial expressions such as a smile. Smiling may cause the infant to feel happy which means they in a way share the other person's emotional. The more the child does this the more automatic and more like emotional empathy it will become. Mimicry is an essential part of the development of empathy because it is how the children first begin internalize and share others emotions.
Toddlers also use a form of mimicry to develop another type of empathy. Toddlers tend to mimic actions of those around them who may be in distress. For example if someone hurts their leg and grabs it a toddler may also grab their leg and proclaim that their leg now hurts as well. This is the toddler internalizing the other person's injury and helping the to better understand
This occurs because as a child’s knowledge and correct use of language grows so does their ability to use their imagination to develop realistic scenarios and in a way put themselves in their peers shoes as if to experience what they experience. This helps with cognitive development. Children around this age are learning to see things from others perspectives and this helps them to understand how others may feel and help them identify with that experience. The children’s empathic reaction is now more of a sympathetic reaction that is based off of what the other person feels instead of the child's own experience. This means the kids can help each other more now because they understand to a greater depth what their friend is going through and how they feel so they know more effectively and what might make them feel