THE THREE-YEAR -'0LD.. CHILD'S
AWARENESS 0F AFFECT IN SELF
AND TN MOTHER,

Thesis for the Degree of MA;

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY -

BARBARA JO- BRANDT
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ABSTRACT

THE THREE-YEAR-OLD CHILD'S AWARENESS OF
AFFECT IN SELF AND IN MOTHER

BY

Barbara Jo Brandt

The purpose of this study was to investigate the
early manifestations of empathy in children, using three-
year-old children as subjects. It was hypothesized that
subjects would identify feelings of a child more accur-
ately than feelings of a mother. Furthermore, subjects
would identify a mother's feelings more accurately when
her child had caused her feelings than when the father
had been the cause of her feelings. Three different
feelings were of interest: happy, sad, and angry.

Twenty-six three-year-old children (13 boys and
13 girls) participated in the study. Each subject was
told 27 stories, accompanied by an illustrative picture
in which the mother or the child might easily be perceived
as feeling happy, sad, or angry. The sex of the child
in the story was the same as the subject. At the conclu-

sion of each story, the subject was asked what the

l

Barbara Jo Brandt

mother (or the child) was feeling. The subject indicated
his reSponse by pointing to one of three faces which de-
picted the emotions of happiness, sadness, and anger.
The 27 stories were divided into 3 sessions for each
subject, to help prevent boredom.

Results of the statistical analysis showed that
for happy and sad feelings, there was no difference in
the accuracy with which the subjects identified the child's
and the mother's feelings; for angry feelings, subjects
identified the child's feelings significantly less accur—
ately than the mother's feelings (p < .01). For all three
emotions, there was no difference in the accuracy with
which the subjects identified the mother's feelings when
caused by the child or when caused by the father. Finally,
subjects identified positive feelings significantly more
accurately than negative feelings (p < .01). Possible
explanations of the results were discussed and directions
for further research on empathy in young children were

proposed.

THE THREE-YEAR-OLD CHILD'S AWARENESS OF

AFFECT IN SELF AND IN MOTHER

BY

Barbara Jo Brandt

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Psychology

1972

To Mom, who has consistently supported and
encouraged me in all of my intellectual

endeavors--much love and gratitude.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to thank the directors of the participating
day care centers--Mrs. Bernice Brown, Hiawatha Pre-School
Center, Okemos, Michigan; Mrs. Anne Eddington, Mount Hope
Day Care Center; and Mrs. Sauni Wood, Eastminster Day Care
Center--for their interest and involvement in the study.

A Special thanks to my sister, Becky, for the long
hours she spent in drawing the stimulus pictures.

I would also like to thank Mr. F. Robert Wilson
for his patient help with the statistical procedures.

And, finally, my thanks to the members of my
committee--to Dr. Lucy Ferguson and Dr. Ellen Strommen
for their ideas and support, and especially to my chair-
man, Dr. Mary Leichty, who used the right amount of
pressure, support, and encouragement to help me see the

study through to completion.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF TABLES O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 Vi

INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Definition of Empathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Research Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Intelligence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Personality Traits. . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Types of Emotion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . lO

Objects of Empathy. . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Theoretical Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . l4
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESES . . . . . . . . 19
METHOD. . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Subject Population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS.--cont.

RESULTS . . . . . . . .

Source of Affect Main Effect.

Type of Affect Main Effect.

Source X Type Interaction

Sex Differences . .

Errors. . . . . . .

DISCUSSION. . . . . . .

Sources of Affect .

Child's Angry Feelings.

Positive Versus Negative Feelings

Questionnaire . . .
Instrument. . . . .

SUMMARY . . . . . . . .

BIBLIOGRAPHY. . . . . .
APPENDIX A:
APPENDIX B:
APPENDIX C:

APPENDIX D:

RESPONSE CARD.

QUESTIONNAIRE.

STIMULUS STORIES

SAMPLE PICTURES.

Page
27
27
31
32
35
35
38
38
40
44
45
47

49

51
55
56
63

66

Table

LIST OF TABLES

Analysis of Variance of Accuracy in
Identifying Emotions as a Function of
Sex, Source of Affect, and Type of Affect .

Mean Numbers of Correctly Identified
Emotions for Each Source of Affect. . . .

Orthogonal Comparisons of Means from Source
of Affect Main Effect . . . . . . . . . . .

Mean Numbers of Correctly Identified Emotions
for Each Type of Affect . . . . . . . . . .

Post-hoc Comparisons of Means from Type of
Affect Main Effect. 0 O O I O O O O O O O 0

Mean Numbers of Correct Identifications of
Each Emotion for Each Source of Affect. . .

Post-hoc Comparisons of Means from the
Type X Source Interaction . . . . . . . . .

