Empathy and moral development: implications for caring and justice
Short Title:
Empathy and moral development
Format:
Book
Publication Date:
Nov 30, 2000
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Place of Publication:
Cambridge
Sources ID:
47891
Collection:
Altruism
Visibility:
Public (group default)
Abstract:
(Show)
Contemporary theories have generally focused on the behavioral, cognitive, or emotional dimensions of prosocial moral development. In this volume, the author brings these 3 dimensions together while providing the first comprehensive account of prosocial moral development in children. The main concept is empathy—one feels what is appropriate for another person's situation, not one's own. The author discusses empathy's role in 5 moral situations. The book's focus is empathy's contribution to altruism and compassion for others in physical, physical psychological, or economic distress; feelings of guilt over harming someone; feelings of anger at others who do harm; feelings of injustice when when others do not receive their due. Also highlighted are the psychological processes involved in empathy's interaction with certain parental behaviors that foster moral internalization in children and the psychological processes involved in empathy's relation to abstract moral principles such as caring and distributive justice. This important book is the culmination of 3 decades of study and research by a leading figure in the area of child and development psychology.