AN EXPERIMNTAL STUDY ON EMPATHY IN KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN

The purpose of the present study was to examine the following predictions: (1) the empathic ability of kindergarten children will increase with age, (2) the sameness between the sex of the subject and the sex of the stimulus will facilitate empathic behavior in children, and (3) children will be more empathic with the happy situaton than with the sad and angry situations. The subjects were 160 kindergarten children ranging in age from 4 years and 6 months to 6 years and 5 months. They were first shown drawings of five faces depicting the emotional responses of "happy", "sad", "angry", "prim", and "expressless". Then the children were presented stories in which another youngster might easily be perceived as feeling happy, sad, or angry. Each story was accompanied by three pictures of a child engaged in the described activity. Following the presentation of each story, the examiner asked the Ss to select the face that best indicated how the child felt in the situaion. Analysis and comparison of the data obtained in this study revealed the following findings; (a) Prediction 1 was statistically supported. (b) Prediction 2 was not supported. (3) Prediction 3 was partially supported with the predicted tendency. Some discussions were given in respect to the agreement and disagreement between the present and previous findings