From this reflection emerged a sense of self-disappointment (I, too, was disappointed in myself). As noted in Chapter 3, older children begin to grasp mixed or subtle emotions and to take into account social context in judging anothers feelings. Not surprisingly, Hoffman (2000) advocates interventions in the discipline situation that encourage decentration or perspective-taking through the elicitation and cultivation of empathy and transgression guiltnatural allies (p. 151; cf. Hoffman (2000) discussed not only causal attributions but also inferences about whether victims deserve their plight (p. 107) as cognitions that can fundamentally shape the nature of empathys impact on behavior. (pp. Children who receive the most sensitive care and are most securely attached to caregivers demonstrate the most comforting of and giving to others Emotional State of people Since empathy involves understanding the emotional states of other people, the way it is characterized is . Generally speaking, empathic over-arousal undermines the contribution of empathy to prosocial behavior and hence should be reduced. Accordingly, Joscha Kartner and colleagues in their 2010 study suggested an alternative pathway (through certain sociocultural emphases) to advanced prosociality. Current Theories of Empathy Hoffman's Theory of Moral Development Psychological research on empathy through the 20th century is summarized well in the writing of the developmental psychologist Martin L. Hoffman (2000), whose theory of moral development has provided the most comprehensive view . These cognitive appraisal processes (Lamm, Batson, & Decety, 2007) can play a crucial mediating role. Hoffman discusses empathy's role in five moral situations. We all know how joy spreads, or sadness, and how much we are affected by the moods of those around us (de Waal, 2013, p. 142). (p. A21). For example, it can be argued that high empathy in children leads not only to prosocial behavior but also to inductive discipline in the first place: After all, the responsiveness of such children to inductions (they might already be noticing their acts consequences for their victim) would presumably encourage parents to use this discipline technique. As we will see, regulatory cognitive strategies, beliefs, principles, and other processes can remedy these limitations and even promote prosocial moral development. Similarly, a stranger in need can be assimilated into ones sphere of familiarity if the stranger is imagined as a friend or family member. Since Hoffmans (2000) work, others have noted as well the multifaceted or complex nature of the full-fledged empathic predisposition. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. Rutland, Killen, & Abrams, 2010). There is some support especially for the latter part of this claim: Care-related concerns are more prevalent in the moral judgments of females than males, especially when open-ended assessment methods are used (Garmon et al., 1996; Gibbs, Arnold, & Burkhart, 1984; Gielen, Comunian, & Antoni, 1994; Jaffee & Hyde, 2000; cf. The common features of conflict (outer, inner) and influence (compliance, self-regulation) in the discipline encounter form the basis of Hoffmans (1983) argument for the importance of discipline practices to the outcome of moral socialization. A similar pattern of correlations was found in the Janssens and Gerris (1992) study for a disappointment-like variable, demandingness (in which parents appeal to their childs responsibility, make demands about mature behavior, and control whether their child behaves according to their expectations, p. 72). Severe levels of power assertion, or physical child abuse, can inculcate in the child a schema or internal working model of the world as dangerous and threatening, of others as having hostile intentions; such biased or distorted social information processing has been linked to subsequent antisocial behavior (Dodge, Coie, & Lynam, 2006). Much more than did Haidt, Hoffman has focused our attention on the role of empathy in moral development. Furthermore, since his major statement in 2000, Hoffman has modified his view that empathy may provide the motive to rectify violations of justice to others (p. 229, emphasis added). It can be vanquished only by humanity. Ethologists and sociobiologists have posited genetic programming as well as more complex bases (such as the empathic predisposition) for the cooperative, prosocial,2Close and even sacrificial behaviors that have been observed in many animal species. The key claim of Hoffmans moral socialization theory is that empathy mediates the relation between parents use of inductive discipline and childrens prosocial behavior. The book's focus is empathy's contribution to altruism and compassion for others in physical, psychological, or economic distress. Accordingly, any