Frequency in Each Response Category for

Each Type of Affect for Each Source of
Affect. O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0

vi

Page

28

29

30

31

31

32

33

36

INTRODUCTION

Empathy has long been recognized by develOpmental
theorists as a critical process in the genesis of a social
self in children. Sullivan (1972), Cooley (1969), Mead
(1934), and Piaget (1932) all utilize the concept of
empathy to explain, what Piaget terms, the child's switch
from "egocentrism to social reciprocity." All too often,
the process of empathy has been taken as a given, with
little attention devoted to the question of how empathy
develops or is acquired. Over two decades ago, Cottrell
and Dymond (1949) expressed concern about the lack of
research in the area of empathy. They offered two pos-
sible explanations for the apparent lack of interest--
first, that the process of empathy seemed to be taken for
granted, and second, that the nature of empathy might
cause it to be difficult to study by the available tech-
niques. Since then, empathic ability has come to be rec-
ognized as a critical therapist variable in effecting
client change (Rogers, 1957, 1961; Truax, et_al., 1966a,
1966b) and much research has been concerned with the role

1

of empathy in the counseling process (Wilson, 1972). With
the growing interest in the process of empathy, it is sur-
prising that the question of how empathy first develops

still remains untouched by researchers. It is the purpose

of this thesis to begin to answer this question.

Definition of Empathy

 

The word "empathy" has been used to describe a
variety of different psychological phenomena, encompassing
an emotional linkage between mother and infant (Sullivan,
1953), a vicarious affective response triggered by the
affect of another (Feshback and Roe, 1968), an awareness
of the feelings in another (Borke, 1971), an appropriate
response based on that awareness (Reif and Stollak, un-
dated), and an ability to predict someone's responses on
a sociometric test (Dymond, Hughes, and Raabe, 1952).

The definition of empathy used in this study was: the
ability to accurately identify the feelings of another.
This definition is similar to what others have called
"interpersonal perception" (Borke, 1971), "social percep-

tion" (Gates, 1923), "social comprehension" (Feshback

and Roe, 1968), "social sensitivity" (Rothenberg, 1970),

or "emotional sensitivity" (Cheyne and Jahoda, 1971).

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Research Literature

The research that has dealt with empathy in
children has employed a variety of techniques to both
elicit and measure the child's empathic response. Since
the particular methodology used by a study has a direct
relationship to its results, the research on empathy in
children will first be reviewed in terms of its method-

ology, before discussing various aspects of the results.

Methodology

 

The first studies in empathy in children were con-
cerned with the child's ability to attribute correctly
emotional states to photographs of persons portraying
various emotions. Both Gates (1923) and Walton (1936)
showed pictures of adult facial expressions to children
of a wide range of ages and asked the children to tell
them what the person was feeling. More recently, Dupont
(1959) showed children photographs of other children

expressing either positive or negative feelings. He asked

4

the subjects to tell him about the child, and then asked
them to explain why the child in the picture felt the way
he did, thus allowing for a greater latitude of response.

Other researchers have shown children pictures
which provide a situational context for the emotion (much
like those used in apperceptive personality tests), and
then asked the children to tell a story about each pic-
ture (Amen, 1941; Dymond, Hughes, and Raabe, 1952; Gilbert,
1969; Alexander, et_gl., 1971). The stories were then
scored for the mention of intentions, thoughts, or feel-
ings of persons in the pictures. Others have limited the
response range to the pictures by asking specifically,
"What is the child feeling?" (Burns and Cavey, 1959) or
by giving the child a multiple choice of feelings (Ruder-
man, 1962).

To give a further context to the emotions, some
researchers have added an accompanying narrative to each
picture, either asking specifically what the child was
feeling (Feshback and Roe, 1968) or providing a multiple
choice (Borke, 1971). Hamsher (1971) gave additional
context by presenting stories in the form of cartoons
without words, and then asked the children to supply the

story.

Other research has dealt with the child's ability
to identify emotions from vocal expression. Both Dimi-
trovsky (1964) and Cheyne and Jahoda (1971) presented
children with tape recordings of a short passage spoken
in various intonations to convey several different emo-
tions. Children indicated their response by pointing to
one of four stick figures, portraying the emotions of
happiness, anger, love, and sadness. Rothenberg (1970)
added situational cues to the audio recordings by playing
dialogues conveying various feelings, and asking, at the
end, "What was he feeling?"

Flapan (1968) combined both vocal and visual com-
ponents by showing children segments of a movie which
contained much interaction and feeling. At the end of
each segment, the child was asked to tell the story in
his own words. He was then asked a series of questions
specifically about the feelings, thoughts, and intentions

of the people in the segment.

Despite the differences in methodology, the re-

search in the area of empathy in children has consistently

found that empathic ability increases with age (Burns and
Cavey, 1957; Ruderman, 1962; Dimitrovsky, 1964; Rothen-
berg, 1970; Alexander gt_al., 1971; Borke, 1971; Cheyne
and Jahoda, 1971; Hamsher, 1971). Methods which allowed
for greater freedom of response have further explicated
the development of the child's awareness of feelings in
others. Walton (1936) and Feshback and Roe (1968) both
nOted that younger children tend to think in terms of
pleasant and unpleasant feelings, using a dual type of
response. Walton noted that as children grew older, they
added other dimensions to the dichotomy until a wide range
of responses was available.

