PSYC 2315: CH. 13- Moral Development, Values, and Religion

Parenting Recommendations

-Are warm and supportive, use inductive reasoning, and engage in authoritative parenting -Are not punitive and do not use love withdrawal as disciplinary strategies Provide opportunities for the children to learn about others' perspectives and feelings -Involve children in family decision making and in the process of thinking about moral decisions -Model moral behaviors and thinking themselves, and provide opportunities for their children to do so -Provide information about what behaviors are expected and why Foster an internal rather than an external sense of morality -Help children to understand and regulate negative emotion rather than becoming overaroused

character education

A direct moral education program in which students are taught moral literacy to prevent them from engaging in immoral behavior and doing harm to themselves or others. The argument is that behaviors such as lying, stealing, and cheating are wrong, and students should be taught this throughout their education

service learning

A form of education that promotes social responsibility and service to the community. In service learning, adolescents engage in activities such as tutoring, helping older adults, working in a hospital, assisting at a child-care center, or cleaning up a vacant lot to make a play area. An important goal of service learning is for adolescents to become less self-centered and more strongly motivated to help others. -Service learning is often more effective when two conditions are met: (1) students are given some degree of choice in the service activities in which they participate, and (2) students are provided opportunities to reflect about their participation.

Cheating

A moral education concern is whether students cheat and how to handle the cheating if it is discovered. Academic cheating can take many forms, including plagiarism, using "cheat sheets" during an exam, copying from a neighbor during a test, purchasing papers, and falsifying lab results.

cognitive moral education

A moral education program based on the belief that students should learn to value things like democracy and justice as their moral reasoning develops; Kohlberg's theory has been the basis for many of the cognitive moral education programs. Kohlberg's theory has served as the foundation for a number of cognitive moral education programs. In a typical program, high school students meet in a semester-long course to discuss a number of moral issues. The instructor acts as a facilitator rather than as a director of the class. The goal is for students to develop more advanced notions of concepts such as cooperation, trust, responsibility, and community

values clarification

A moral education program in which students are helped to clarify their purpose in life and decide what is worth working for. Students are encouraged to define their own values and understand others' values. Unlike character education, which tells students what their values should be, values clarification encourages students to define their own values and understand the values of others. -Advocates of values clarification say it is value-free. However, critics argue that its content offends community standards and that the values-clarification exercises fail to stress the right behavior.

Kohlberg's Theory

A second major perspective on moral development was proposed by Lawrence Kohlberg. Piaget's cognitive stages of development serve as the underpinnings for Kohlberg's theory, but Kohlberg suggested that there are six stages of moral development. These stages, he argued, are universal. Development from one stage to another, said Kohlberg, is fostered by opportunities to take the perspective of others and to experience conflict between one's current stage of moral thinking and the reasoning of someone at a higher stage.

Psychoanalytic Theory

According to Sigmund Freud, guilt and the desire to avoid feeling guilty are the foundation of moral behavior.

juvenile delinquency

Actions taken by an adolescent in breaking the law or engaging in illegal behavior. -Like other categories of disorders, juvenile delinquency is a broad concept; legal infractions range from littering to murder. Because the adolescent technically becomes a juvenile delinquent only after being judged guilty of a crime by a court of law, official records do not accurately reflect the number of illegal acts juvenile delinquents commit.

Religion and Cognitive Development

Adolescence and emerging adulthood can be especially important junctures in religious development. Even if children have been indoctrinated into a religion by their parents, because of advances in their cognitive development adolescents and emerging adults may question what their own religious beliefs truly are. -Many of the cognitive changes thought to influence religious development involve Piaget's cognitive developmental stages. More so than in childhood, adolescents think abstractly, idealistically, and logically. The increase in abstract thinking lets adolescents consider various ideas of religious and spiritual concepts. For example, an adolescent might ask how a loving God can possibly exist given the extensive suffering of many people in the world -Adolescents' increased idealistic thinking provides a foundation for thinking about whether religion provides the best route to a better, more ideal world than the present. And adolescents' increased logical reasoning gives them the ability to develop hypotheses and systematically sort through different answers to spiritual questions

