This article introduces a developmental perspective on kindness. The central goal is to posit a new framework for the study of kindness and its development. From an ethical perspective, kindness can be considered a virtue. It reflects emotions, cognitions, and inner states that convey a particular gentleness and benevolence. These orientations can…

The study addressed a cognitive-affective gap in the textual content of a primary English curriculum. The research design was qualitative in nature. In the first part of the study, document analysis of the textbooks from grades 1-5 was done to prove that empathetic and pro-social themes were under represented in them. The second part of the study…

The goal of this study was to examine children's cognitive and language development and social engagement of mother as mediators of the relationship between maternal emotional availability at 15 months and children's empathy at the ages of two and four. Participants were 661 low-income, ethnically diverse mother-child dyads participating in a…

This paper presents a theoretical model of empathy in which empathy is defined as a largely involuntary vicarious response to affective cues from another person or from his situation. The model has three components: affective, cognitive, and motivational. In the presentation of the affective component, five distinct models of empathic affect…

The impact of school-based Tae Kwon Do training on self-regulatory abilities was examined. A self-regulation framework including three domains (cognitive, affective, and physical) was presented. Children (N = 207) from kindergarten through Grade 5 were randomly assigned by homeroom class to either the intervention (martial arts) group or a…

A developmental model for an empathy-based prosocial motive is presented. The framework of the model is presented in terms of three components of empathy. The first component, empathic affective arousal, is discussed and six involuntary psychological mechanisms which underlie it are described briefly. These mechanisms, in the order in which they…

This paper describes three interrelated studies which investigated the cognitions, feelings, and motives involved in the emergence and progression of prosocial behaviors. The first study examined the child's emerging sensitivities to the affective events in his environment through data collected over a 9-month period from groups of 10-, 15-, and…

Argues that altruism among preschool children is dependent upon children's understanding of a variety of complex cognitive and social skills and that these skills can, to some extent, be facilitated by appropriate training programs. (Author/MP)

The central objective of this study was to draw interdependent relationships between preschoolers' social functioning and their modes of social thought. Assessment of 67 four-year-olds was done through systematic observations of social behavior, including social participation, type of play, and affective involvement in the preschool setting, as…