The Development of Empathy

The Development of Empathy
– a literature review -

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Empathy cannot be taught, but it can be caught
– Mary Gordon -

Student: Vanessa Anseline

Introduction

Empathy and caring is an essential part of human health. We love because we can empathize (Szalavitz & Perry, 2010). Empathy underlies everything that makes society work; such as altruism, collaboration, love and charity. Failures to empathize are a key part of social problems, such as crime, violence, war, racism, child abuse and inequity. Although we are genetically predisposed to care for others, the development of empathy requires a lifelong process of relational interaction (Szalavitz & Perry, 2010). More importantly, the first relationship humans experience, the mother-child relationship, shapes the neural systems of the stress response to allow self-regulation. This because the brain regions involved in relationships also modulate the stress response and allow empathy to develop. As with most systems, these systems are interdependent and develop together.

[pic] Empathy can be defined as the ability to understand and share the emotional states of other people (Decety & Moriguchi 2007). There is consensus that empathy is a multidimensional construct that comprises both affective aspects (emotional responses and the sharing of emotions), as well as cognitive aspects (intellectually understanding another person’s emotional experiences; Decety & Jackson 2004). The cognitive aspects of empathy are closely relates to the theory of mind idea, or the ability to understand one’s own and other people’s mental states. The capacity to maintain a distinction between self and other is an important component of empathy. Research in this area suggests that different aspects of empathy interact with each other to produce empathic experiences (Decety & Jackson 2004).

Determining the age at which infants display empathy depends on your definition of empathy. Most models of empathy involve “an

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