ABSTRACT
This chapter considers more complex emotional experiences, sometimes referred to as social or moral emotions – emotions that are bound up with children’s understanding of the social world. It examines the development of empathy, that is, feeling and understanding what another person feels. Empathy theorists make a distinction between affective and cognitive empathy. Therefore, if crying when another infant cries is not simply the consequence of confusion between self and other, it can be examined as an early step on the pathway toward empathy and compassion. Thus, there is a complex pathway from the biological factors that regulate parents’ empathy and the biological and social supports for children’s empathy in their own social relationships. Thus, there is a complex pathway from the biological factors that regulate parents’ empathy and the biological and social supports for children’s empathy in their own social relationships.
