Psychological Development and Education ›› 2012, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (4): 434-441.

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The Development of Empathy Across the Lifespan: A Perspective of Double Processes

HUANG He-qing, SU Yan-jie   

  1. Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing 100871
  • Online:2012-07-15 Published:2012-07-15

Abstract: Empathy contains both the bottom-up emotional process and the up-down cognitive process,and the two processes have distinct developmental trajectories and mechanism.Emotional empathy is inherent,and shows a tendency to decrease from infancy to adulthood,and then increase with aging.The developmental trajectory of emotional process takes on a continuous shape of U.The shared representation between self and other in the Mirror Neuron System may be the potential factor affecting the development of emotional empathy.Cognitive empathy increases from infancy to adulthood and decrease gradually from then on.The developmental trajectory of cognitive empathy is like a convert U.The development of cognitive empathy is due to the ability to distinguish self and other,and the ability to inhibit the proneness of self center.The brain network involving the development of cognitive empathy is Temporal-parietal association area and the frontal cortex.To catch a whole picture of the development of empathy,both processes of empathy should be investigated.

Key words: empathy, emotional sharing, cognitive regulation, shared representation, executive function

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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