of these techniques may expand the moral circle or reduce familiarity-similarity biases; i.e., prejudice against out-group members. Generally, the observer synchronizes changes in his facial expression, voice, and posture with the slight changes in another persons facial, vocal, or postural expressions of feeling. These changes trigger afferent feedback which produce feelings in the observer that match the feelings of the victim (Hoffman, 2000, p. 37). Especially in ambiguous circumstances, observers may be motivated to make precisely that causal appraisal to reduce empathic over-arousal (discussed later). Much as Piaget might have said for moral judgment phases, Hoffman points out that the age levels assigned to the stages and transitions between stages are approximate and individual differences can be enormous (Hoffman, 2000, p. 64). The indirect affectionate response. Ability to use the language of mental states is normally acquired early in childhood, without special training. Relationship can have no factor. Empathic bias for the here-and-now distressed individual may reflect broader biases of human information processing. Consider a situation in which a child in the first place caused anothers distress: Child A says it is his turn and grabs a toy from child B, who grabs it back. The patients brain lesions may have been so severe as to extinguish even the neural prerequisites for exploratory behavior, reasoning, concern for consistency or rationality, and other head stuff (executive function, decision-making, etc.). Jean Decety and Margarita Svetlova (2012) construed such modes as additions successively innovated in evolutionary history (p. 3; cf. (pp. You can read more about it in this Parenting Science article. Just thinking of these things makes us feel good (p. 194). Although they dispute that its role is crucial, Davidson, Zahn-Waxler and colleagues do acknowledge that the emergence of psychological self-awareness does appear to facilitate toddlers prosocial behavior (Davidov et al., 2013, p. 2; emphasis added). The higher-order modes are layered upon the basic ones. Nurturance combined with low levels of induction or demandingness (often called permissive or indulgent parenting), for example, does not predict child prosocial behavior. Such ambiguous conflict situations beg for adult intervention because they allow each child to blame the other; the neutralizing effect of other-blaming causal attributions on empathy was noted earlier. Fully mature (p. 58) social perspective-taking achieves the best of both worldsthat is, sustained intensityby co-occurring, parallel processing of both self and other (Hoffman, 2008, p. 442). Martin Hoffman has studied the development of empathy and moral reasoning in children. Yet parental expression of disappointed expectations might also foster in the child a sense of the relevance of morality to his or her self-concept (Patrick & Gibbs, 2007, 2012). Mimicry in moral development refers to a synchrony of changes in body and feeling between self and other. Doesnt peer interaction promote social decentration and moral development? The word was coined in 1909 as an English rendering of the German technical term Einfhlung, which literally translates as "in-feeling." 4546). de Waal (2009) mentioned well-intentioned but thoughtless friends whose gifts reflected what they like. For example, they never noticed that we dont have a single blue item in the house, but since they love blue, they bestow an expensive blue vase on us (p. 109, emphases added). Hoffman suggested that moral educational or cognitive behavioral programs (see Chapter 8) make prominent use of a technique that, ironically, recruits our empathic bias to the service of its own reduction. Put positively, moral socialization and internalization must have help from a biological readiness or receptivity to altruistic appeals in socialization; that is, a predisposition to accept prosocial norms. Singer, 1981). Their claim is that cognitive development brings about a psychological self-awareness in the second year that enables veridical empathic distress and hence appropriate, discerning prosocial behavior. Empathy transforms caring ideals, into prosocial hot cognitionscognitive representations charged with empathic affect, thus giving them motive force. Specifically, the empathic predisposition is seen as playing a key role in the contribution made by inductive discipline to childrens subsequent prosocial behavior. If the victim is viewed as bad, immoral, or lazy, observers may conclude that his or her fate was deserved and their empathic/sympathetic distress may decrease. As noted, there is a temptation to view the victim in precisely this way. Mirror-test results (do participants try to remove, say, a mirrored facial smudge? The optimal level of pressure to attend elicited