Interrelationship of different categories of prosocial behavior different assessment procedures, and role of empathy and perspective taking were examined. Prosocial behavior in preschool children was assessed using three different approaches: naturalistic observation, structured measures, and teacher ratings. Results indicated preschool children…

The effect of two types of role-taking training experiences on role taking, empathy, altruism, and aggression was investigated in 30 six- and 30 nine-year-old boys. (SS)

This paper presents a study of empathy in 6- to 9-year-olds. Although empathy is primarily defined as the response of one individual to the emotional state of another, definitions and assessment can be further differentiated depending on the empathizer's response and on the source of the empathizer's knowledge of the other person. Is the…

When assessing the influence of empathy on prosocial motivation, analyzing empathy alone would lead to a misunderstanding. We must also assess other elements of the situation, such as the altruist's coping skills and situational constraints. In a similar manner empathy itself should be conceptualized as a process with many elements. One way to…

This paper describes a one-year longitudinal follow up study of the long term effects of role taking training procedures (in which children assumed a number of perspectives) on children's social and cognitive behaviors. Longitudinal and cross-sectional age effects were also analyzed. In an earlier study the effect of two types of role-taking…

The prosocial behavior of 52 preschool children was assessed using three different approaches: naturalistic observation, laboratory measures, and teacher ratings. During the naturalistic observation, an observer, either male or female, focused on one child at a time and recorded any examples of prosocial behavior demonstrated by the child as well…