Hoffman's (1975) theory holds that altruism is based on cognitive development and mechanisms for empathic distress present from birth, with the individual going through stages of personal distress, empathic concern, and perspective taking. The Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), a measure of empathy, contains four subscales: personal…

The research focused on the exploration of gender differences in interaction with infant siblings in the home and the maternal socialization of baby care in girls as opposed to boys. Observations were made of 20 families, each with 2 parents, an infant under the age of 12 months, and an older child between the ages of 46 and 102 months. Five…

The extent to which advance organizer instruction about social behavior could affect preschool children's social problem-solving abilities was investigated. The study followed a pretest, training, posttest, and delayed posttest format and included periods of observation of children's spontaneous social behaviors before, immediately following, and…

This report assesses the experiences of clients who had contact with or received drug abuse treatment from programs of the Addiction Services Agency in New York City and the Narcotics Treatment Administration in Washington, D.C. during the early 1970's. To answer the questions of what happens to former clients once they leave drug treatment…

This textbook is an Americanization course that teaches English with situational readings for using English in daily activities and learning manners, customs, geography, and hygiene, as well as readings in American history. Reading, conversation, pronunciation drills, composition, and dramatization are used in lessons.

Empathy as a personality variable and as related to social behavior in young children has not been examined for its specificity with regard to various affect classes but has generally been treated as a global response to all affect classes. Three kinds of evidence relative to the specificity of empathic responses are analyzed: (1) correlations…

This study investigates pro-social and anti-social behaviors portrayed on prime time and Saturday morning television during the 1975-76 season. An initial review of relevant research in this behavioral area is followed by a description of the basic content categories for pro-social and anti-social behaviors, motives and consequences of these…

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…

This study examined the effects of prosocial television programming and environmental conditions on positive interpersonal behavior of preschool children with their peers. Subjects, 3- to 5-year-olds from 13 Head Start classes, were assigned in class groups to one of four experimental treatments: (1) viewing neutral films and playing with…

This paper discusses a recent study of the effect of television on racial and cultural attitudes of English Speaking Canadian preschool children, and describes a project planned to assess the interest value of a new prosocial documentary program and the program's effect on attitudes of 9- to 12-year-olds. The study already conducted had two parts.…

Structured Learning Therapy (SLT) teaches aggressive adolescents prosocial skills (negotiation, self-relaxation, and anger control) by modeling, role playing, social reinforcement, and transfer of training. This article summarizes initial application of SLT with psychiatric clients, includes guidelines for improving trainee-trainer-treatment…

The generalization of cooperative behavior and proximity across classroom situations was tested with three behavior disordered children between the ages of 3.5 and 4.5 years who had low rates of cooperative behavior. (Author/DLS)

The discriminant validity of the noxious codes of the Behavioral Coding System for the measurement of aggressive behavior in schools was investigated on a sample of aggressive and prosocial elementary school males. The codes were found to discriminate. (Author/JKS)

Reviews research and theory on the earliest development of moral behavior among infants and very young children. Lists a range of behaviors which are said to demonstrate the development of moral behavior. Includes illustrative anecdotes and a three-page bibliography. (JDH)

Stories written by school-age children were examined for sex and age differences in the assignment of emotions and prosocial and aggressive behaviors to the story characters. (Author/ABB)