in inductive discipline is congruent with the broader balance between parent-centered (authoritarian) and child-centered (permissive) orientations achieved in authoritative parenting (Baumrind, 1989; Damon, 1995). An interesting question pertains to the degree of effectiveness of blaming the victim and other cognitive distortions in preempting or neutralizing empathy and guilt. Hoffman (2000, 2008) argued that the newborns innate reactive cry response is triggered by mimicry, conditioning, or both. Roger Brown (1965) once wondered whether the Mona Lisa owes its popularity at least partly to its recognition value among museum tourists. The imagination entailed in perspective-taking can be either self-focused (imagining how one would feel in the others situation) or other-focused (imagining how the other person feels or how most people would feel in that situation). The reference to moral judgment more than moral feeling renders Gilligans work a less suitable vehicle than Hoffmans for exploring the affective-primacy strand of moral development. Indeed, the other is now becoming a true other who is perceived, at least dimly, as physically separate from oneself (p. 67). Personal Dis Theory . 69, 80). Beyond-the-situation veridical empathic distress can be distinguished as a sixth stage, as empathy for an entire groups life condition emerges: It seems likely that with further cognitive development, especially the ability to form social concepts and classify people into groups, children will eventually be able to comprehend the plight not only of an individual but also of an entire group or class of people such as those who are economically impoverished, politically oppressed, social outcasts, victims of wars, or mentally retarded. They stressed that they were very disappointed in me that I hadnt lived up to their expectations. M.L. This issue relates to what Hoffman (2000) called the multiple claimants dilemma as well as to the scope of application of impartiality and equality ideals (Chapter 1): How can one legitimately help some needy claimants but not others equally in need? Chapter 10) that construction has a special referent in Piagetian usage to logic and, in that sense, is not reducible to internalization. "Empathy is important; I view it as the bedrock of prosocial morality and the glue of society" (p. 449). Nancy Eisenberg (1996) called empathy the good heart and made impressive contributions to its measurement. People are mentally active, especially as mental coordination increases during childhood (Chapter 3). An adequate moral psychology must represent not just the good, but also the right in morality. Prosocial behavior is also adaptive where the recipient may eventually reciprocate the help (Trivers, 1971). Hoffman (1963) suggested that parental expressions of disappointed expectations (as distinct from parental ego attacks) could promote positive behavior by communicating that the child was capable of living up to an ideal (p. 311). John Bowlby's attachment theory-John Bowlby's attachment theory suggests that it is important for a child to have an adult in their life that they have a close bond to, whether this be parents, grandparents or . This activation, however, renders self-focused perspective-taking vulnerable to what Hoffman calls egoistic drift, in which the observer becomes lost in egoistic concerns and the image of the victim that initiated the role-taking process skips out of focus and fades away (p. 56; cf. This evokes images of others being harmed by ones actions; these images and empathic affects activate ones moral principles. It accounts for moral motivation in terms of a decentration process that generates prescriptions of equality and reciprocity, or justice. As empathic morality deepens, the individual increasingly discerns the authentic inner experience, subtler goals, and complex life situations of another individual or group. Contemporary theories have generally focused on either the behavioral, cognitive or emotional dimensions of prosocial moral development. Indeed, caring seems like a natural extension of empathic distress in specific situations to the general idea that one should always help people in need (Hoffman, 2000, p. 225). White policemen would invade our neighborhood in the middle of the night, break down our door and march my parents half naked out of bed, interrogate and humiliate my father and then arrest him for the crimes of being unemployed and harboring his family as illegal aliens in white South Africa White people could not be human. Indeed, the medical profession has a longstanding struggle to achieve an appropriate balance between empathy and clinical distance (Decety & Svetlova, 2012, pp. Parents should bring to bear an optimal level of pressure: Too little pressure obviously gives children no reason to