The present study examined affective and cognitive empathy in preschool children. Seventeen children, ages three to five years, were given The Young Children's Empathy Measure to determine their understanding of empathy. Participants were then read a children's story and given the empathy measure again, to see if they expressed more empathy after hearing about a sympathetic protagonist. A second baseline score was obtained one week after the story was administered. On measures of cognitive anger, mean scores increased significantly after the story was heard. Other scores increased after hearing the story, indicating a trend that storytelling is an effective method of increasing expressions of empathy. Affective empathy is defined as being able to know about and understand another person's feelings without having experienced the same situation (Feshbach, 1975). Children as young as three years of age have been shown to exhibit appropriate empathy toward others and to demonstrate correct understanding of others' emotions (Gove & Keating, 1979; Poresky, 19

Participants were 17 children between three and five years of age (12 boys and 5 girls, mean age 4 years, 5 months). Participants were obtained through a preschool affiliated with Earlham College, a local community center, and through contacting faculty, staff, and community members by word of mouth. All parents and guardians were told all details of the study in a letter in advance, and all children participated with their parent's knowledge and written consent. Parents were provided with the results at the conclusion of the experiment. Materials Participants were read a picture book, Hooway for Wodney Wat, (Lester, 1999). The children were also given the Young Children's Empathy Measure (Appendix A), developed by Robert Poresky (1990). The Young Children's Empathy Measure (YCEM) consisted of four verbally presented vignettes, each designed to elicit one of four emotions: sadness, fear, anger and happiness. The children were then asked two questions after each vignette. "How does the child feel?" was used to measure each child's cognitive perspective, and "How do you feel about this?" was used to measure each child's affective perspective.

Design The series of tests carried out formed an observational study. The participants were divided into three groups and each practical was carried out separate from the others. The individuals in each section were divided into pairs, for the telepathy tests, and then threes for participation in the dowsing test. In order to minimise the effect of anomalous results a series of repeat readings were taken: telepathy was repeated thirty-five times; dowsing seven. The number lists used in the telepathy test contained a sequence of randomly generated numbers. Subjects The participants in the study were the bulk of first ¡Vyear psychology undergraduates. This can be taken to mean that the majority were of above-average intelligence, and around eighteen or nineteen years of age. Additionally, most were female. Materials Telepathy: number lists featuring a sequence of thirty-six randomly generated numbers between 1and 6. Water dowsing: pairs of ¡¥dowsing rods¡¦: two pieces of relatively strong wire bent to , with ball-point pen shells as handles; specially constructed boxes,„a90 consisting of ten adjacent spatial positions where a cup of water can be hidden. Procedures Due to the large sample used, the participants in the study were split into three groups. Each group undertook both series of tests. For the telepathy test, the subjects worked in pairs - each individual acting alternately as sender and receiver. Senders worked with the number lists mentioned earlier and tried to telepathically project the sequence to the receiver. The pairs concentrated on each number for six seconds intervals and noted the number of hits, or correct identifications of the number. Five different sets of lists were used. This helped to cut down the possibility of the sender in the first trial simply remembering the sequence when they acted as receivers. When water dowsing, participants worked in threes, with two acting as experimenters and one as the dowsing subject. The target area was prepared, and the experimenters selected a location (numbered 1 to 10) using pre-prepared random number tables. A plastic cup of water was placed in the location and a lid was placed over the area, so the subject could not physically identify the water¡¦s position. Each subject had to use the dowsing rods to try and divine which position the water was in. Their score was recorded as the difference between the chosen location and the actual location (scores for each trial could be between 0 and 9). The total score was calculated over eight trials. Each member of the three worked as the subject in turn. Before the participants underwent the tests, they were asked to rate their belief in ESP on a score from 1 (belief in ESP) to 10 (no belief).

ignificant changes in mean scores were found in the remaining seven questionnai

Some topics in this essay:
Procedures Due, Results Mean, Kalliopuska Tiitinen, Ganzfeld German, Measure YCEM, Phenomena Summary, Strayer Roberts, Introduction Parapsychology, Society Dowsers, Empathy Measure, water dowsing, empathy measure, mean scores, expressions empathy, telepathy test, belief esp, affective empathy, empathy children, levels empathy, baseline immediate, children's empathy measure, baseline immediate condition, tests rate belief, underwent tests rate, rate belief esp,