Conduct disorder

Age-inappropriate actions and attitudes that violate family expectations, society's norms, and the personal or property rights of others. Children with conduct problems show a wide range of rule-violating behaviors, from swear-ing and temper tantrums to severe vandalism, theft, and assault. -Conduct problems in children are best explained by a confluence of causes, or risk factors, operating over time. These include possible genetic inheritance of a difficult temperament, inef-fective parenting, and living in a neighborhood where violence is the norm. In a recent study in 10 urban schools serving primarily African American children from low-income backgrounds, the children were randomly assigned to either a "pre-kindergarten as usual" control condition or an intervention that consisted of a family program (13 weeks of behavioral parenting strategies) and a professional development training program for early childhood teachers. For boys, but not girls, the intervention led to lower rates of conduct problems two years later.

perspective taking

Although empathy is an emotional state, it has a cognitive component—the ability to discern another's inner psychological states, or what we have previously discussed as perspective taking

forgiveness

An aspect of prosocial behavior that occurs when the injured person releases the injurer from possible behavioral retaliation. -In one investigation, individuals from the fourth grade through college and adulthood were asked questions about forgiveness. The individuals were especially swayed by peer pres-sure in their willingness to forgive others. A recent study of older adults revealed that women were more likely to forgive than men, individuals were more likely to forgive family mem-bers than non-family members, and forgiveness was more likely to be extended to people who were still alive than those who were dead.

Proactive Strategies

An important parenting strategy is to proac-tively avert potential misbehavior by children before it takes place. With younger children, being proactive means using diversion, such as distracting their attention or moving them to alternative activities. With older children, being proactive may involve talking with them about values that the parents deem important. Transmitting these values can help older children and adolescents to resist temptations that inevitably emerge in contexts such as peer relations and the media that can be outside the scope of direct parental monitoring.

altruism

An unselfish interest and voluntary effort in helping another person. -Think of the hardworking laborer who places $5 in a Salvation Army kettle, the volunteers at homeless shelters, the person who donates a kidney so someone else can live. Altruism is found throughout the human world. It is also taught by every widely practiced religion in the world—Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism. The cir-cumstances most likely to evoke altruism are empathy for an individual in need or a close relationship between the benefactor and the recipient

integrative ethical education

Another integrative moral education program that is being implemented is called _________. -This program builds on the concept of expertise development within a supportive community. The goal is to turn moral novices into moral experts by educating students about four ethical skills that moral experts possess: ethical sensitivity, ethical judgment, ethical focus, and ethical action.

immanent justice

Belief that if a rule is broken, punishment will be meted out immediately.

Values

Beliefs and attitudes about the way things should be. -We attach value to all sorts of things: politics, religion, money, sex, education, helping others, family, friends, career, recognition, self-respect, and so on. We carry with us values that influence our thoughts, feelings, and actions. One way to measure what people value is to ask them what their goals are. Over the past four decades, traditional-aged college students have shown an increased concern for personal well-being and a decreased concern for the well-being of others, especially for the disadvantaged

PARENTING

Both Piaget and Kohlberg held that parents do not provide unique or essential inputs to chil-dren's moral development. Parents, in their view, are responsible for providing role-taking opportunities and cognitive conflict, but peers play the primary role in moral development. Research reveals siblings and peers, as well as parents, contribute to children's moral matura-tion

Prosocial behavior

Caring about the welfare and rights of others, feeling concern and empathy for them, and acting in a way that benefits others are all components of prosocial behavior. -Prosocial behavior occurs more often in adolescence than in childhood, although examples of caring for others and comforting someone in distress occur even during the preschool years. -Why might prosocial behavior increase in adolescence? Cognitive changes involving advances in abstract, idealistic, and logical reasoning as well as increased empathy and emo-tional understanding likely are involved. With such newfound cognitive abilities, young ado-lescents increasingly sympathize with members of abstract groups with whom they have little experience, such as people living in poverty in other countries. The increase in volunteer opportunities in adolescence also contributes to more frequent prosocial behavior.

Moral Development

Changes in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding standards of right and wrong. Moral development has an intrapersonal dimension, which regulates a person's activities when she or he is not engaged in social interaction, and an interpersonal dimension, which regulates social interactions and arbitrates conflict.

