A Naturalistic Study of Empathic Behaviors and Their Relation to Affective States and Perspective-taking Skills in Preschool Children

STRAYER, JANET. A Naturalistic Study of Empathic Behaviors and Their Relation to Affective States and Perspective-taking Skills in Preschool Children. CmLD DEVELOPMENT, 1980, 51, 815-822. The conditions for and incidence of empathic behaviors in a natural setting were investigated for 14 preschool children who were observed over an 8-week period. Interrelations among these behaviors, affective states, and performance in perspective-taking tasks and in a donating experiment were examined. Results indicate that 39% of naturally occurring affect displays were met with either affect-matching or instrumental responses indicating empathy. Happy displays occurred most frequently and were responded to significantly more than other affect displays. Children with more frequent happy displays were more likely to give empathic responses to others (r = .59), whereas children with more frequent sad displays were less likely to respond empathically (r = -.68). Modest correlations were obtained for performance on 2 perspective-taking tasks and empathic behaviors. Findings are discussed in terms of clarifying the cognitive, affective, and motivational components of empathy.