Empathy and its development / edited by Nancy Eisenberg and Janet Strayer.

Includes bibliographies and index.

Introduction: critical issues in the study of empathy, N.Eisenberg and J.Strayer. Part 1 Historical and theoretical perspectives: history of concept of empathy, L.Wispe; evolutionary bases of empathy, R.Plutchik; the contribution of empathy to justice and moral judgment, M.L.Hoffman; empathy and psychotherapy, J.Marica; commentary on part 1, E.Straub. Part 2 Empathy across the life span: empathy and emotional understanding - the early development of empathy, R.A.Thompson; empathy and related responses in children, M.A.Barnett; adults' emotional reactions to the distress of others, C.D.Batson et al; commentary on part 2, P.Mussen. Part 3 Current issues and empirical findings: gender and age differences in empathy and sympathy, R.Lennon and N.Eisenberg; affective and cognitive perspectives on empathy, J.Strayer; mental health, temperament, family and friends - perspectives on children's empathy and social perspective taking, B.K. Bryant; parental empathy and child adjustment/maladjustment, N.D.Feshbach; empathy, sympathy, and altruism - empirical and conceptual links, N.Eisenberg and P.Miller; motor mimicry as primitive empathy, J.B.Bavelas; commentary on part 3, B.S.Moore. Part 4 Methodological issues: picture-story indices of empathy, J.Strayer; self-report ratings of empathic emotion, C.D.Batson; critique of comparable questionnaire methods in use to assess empathy in children and adults, B.K.Bryant; somatic indices of empathy, R.F.Marcus; physiological indices of empathy, N.Eisenberg et al. Conclusions: empathy viewed in context, J.Strayer and N.Eisenberg.

A study of empathy from developmental, biological, clinical, social and historical perspectives, covering topics such as developmental changes and gender differences in empathy, the role of cognition in empathy, the socialization of empathy, its role in child abuse and the measurement of empathy.