2-181 - Empathy, Prosociality and Morality: Neurobiological and Relational Contributions to Development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Moral psychology has arrived at an interesting juncture. For many years, the field was dominated by a rationalist approach that emphasized reasoning, with well-known theorists like Kohlberg using a neo-Kantian framework to map cognitive change that occurs with age and education. Recently, researchers have realized the importance of emotion systems for moral functioning, finding that when emotions are not engaged or malfunction, morality suffers (Damasio, 1999). Examinations and comparisons of clinical and nonclinical samples provide insights into different physiological substrates and developmental trajectories of emotions. Neuroscientific studies have even made inroads into mapping development of moral emotions such as empathy.

Moral emotions not only develop with experience and maturation but are highly influenced by caregiving relationships, especially in early life. Mutually-responsive care cultivates empathy, conscience, and self-regulation (Kochanska, 2002) by promoting healthy physiology that underpins social capacities, such as vagal tone (Porges, 2011) and capacities for calming the stress response (Eisenberg, 2000). Synchrony with caregivers also fosters empathy and perspective taking that is carried forward in development (Feldman, 2007). Other parenting practices, such as positive touch and minimal negative touch, may also be critical for moral development.

Collectively, these papers provide evidence that connects early caregiving to physiological functioning and physiological functioning to patterns of moral emotion, cognition, and behavior. Together, they shed light on the connections between the physiological and psychological systems as well as the caregiving context in which the child develops.

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Chairs

• Darcia Narvaez, Univ of Notre Dame

• Paul David Hastings, U California, Davis

Individual Presentations

• Kindness from a Polyvagal Perspective: Parasympathetic Functioning Predicts Prosociality and Positive Caregiving - Presenting Author: Jonas G Miller, University of California, Davis; Paul David Hastings, U California, Davis

• Empathy in School Aged Children: A MEG Study - Presenting Author: Maayan Prat, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan; Abraham Goldstein, Bar-Ilan University; Ruth Feldman, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan

• The Importance of Early Life Touch for Psychosocial and Moral Development - Presenting Author: Darcia Narvaez, Univ of Notre Dame; Lijuan Wang, University of Notre Dame; Ying Cheng, University of Notre Dame; Tracy Gleason, Wellesley College; Jennifer Elizabeth Burke Lefever, University of Notre Dame

• Sex differences in emotional reactivity to harm: methodological and conceptual considerations - Presenting Author: Kalina J. Michalska, National Institute of Mental Health; Jean Decety, University of Chicago