Conversational Dialogue

Conversations related to moral develop-ment can benefit children, whether they occur as part of a discipline encounter or outside the encounter in the everyday stream of parent-child interaction. The conversations can be planned or spontaneous and can focus on topics such as past events (for example, a child's prior misbehavior or positive moral conduct), shared future events (for example, going somewhere that may involve a temptation and requires positive moral behavior), and immediate events (for example, talking with the child about a sibling's tantrums).

integrative approach

Darcia Narváez emphasizes an integrative approach encompasses both the reflective moral thinking and commitment to justice advocated in Kohlberg's approach, and developing virtues as advocated in the character education approach.

meaning-making coping

Drawing on beliefs, values, and goals to change the meaning of a stressful situation, especially in times of high levels of stress such as when a loved one dies.

Religion and Identity Development

During adolescence and emerging adulthood, especially emerging adulthood, identity development becomes a central focus. -Adolescents and emerging adults look for answers to questions like these: "Who am I? What am I all about as a person? What kind of life do I want to lead?" As part of their search for identity, adolescents and emerging adults begin to grapple in more sophis-ticated, logical ways with such questions as "Why am I on this planet? Is there really a God or higher spiritual being, or have I just been believing what my parents and the church imprinted in my mind? What really are my religious views?" An analysis of the link between identity and spirituality concluded that adolescence and adulthood can serve as gateways to a spiritual identity that "transcends, but not necessarily excludes, the assigned religious identity in childhood"

superego

In Freud's theory, the superego is the moral branch of personality. The superego consists of two main components: the ego ideal and the conscience.

Are older adults more altruistic than younger adults?

In a series of recent studies, older adults were more likely to behave in altruistic ways and to value contributions to the public good than younger adults were. For example, in two of the studies, older adults were more likely than younger adults to donate money for a good cause.

Piaget's Theory

Interest in how children think about moral issues was stimulated by Piaget (1932), who extensively observed and interviewed children from the ages of 4 through 12. Piaget watched children play marbles to learn how they used and thought about the game's rules. He also asked children about ethical issues—theft, lies, punishment, and justice, for example. Piaget concluded that children go through two distinct stages in how they think about morality: -From 4 to 7 years of age, children display heteronomous morality, the first stage of moral development in Piaget's theory. Children think of justice and rules as unchange-able properties of the world, removed from the control of people. -From 7 to 10 years of age, children are in a transition showing some features of the first stage of moral reasoning and some features of the second stage, autonomous morality. -From about 10 years of age and older, children show autonomous morality. They become aware that rules and laws are created by people, and in judging an action, they consider the actor's intentions as well as the consequences.

moral character

James Rest argued that moral character has not been adequately emphasized in moral development. In Rest's view, moral character involves having the strength of your convictions, persisting, and overcoming distractions and obstacles. If individuals don't have moral character, they may wilt under pressure or fatigue, fail to follow

Kohlberg's Critics/ Criticisms

Key criticisms involve the link between moral thought and moral behavior, whether moral reasoning is conscious/deliberative or uncon-scious/automatic, the role of emotion, the roles of culture and the family in moral development, and the significance of concern for others. -Kohlberg's theory has been criticized for placing too much emphasis on moral thought and not enough emphasis on moral behavior. Moral reasons can sometimes be a shelter for immoral behavior. Corrupt CEOs and politicians endorse the loftiest of moral virtues in public before their own behavior is exposed. Whatever the latest public scandal, you will probably find that the culprits displayed virtuous thoughts but engaged in immoral behavior. No one wants a nation of cheaters and thieves who can reason at the postconventional level. -Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that a major flaw in Kohlberg's theory is his view that moral thinking is deliberative and that individuals go around all the time contemplating and reasoning about morality. Haidt believes that moral thinking is more often an intuitive gut reaction, with deliberative moral reasoning serving as an after-the-fact justification. Thus, in his view, much of morality begins with rapid evaluative judgments of others rather than with strategic reasoning about moral circumstances. -Kohlberg argued that emotion has negative effects on moral reasoning. However, increasing evidence indicates that emotions play an important role in moral thinking. Researchers have found that individuals who have damage to a particular region in the brain's prefrontal cortex lose the ability to integrate emotions into their moral judgments -Kohlberg emphasized that his stages of moral reasoning are universal, but some critics claim his theory is culturally biased. Furthermore, Kohlberg's scoring system does not recognize the higher-level moral reasoning of certain cultures, and thus that moral reasoning is more culture-specific than Kohlberg envisioned. -Kohlberg argued that family processes are essentially unimportant in children's moral development. Most developmentalists emphasize that parents play more important roles in children's moral development than Kohlberg envisioned -The most publicized criticism of Kohlberg's theory has come from Carol Gilligan, who argues that Kohlberg's theory reflects a gender bias. According to Gilligan, Kohlberg's theory is based on a male norm that puts abstract principles above relationships and concern for others and sees the individual as standing alone and independently making moral decisions. It puts justice at the heart of morality.

