Empathy during early Childhood Across Cultures, Development of

Geangu, Elena

doi:10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.23167-x

Cited by 9 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Infants who were rated by their mothers as having greater self-regulation (Falling Reactivity) had a larger P200 to both laughter and crying compared to those infants rated as having poor self-regulation. These results expand previous findings by showing that infants' temperamental variations in the ability to regulate arousal are not only related to ERP responses to emotional facial expressions (Missana et al, 2014;Martinos et al, 2012), but also to their ability to preferentially attend to their peers' nonverbal vocalizations of emotions; a skill that may be a precursor to developing empathy (Geangu, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Nonverbal vocalizations of emotions such as laughter and crying are human universals, providing unambiguous and genuine information about our emotions (Barr, Hopkins & Green, 2000;Dunbar, Baron, & Frangou, 2012;Paulmann & Kotz, 2008a;Provine, 2016;Provine, 2004;Sauter, Eisner, Ekman, & Scott, 2010a;Scherer, 1986Scherer, , 1995. Both the production and the accurate interpretation of these social signals are thought to play crucial roles in communication, social bonding and elicitation of prosocial behaviors, and may be early precursors to empathy development (Decety, 2015;Decety & Howard, 2013;Geangu, 2015;Hoffmann, 2000). Evidence suggests that nonverbal vocalizations of emotions may be important for our early social lives (e.g., Barr et al, 2000;Davila Ross, Owren, & Zimmermann, 2009;Ostwald & Murry, 1985).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both the atypical sensitivity to others' nonverbal vocalizations of emotions and their production have been associated with risk for developmental disorders characterized by impaired social functioning, such as autism (Esposito, Nakazawa, Venuti, & Bornstein, 2013;Esposito, Venuti, & Bornstein, 2011;Reddy, Williams, & Vaughan, 2002;Blasi et al, 2015). Despite their significance, the processing and use of nonverbal vocalizations of emotions, particularly during early development, remains understudied (Geangu, 2015;Pell et al, 2015;Dunbar et al, 2012;Provine, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Individual differences in infants’ neural responses to their peers’ cry and laughter

Crespo-Llado

Vanderwert

Geangu

2018

Biological Psychology

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Infants' ability to process others' emotional expressions is fundamental for their social development. While infants' processing of emotions expressed by faces and speech has been more extensively investigated, less is known about how infants process non-verbal vocalizations of emotions. Here, we recorded frontal N100, P200, and LPC event-related potentials (ERPs) from 8-month-old infants listening to sounds of other infants crying, laughing, and coughing. Infants' temperament was measured via parental report. Results showed that processing of emotional information from non-verbal vocalizations was associated with more negative N100 and greater LPC amplitudes for peer's crying sounds relative to positive and neutral sounds. Temperament was further related to the N100, P200, and LPC difference scores between conditions. One important finding was that infants with improved ability to regulate arousal exhibited increased sustained processing of peers' cry sounds compared to both laughter and cough sounds. These results emphasize the relevance of considering the temperamental characteristics in understanding the development of infant emotion information processing, as well as for formulating comprehensive theoretical models of typical and atypical social development.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Individual differences in infants’ neural responses to their peers’ cry and laughter

Crespo-Llado

Vanderwert

Geangu

2018

Biological Psychology

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“…The reported results speak in favour of RFRs as the result of complex mechanisms in which affective processes may play an important role. These findings add to a growing body of research on the development of complex social and emotional abilities like empathy (Decety & Svetlova, 2012;Decety, 2015;Geangu, 2015;Geangu et al, 2011) and social understanding (Meltzoff, 2007;Carpendale & Lewis, 2006). It will be particularly interesting to explore whether RFRs 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 24 to others' emotions are related to children's abilities to share the emotional experiences of people around them or whether they contribute to how well children understand their own and others' emotions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Three-year-olds’ rapid facial electromyographic responses to emotional facial expressions and body postures

Geangu

Quadrelli

Conte

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Rapid facial reactions (RFRs) to observed emotional expressions are proposed to be involved in a wide array of socioemotional skills, from empathy to social communication. Two of the most persuasive theoretical accounts propose RFRs to rely either on motor resonance mechanisms or on more complex mechanisms involving affective processes. Previous studies demonstrated that presentation of facial and bodily expressions can generate rapid changes in adult and school-age children's muscle activity. However, to date there is little to no evidence to suggest the existence of emotional RFRs from infancy to preschool age. To investigate whether RFRs are driven by motor mimicry or could also be a result of emotional appraisal processes, we recorded facial electromyographic (EMG) activation from the zygomaticus major and frontalis medialis muscles to presentation of static facial and bodily expressions of emotions (i.e., happiness, anger, fear, and neutral) in 3-year-old children. Results showed no specific EMG activation in response to bodily emotion expressions. However, observing others' happy faces led to increased activation of the zygomaticus major and decreased activation of the frontalis medialis, whereas observing others' angry faces elicited the opposite pattern of activation. This study suggests that RFRs are the result of complex mechanisms in which both affective processes and motor resonance may play an important role.

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“…Empathy is a multifaceted construct comprising an affective, a cognitive, and a behavioral component (Geangu, 2015;Telle and Pfister, 2016). The affective component entails empathic concern (i.e., the ability to feel, share, and respond to others' emotional experiences); the cognitive component consists in perspectivetaking abilities (i.e., understanding, and attributing others with, mental states and viewpoints; Lonigro et al, 2014), while the behavioral or external component implies prosocial conducts (Bensalah et al, 2016).…”

Section: The Development Of Empathy In Early Childhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathy in Toddlers: The Role of Emotion Regulation, Language Ability, and Maternal Emotion Socialization Style

2020

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We investigated, through a cross-sectional study, whether and to what extent toddlers' empathy is associated with a set of individual and family factors known to foster positive social skills in early childhood: children's own emotion regulation, language ability, and maternal emotion socialization style. Participants were 320 toddlers (M age = 28.8 months; SD = 3.55) and their mothers. The children came from middle-SES families and were recruited at 34 infant-toddler centers. We used parentreport measures to assess the toddlers' competences and a self-report questionnaire to evaluate maternal emotion socialization style (coaching vs. dismissing). Toddlers' empathic responses, as reported by their mothers, were positively and significantly correlated, respectively, with their positive emotion regulation, language skills, and maternal emotion-coaching style. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that emotion regulation and maternal emotion-coaching style contributed to explaining variance in toddlers' empathy, after controlling for the effects of children's age and language ability. Moderation analysis showed that emotion regulation skills did not moderate the relationship between maternal emotion-coaching style and children's empathy. We discuss the implications of these findings.

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Empathy during early Childhood Across Cultures, Development of

Cited by 9 publications

References 40 publications

Individual differences in infants’ neural responses to their peers’ cry and laughter

Individual differences in infants’ neural responses to their peers’ cry and laughter

Three-year-olds’ rapid facial electromyographic responses to emotional facial expressions and body postures

Empathy in Toddlers: The Role of Emotion Regulation, Language Ability, and Maternal Emotion Socialization Style

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