Empathy is the ability to comprehend, feel and share what another person is going through within their scope of reference. One could say that it is the capacity to put on the shoes of another. The feeling of empathy encompasses a versatile range of human emotions. Empathy and other prosocial behaviors develop right from infancy and have deep roots from the upbringing in young humans. Arguably, positive behaviors differ in the sense that different people may perform them under different circumstances for different reasons. Thus, prosocial actions are very versatile. This essay will capture the development of empathy and other prosocial behaviors in infants and the factors that cause the difference in moral bases.
Parenting is the foundation on which empathy and prosocial behavior are built. When a child commits a wrong, it is best to use empathy-inducing methods to reprimand the act. For instance, when a child commits a wrong, an adult tends to discipline him or her. Possibly, the adult will use many of the available methods of disciplining a child such as withdrawing privileges or threats. However, use of reasoning has proved to instill empathy and other prosocial behaviors since the adult makes aware to the child the consequences of their action. This is referred to as induction. Use of induction thereby increases the probability that the child will develop the feeling of empathy towards the victim.
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Consider where a poster is made with despondent infants next to a donation box. In an attempt to instill a child’s behavior, an adult explains to the child the significance of helping others in need. There is high probability that this will influence how the child behaves towards others in need in future. Such an action is considered as a moral exhortation. Parent’s preaching to children on prosocial behaviors and modelling greatly affect the child’s subsequent reactions to similar situations. What adults say about others in the presence of children enhance their empathy and prosocial behaviors to a greater extent.
Modeling is one of the techniques of socialization that greatly and directly taps a young one’s empathetic and prosocial proclivities. Many times, children tend to imitate unfamiliar and familiar adult’s prosocial and empathetic behaviors as well as selfishness. Parental behaviors such as helpfulness and generosity are what most children look up to and gain. For instance, a child whose model is a generous adult will end up sharing more than the child whose model has less to do with generosity. Similarly, parents and children prosocial behaviors are mostly correspondent. Children who grow viewing their parents as generous and helpful share more than those that view their parents as less concerned with sharing and empathizing. Generally, children have a high affinity of imitating influential and competent models.
Assignment of responsibility and direct instructions to children is also another technique that influences the development of empathy and prosocial behavior in most children. Verbal commands and prompts by socializers tend to affect prosocial behaviors. A child who is instructed to be giving another one candy after he buys five is most probable to develop sharing skills than the ones that receive constraining instructions to behave gluttonously. Similarly, when one assigns a child some responsibility over others, let’s say the younger ones is mostly likely to develop ultraistic behaviors towards others later. This is because children who perform numerous prosocial actions view themselves as helpful and as a result develop to be prosocial in future.
Behaviors that are reinforced are most likely to be done over and over again than the ones that are less complimented and rewarded. For the development of prosocial behavior, positive compliments and reinforcement tend to cultivate the frequency of prosocial behaviors. Generally, it is clear that the induction of empathy and prosocial traits is greatly dependent on how the young children are handled and brought up. Training procedures are therefore recommendable in enhancing that the young humans develop prosocial behaviors.