justice perspective

Kohlberg's perspective. A moral perspective that focuses on the rights of the individual; individuals independently make moral decisions

mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships, and interpersonal conformity

Kohlberg's third stage of moral development. At this stage, individuals value trust, caring, and loyalty to others as a basis of moral judgments. Children and adolescents often adopt their parents' moral standards at this stage, seeking to be thought of by their parents as a "good girl" or a "good boy."

Why might religion promote physical health? There are several possible answers:

Lifestyle issues. -For example, religious individuals have lower rates of drug use than their nonreligious counterparts Social networks. -Well-connected individuals have fewer health problems. Religious groups, meetings, and activities provide social connectedness for individuals. Coping with stress. -Religion offers a source of comfort and support when individuals are confronted with stressful events

Causes of Delinquency

Many causes have been proposed, including heredity, identity problems, community influences, and family experiences. Erik Erikson, for example, noted that adolescents whose development has restricted them from acceptable social roles or made them feel that they cannot measure up to the demands placed on them may choose a negative identity. Adolescents with a negative identity may find support for their delinquent image among peers, reinforcing the negative identity. For Erikson, delinquency is an attempt to establish an identity, although a negative one. -Although delinquency is less exclusively a phenomenon of lower socioeconomic status today than it was in the past, some characteristics of lower-class culture might promote delinquency -Family therapy is often effective in reducing delinquency

Antisocial behavior

Most children and adolescents at one time or another act out or do things that are destructive or troublesome for themselves or others. If these behaviors occur often, psychiatrists diagnose them as conduct disorders. If these behaviors result in illegal acts by juveniles, society labels them delinquents. Both problems are much more common in males than in females.

Roy Baumeister and Kathleen Vohs argue that the quest for a meaningful life can be understood in terms of four main needs for meaning that guide how people try to make sense of their lives:

Need for purpose. Need for values. Need for a sense of efficacy. Need for self-worth.

Moral exemplars

People who have a moral personality, identity, character, and set of virtues that reflect moral excellence and commitment. People who have lived exemplary lives.

empathy

Reacting to another's feelings with an emotional response that is similar to the other's feelings. To empathize is not just to sympathize; it is to put oneself in another's place emotionally.

Are there gender differences in prosocial behavior during childhood and adolescence?

Research concludes that differences exist. For example, across childhood and adolescence, females engage in more prosocial behavior than males. The largest gender difference occurs for kind and considerate behavior with a smaller difference for sharing. -Compared with antisocial behavior such as juvenile delinquency, less attention has been given to prosocial behavior in adolescence. We still do not have adequate research information about such topics as how youth perceive prosocial norms and how school policies and peers influence prosocial behavior

The Positive Role of Religion in Adolescents' Lives

Researchers have found that various aspects of religion are linked with positive outcomes for adolescents. A recent study revealed that parents' religiousness during youths' adoles-cence was positively related to youths' own religiousness during adolescence. Another recent study found that when youth attend religious services with parents, this activity increases the positive influence of parenting on their psychological. -Religion plays a role in adolescents' health and has an influence on whether they engage in problem behaviors -A recent meta-analysis found that spirituality/ religiosity was positively related to well-being, self-esteem, and three of the big five factors of personality (conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness) -In this meta-analysis, spirituality/religion was negatively associated with risk behavior and depression. -those who had a stronger interest in religion were less likely to smoke, drink alcohol, use marijuana, be truant from school, engage in delinquent activities, and be depressed than their low-religiosity counterparts

moral identity

The aspect of personality that is present when individuals have moral notions and commitments that are central to their lives. In this view, behaving in a manner that violates this moral commitment places the integrity of the self at risk. -Recently, Darcia Narváez concluded that a mature moral individual cares about morality and being a moral person. For these individuals, moral responsibility is central to their identity. Mature moral individuals engage in moral metacognition, including moral self-monitoring and moral self-reflection. Moral self-monitoring involves monitoring one's thoughts and actions related to moral situations, and engaging in self-control when it is needed. Moral self-reflection encompasses critical evaluations of one's self-judgments and efforts to minimize bias and self-deception.

