2021 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 1-10
This research examines the developmental differences between positive and negative empathy in toddlerhood and how situational variables affect a child's empathetic responses. One hundred and twenty toddlers (1–3 years old) were observed as they performed two positive and two negative empathy tasks. Each task involved either their mothers or an examiner displaying a positive or negative affect as a result of a positive or negative event. The two tasks had clearly different causes for the affect. The children's empathetic responses were evaluated in each task, and results showed that toddlers' self-distress decreased with age in the negative empathy task, while their positive affect increased with age in the positive empathy task but only when the cause of their mothers' or the experimenter's affect was clear. Meanwhile, hypothesis testing hardly increases with age, and praising behaviors were rarely observed in positive empathy tasks. Next, this study's implications and future research directions are discussed.
