Empathy is an emotional state that matches another person's emotional state-for example, feeling bad because someone else feels bad (Hoffman, 2000). In contrast, sympathy involves feeling sorry or concerned for other people because of their emotional states or conditions.
Empathy develops fairly early and increases across childhood. Even though infants cannot distinguish their own feelings and needs from those of others, they sometimes respond to others' emotions. For example, if an infant hears another infant cry they too cry, although this tendency is not steady or universal. Early in childhood, children tend to act and think in an egocentric manner. Thus, they may respond to another's distress in ways they find themselves comforting. Example. A 3 year old child tries to cheer up his mother by giving his toys, showing his empathy for his mother's emotional state.
When children start developing the capacity to see the perspective of others, they become increasingly aware that other people's feelings are independent of and sometimes different from, their own. Children’s empathic and sympathetic reactions are limited to the feelings of familiar persons in directly observed or familiar situations. Preschoolers are mostly emotionally responsive to daily events such as being beaten, getting scratched or being made fun of that cause distress to familiar people or animals. During later childhood, their scope includes the conditions of unknown others.
Participants