social contract or utility and individual rights

The fifth Kohlberg stage of moral development. At this stage, individuals reason that values, rights, and principles undergird or transcend the law. A person evaluates the validity of actual laws and social systems in terms of the degree to which they preserve and protect fundamental human rights and values.

heteronomous morality (Piaget)

The first stage of moral development in Piaget's theory, occurring at 4 to 7 years of age. Justice and rules are conceived of as unchangeable properties of the world, removed from the control of people.

heteronomous morality (Kohlberg)

The first stage of preconventional reasoning in Kohlberg's theory, in which moral thinking is tied to punishment. For example, children think that they must obey because they fear punishment for disobedience.

social systems morality

The fourth stage in Kohlberg's theory of moral development. Moral judgments are based on understanding the social order, law, justice, and duty. For example, adolescents may reason that in order for a community to work effectively, it needs to be protected by laws that are adhered to by its members.

postconventional reasoning

The highest level in Kohlberg's theory of moral development. At this level, the individual recognizes alternative moral courses, explores the options, and then decides on a personal moral code.

preconventional reasoning

The lowest level in Kohlberg's theory of moral development. The individual's moral reasoning is controlled primarily by external rewards and punishments.

care perspective

The moral perspective of Carol Gilligan; views people in terms of their connectedness with others and emphasizes interpersonal communication, relationships with others, and concern for others.

hidden curriculum

The pervasive moral atmosphere that characterizes every school. More than 80 years ago, educator John Dewey recognized that even when schools do not have specific programs in moral education, they provide moral education through a "hidden curriculum." The moral atmosphere is created by school and classroom rules, the moral orientation of teachers and school administrators, and text materials. Teachers serve as models of ethical or unethical behavior.

Moral Behavior

The processes of reinforcement, punishment, and imitation have been invoked to explain how individuals learn certain responses and why their responses differ from one another's. When individuals are reinforced for behavior that is consistent with laws and social conventions, they are likely to repeat that behavior. Also, when individuals are punished for immoral behaviors, those behaviors can be eliminated, but at the expense of sanctioning punishment by its very use and of causing emotional side effects for the individual. And when provided with models who behave morally, individuals are likely to adopt their actions.

individualism, instrumental purpose, and exchange

The second Kohlberg stage of preconventional reasoning. At this stage, individuals pursue their own interests but also let others do the same. Thus, they think that what is right involves an equal exchange. They reason that if they are nice to others, others will be nice to them in return.

autonomous morality

The second stage of moral development in Piaget's theory, displayed by children about 10 years of age and older. At this stage, children become aware that rules and laws are created by people and that in judging an action they should consider the actor's intentions as well as the consequences.

conventional reasoning

The second, or intermediate, level in Kohlberg's theory of moral development. At this level, individuals abide by the standards of others such as parents or the laws of society (government).

universal ethical principles

The sixth and highest stage in Kohlberg's theory of moral development. Individuals develop a moral standard based on universal human rights. When faced with a conflict between law and conscience, the person reasons that conscience should be followed, even though the decision might bring risk.

social cognitive theory of morality

The theory that distinguishes between moral competence—the ability to produce moral behaviors—and moral performance—performing those behaviors in specific situations.

Social domain theory

Theory that identifies different domains of social knowledge and reasoning, including moral, social conventional, and personal domains. These domains arise from children's and adolescents' attempts to understand and deal with different forms of social experience. -emphasizes that the key aspects of morality involve judgments about welfare, justice, and rights as well as struggles that individuals have with moral issues in their social lives. Social domain theory stresses that children, even very young ones, are motivated to evaluate and make sense of their social world

Overt

This pathway included minor aggression followed by fighting and violence

Covert

This pathway included minor covert acts, such as lying, followed by property damage and moderately serious delinquency, then serious delinquency.

Do Infants Have Moral Awareness and Engage in Prosocial Behavior?