stop, attend, and process inductive messages. B starts to cry. ease others discomfort Which of the following best describes egocentric empathy? Hoffman also pointed out that the emphasis should remain on the ongoing interaction between affective and cognitive primacies. We also use these ascribed mental states to predict how others will behave. Although distinguishable, the Hoffmanian and Kohlbergian aspects of the story are intimately interrelated and complementary. Yet the primal core or affective foundation is crucial: to neglect the basic modes and focus only on the most advanced modes is like staring at a splendid cathedral while forgetting that its made of bricks and mortar (de Waal, 2009, p. 205). Key to this growth beyond the superficial, according to Hoffman as well as de Waal and others, are the cognitive advances in self-awareness that permit more accurate attributions: The emotional state induced in oneself by the other now needs to be attributed to the other instead of the self. Like moral principles, then, mental representations such as scripts owe their moral motive power to empathic affect. Some mothers commented to researcher Julia Krevans that their early-adolescent children were often already aware of how a transgression of theirs had harmed another and would have felt hurt, scolded, or talked down to by an explicit description (Krevans, personal communication, December 30, 2002). The more widely noted of Gilligans (1982) claims, that female respondents are artifactually downscored in Kohlbergs stage system, has been generally disconfirmed (Walker, 1995). This further implication is often difficult to establish in practice, however (Eisenberg, Fabes, & Spinrad, 2006). Particularly impressive has been the systematic, integrative work of Martin Hoffman (2000, 2008). The developing arousal modes interact with the childs growing understanding of the self and other to produce overlapping stages of increasingly discerning and subtle empathic emotion. Patrick & Gibbs, 2007): Both correlated positively with maternal nurturance, negatively with parental power assertion, and positively with child empathy. Hoffman (2000) suggested that empathic learning in this sense may be inevitable as mothers hold their infants and communicate through bodily contact: The mothers accompanying facial and verbal expressions [of, for example, anxiety or tension] then become conditioned stimuli, which can subsequently evoke distress in the child even in the absence of physical contact (pp. We will have occasion to draw upon Decetys and othersespecially, Frans de Waals, Daniel Batsons, and Carolyn Zahn-Waxlerscontributions as we discuss Hoffmans work. Inductions with a preverbal toddler can point out an acts physical harm and thereby activate classically conditioned and direct associations. In phylogeny, the concurrent emergence of advanced helping behavior (e.g., consolation) with self-recognition is consistently evident in apes but not Old World monkeys, suggesting that these advances may be functionally linked, co-emerging relatively late in phylogenetic history (de Waal, 2009, 2012). Although moral principles per se are seen to lack motive force (p. 239) and are originally learned in cool didactic contexts [such as those of lectures, sermons] (p. 239), they do have an affective motive power through bonding with empathy (we would add that moral principles can also gain cognitive motive power from moral reciprocity). Although compassion fatigue can become a problem, empathic over-arousal for these individuals may temporarily intensify rather than destroy ones focus on helping the victim (Hoffman, 2000, p. 201). Many important phenomena similar to Once these modes emerged in phylogeny, they could be applied outside the rearing context and play a role in the wider fabric of social relationships (de Waal, 2012, p. 89)especially as the bodily affective mechanisms coalesce or compound with the advanced cognitive modes. I suggest that people in a moral conflict may weigh the impact of alternative courses of action on others. Although the basic modes are broadly shared across mammalian species (de Waal, 2009, 2013), the higher-order cognitive or mature modes flower most fully in humans. Martin L. Hoffman's theories of empathy and guilt have been influential in the study of the development of human psychology. As did Haidt, Hoffman found inspiration in the writings of Hume, who was at times explicit about giving primacy to affect over cognition. A mental representation of an event has been termed a generic event memory, or script (cf. If unchecked, however, habituation can reduce empathic arousal to suboptimal levels and even eliminate it. They said they hoped I would never do it again, because it was wrong to take what didnt belong to me.
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