Martin L. Hoffman

Sex differences in empathy and related behaviors

According to the prevailing cultural stereotype as well as various psychological theories, empathy (the vicarious affective response to another persons feelings) is more prevalent in females than in males. A review of the research indicates that females do indeed appear to be more empathic than mal

Moral Internalization: Current Theory And Research

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on psychological processes in moral internalization. Psychologists have long been intrigued with moral internalization because it epitomizes the age-old problem of how individuals come to manage the inevitable conflict between personal needs and social obligations. There is a theoretical disagreement that revolves around socialization experiences that are most likely to foster the internalization process. The chapter reviews the rather large body of pertinent research and evaluates it in relation to the guiding theoretical notions. Three broad categories are presented that encompass most of the research—parental discipline, identification and modeling, and cognitive disequilibrium. Consistency of moral behavior and the influence of the situation that does not deal directly with internalization but has a definite bearing on it are discussed in the chapter. Though limited in focus, the variety of research designs, measuring instruments, and theoretical concepts attest to the complex, multifaceted nature of moral internalization. Each approach appears to capture a part of reality and each hypothesis can claim some empirical support, though none has yet been subject to the crucial test.

Conscience, Personality, and Socialization Techniques.

Two groups of 7th-grade children with internal moral orientations were selected on the basis of moral judgment responses: one whose judgments showed concern for human consequences of behavior and cons

Varieties of Empathy-Based Guilt

Publisher Summary Empathy is a feeling more appropriate for someone elses condition than ones own; ones feeling may match the others but not necessarily. There are at least five modes of arousal of empathic distress. Three are primitive, automatic, and most important, involuntary: First, reflexive newborns crying at the sound of anothers cry. Second mimicry, which has two steps: the observer spontaneously imitates the victims facial, vocal, and postural expression of feeling; the resulting changes in the observers facial and postural musculature then trigger afferent feedback which produces feelings that match the feelings of the victim. Third classical conditioning and direct association of cues in the victims situation that remind observers of similar experiences in their own past and evoke feelings in them that fit the victims situation. Further two empathy-arousing models involve higher-order cognitive processes: first, mediated association and second role taking. A comprehensive prosocial, empathy-based moral theory encompasses at least five types of moral encounters: First, innocent bystander: one witnesses someone in pain, danger, or distress. Second, transgressor: one has harmed someone, or is about to act in a way that may harm someone. Third, virtual transgressor: one is innocent but feels oneself a transgressor. Fourth, multiple-claimant: an extended bystander model in which one witnesses two or more victims or potential victims but cannot help them all and must make a choice. Fifth, caring versus justice: one must choose between acting in accord with a caring principle or a justice principle when the two are in conflict.

Sex differences in moral internalization and values.

The subjects were fifth- and seventh-grade white middle-class children and their parents. The major moral internalization indices pertain to internal moral judgment, guilt intensity, and fear of punishment. The findings support the prevalent view that consideration for others is more salient in females. They also suggest, with considerable consistency (especially in adults) that moral transgressions are more likely to be associated with guilt in females and fear in males. No sex differences in internal moral judgment were obtained. Evidence was presented suggesting that the differences in children may be due partly to different discipline and affection patterns. It was also suggested that the results for adults as well as children might be explained by differential sex-role socialization as well as by increasing pressures on males over the life cycle to achieve and succeed, which may often conflict with concerns about the welfare of others.

Toward a Theory of Empathic Arousal and Development

Empathy has long been a topic of interest in psychology, but its nature and development have not been systematically treated. I have for some time been working on a comprehensive theoretical model for empathy, and in this paper, I present the most recent version of this model.

Empathic emotions and justice in society

Empathy is defined as an affect more appropriate to anothers situation than to ones own. The paper (i) summarizes different modes of empathic affect arousal; (ii) shows how empathic affect may interact with social-cognitive development, to produce four levels of empathy development; (iii) suggests that causal attributions may transform empathic affect into sympathy, guilt, and empathic anger, which are major moral affects; (iv) discusses how these affects may influence moral judgment and behavior; (v) points up empathic moralitys limitations and the need to embed empathy in relevant moral principles; (vi) discusses possible links between empathy and justice principles, with special focus on Rawls; (vii) illustrates the interplay of empathy, moral judgment, and justice; and (viii) suggests that moral principles may become “hot cognitions.”

Parent Discipline, Moral Internalization, and Development of Prosocial Motivation

In most research on prosocial behavior the actor is an innocent bystander. of equal importance are situations in which the actor is the cause of the other’s distress. I have for some time been dealing with both contexts. Regarding the first, I have put together a theory of the development of em thy (see Hoffman, 1982, for the most recent version) that includes several modes of empathic affect arousal and several stages of social-cognitive development. The empathic arousal modes combine with the social-cognitive stages, and the result is four developmental levels of empathic distress that I believe may account for the individual’s motivation to help in the innocent-bystander context. Regarding situations in which the actor is the cause of the other’s misfortune, I use as a framework the development of an internal moral orientation in which guilt is the major moral motive.

Empathy and Moral Development by Martin L. Hoffman

1. Introduction and overview 2. Empathy, its arousal and prosocial functioning 3. Development of empathic distress 4. Empathic anger, sympathy, guilt, feeling of injustice 5. Guilt and moral internalization 6. From discipline to internalization 7. Relationship and other virtual guilts 8. Empathys limitations: is empathy enough? 9. Empathy and moral principles 10. Development of empathy-based justice principles 11. Multiple- claimant and caring-versus-justice dilemmas 12. The universality and culture issue 13. Implications for intervention.