This research indicating that older infants and toddlers possess an intuitive sense of fairness that they use in evaluating observed behavior suggests the presence of an early foundation for moral awareness that is not anticipated in Piaget's and Kohlberg's theories of moral development.

Moral personality

Thoughts, behavior, and feelings can all be involved in an individual's moral personality. For many years, skepticism surrounded the idea that a set of moral characteristics or traits could be discovered that would constitute a core of moral personality. Three aspects of moral personality that have recently been emphasized are (1) moral identity, (2) moral character, and (3) moral exemplars.

Resistance to Temptation and Self-Control

When pressures mount for individu-als to cheat, lie, or steal, it is important to ask whether they have developed the ability to resist temptation and to exercise self-control. Researchers have shown that children can instruct themselves to be more patient and, in the process, show more self-control.

Authority conflict

Youth on this pathway showed stubbornness prior to age 12, then moved on to defiance and avoidance of authority.

Gratitude

a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation, especially in response to someone doing something kind or helpful.

Religion

an organized set of beliefs, practices, rituals, and symbols that increases an individual's connection to a sacred or transcendent other (God, higher power, or ultimate truth).

Sympathy

an other-oriented emotional response in which the observer experiences emotions that are the same or similar to what the other person is feeling—often motivates prosocial behavior

Moral performance

determined by motivation and the rewards and incentives to act in a specific moral way.

Social conventional reasoning

focuses on conventional rules that have been established by social consensus in order to control behavior and maintain the social system. The rules themselves are arbitrary, such as raising your hand in class before speaking, using one staircase at school to go up and the other to go down, not cutting in front of someone standing in line to buy movie tickets, and stopping at a stop sign when driving. There are sanctions if we violate these conventions, although the rules can be changed by consensus. -The social conventional approach is a serious challenge to Kohlberg's approach because Kohlberg argued that social conventions are a stop-over on the road to higher moral sophistication. For proponents of social conven-tional reasoning, social conventional reasoning is not lower than postconventional reasoning but rather something that needs to be disentangled from the moral thread

Moral competencies

include what individuals are capable of doing, what they know, their skills, their awareness of moral rules and regulations, and their cognitive ability to construct behaviors. Moral competence is the outgrowth of cognitive-sensory processes.

Spirituality

involves experiencing something beyond oneself in a transcendent manner and living in a way that benefits others and society.

merit

means giving extra rewards for hard work, a talented performance, or other laudatory behavior

benevolence

means giving special consideration to individuals in a disadvantaged condition. -Benevolence can be evident early in life. A recent study found that even 5-year-olds were inclined to give more to poor than to wealthy individuals, thus indicating that their motivation to help the poor overruled their otherwise dominant inclination to share resources equally. However, in this study 3-year-olds did not share more resources with poor than wealthy individuals. Another recent study revealed that 8-year-olds were more likely to donate resources to needy peers than were 4-year-olds

equality

means that everyone is treated the same

conscience

punishes the child for behaviors disapproved by the parents, making the child feel guilty and worthless.

Religiousness

refers to the degree of affiliation with an organized religion, participa-tion in its prescribed rituals and practices, connection with its beliefs, and involvement in a community of believers.

ego ideal

rewards the child by conveying a sense of pride and personal value when the child acts according to ideal standards approved by the parents.

Albert Bandura

stresses that moral development is best understood by considering a combination of social and cognitive factors, especially those involving self-control. He proposed that in developing a moral self, individuals adopt standards of right and wrong that serve as guides and deterrents for conduct.

reciprocity

the obligation to return a favor with a favor, pervades human interactions all over the world. -Fundraisers try to exploit the norm of reciprocity when they send free calendars or other knickknacks in the mail, hoping that you'll feel obligated to reciprocate with a donation to their cause. People feel guilty when they do not reciprocate, and they may feel angry if someone else does not reciprocate. Reciprocity or altruism may motivate many important prosocial behaviors, including sharing.

Global empathy

the young infant's empathic response in which clear boundaries between the feelings and needs of the self and those of another have not yet been established. For example, one 11-month-old infant fought off her own tears, sucked her thumb, and bur-ied her head in her mother's lap after she had seen another child fall and hurt himself. Not all infants cry every time someone else is hurt, though. Many times, an infant will stare at another's pain with curiosity. Although global empathy is observed in some infants, it does not consistently characterize all infants' behavior.