Links Among Cognitive Empathy, Theory of Mind, and Affective Perspective Taking by Young Children.
Fiche publication
Date publication
janvier 2016
Journal
The Journal of genetic psychology
Auteurs
Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Pr CAILLIES Stéphanie
Tous les auteurs :
Bensalah L, Caillies S, Anduze M
Lien Pubmed
Résumé
The authors investigated the development of the affective, cognitive, and behavioral components of empathy in preschoolers, specifically examining how cognitive empathy is linked to theory of mind and affective perspective taking. Participants were 158 children aged 4-6 years. They listened to narratives and then answered questions about the protagonists' emotions. The affective component was probed with the question, "How do you feel seeing the little girl/boy?"; the cognitive component with the question, "Why do you feel [emotion shared with the character]?"; and the behavioral one with the question, "What would you do if you were next to the little boy/girl [experiencing an emotional scenario]?" Results revealed a developmental sequence in the self-focused attribution of cognitive empathy, and a trend toward a developmental sequence for behavioral empathy, which underwent a slight linear increase between 4 and 6 years old. Affective empathy remained stable. More interestingly, they showed that cognitive empathy is linked to both theory of mind and affective perspective taking.
Mots clés
Child, Child Behavior, psychology, Child, Preschool, Cognition, Emotions, Empathy, Female, Humans, Male, Moral Development, Theory of Mind
Référence
J Genet Psychol. 2016 ;177(1):17-31