Other studies have found that young children, from
ages 2 to 7 years, are much more concerned with the ex-
ternal details of a stimulus picture than with the internal
thoughts and feelings of the people involved (Amen, 1941;
Dymond, Hughes, and Raabe, 1962; Gilbert, 1969). Dupont
(1959) further added that younger children tend to describe
affect in terms of the action ("He's crying."), while
older children are more likely to label the feeling ("He's
sad."). While both Dupont (1959) and Flapan (1968) ob-
served a substantial break between 7 and 9 years of age

in being aware of internal states, Amen (1941) found that

children as young as age three could talk in terms of
inner activity.

Some researchers have looked beyond the question
of whether a child can identify various feelings to see
if the child is aware of how those feelings come about
(psychological causality). Flapan (1968) noted that
younger children often saw people as merely reacting with
feelings, while older children were more aware of the
thoughts, intentions, and goals which accompanied the
feelings. This age trend in seeing feelings as causally
related is further supported by Dupont (1959), Whiteman

(1967), Rothenberg (1970), and Hamsher (1971).

Sex

Sex differences in empathic ability have been
investigated by several researchers. While Dimitrovsky
(1964) found that girls were consistently better at
identifying feelings in vocal expressions, Cheyne and
Jahoda (1971), in their replication of the study, failed
to find significant sex differences. Other studies,
measuring empathy somewhat differently, have reported

finding no difference in empathic ability according to

sex (Gates, 1923; Dupont, 1959; Ruderman, 1962; Rothen-

berg, 1970).

Intelligence

 

Those studies which have looked at the relation-
ship between empathic ability and intelligence have all
found a significant positive relationship. Empathic
ability seems to be related to both verbal and non-verbal
intelligence (Dimitrovsky, 1964; Rothenberg, 1970; Cheyne
and Jahoda, 1971), but, according to Ruderman (1962),
intelligence does not account for all the variance.
Intelligence also seems more highly related to empathic
ability in younger children than in older children (Dimi-
trovsky, 1964; Cheyne and Jahoda, 1971). It might be
that at ages 5 and 6, the scores on intelligence tests
also measure the child's ability to understand directions
and to cope with the testing situation, which would ex-

plain the higher correlations.

Personality Traits

Empathic ability has been found to be related to

several personality traits. Murphy (1939) in her study

10

of sympathy in pre-school children found a positive cor-
relation between sympathetic behavior and aggressive
behavior. She explained this relationship in terms of
both behaviors being part of a general outgoing tendency
in extroverted children. Gilbert (1969) found 4 to 6-
year-old, affect-aware children to be rated by their
teachers as expressing a wide range of emotions, aware

of the feelings of other children, mature and imaginative.
Rothenberg (1970) found empathic third and fifth graders
to be rated highly in interpersonal competence, especially
in leadership, friendliness and sensitivity to others.
Thus, empathy seems to be one aspect of general social

maturity.

Types of Emotions

 

Gates (1923) was interested in the age at which
children could recognize various emotional states from
photographs of facial expressions. Using 50% correct
identifications as his criterion, he found that joy was
identified at age three, anger at age seven, pain at age
eight, fear at age ten, surprise at age eleven, and scorn

at age twelve. This development in the identification of

11

emotions differs from Bridges' (1932) description of the
development in the expression of emotions in infants.
Bridges found that children first expressed distress and
delight, which was then differentiated into anger, dis-
gust and fear, then elation and affection, followed by
jealousy and finally joy.

Most of the studies about empathy in children have
looked at the emotions of happiness, sadness, anger, and
fear. In general, children have more difficulty in iden-
tifying negative feelings than positive feelings (Dupont,
1959; Feshback and Roe, 1968; Rothenberg, 1970; Alexander
§E_§1., 1971; Borke, 1971). Alexander gt_§1. (1971) noted
that children use more positive than negative words in
describing the stimulus pictures. Dupont (1959) found
that children were less likely to admit to having felt
negative emotions than positive emotions. Rothenberg
(1970) found that children who were rated low on inter-
personal adjustment had much more difficulty in recogniz-
ing negative emotions than positive emotions when compared
with other children. While Borke (1971) suggests that
the children's difficulty with negative emotions might be
due to a lack of clear differentiation between anger,

sadness, and fear, the above mentioned results suggest

12

that an additional explanation would be that negative
feelings are anxiety arousing for children, and are sub-
ject to repression and denial.

It is interesting that the studies using vocal
expression as the stimulus for empathy have found the
Opposite result--that children identify negative emotions
more accurately than positive emotions. Apparently,
positive feelings of happiness and love are harder to

distinguish when vocal intonation is the only cue.

Objects of Empathy

Studies have varied with respect to the object of
the child's empathy, that is, with whom the child is to
empathize. Some, feeling that the child would empathize
best with those who are most like him, have used other
children as the objects of empathy (Burns and Cavey, 1957;
Dupont, 1959; Feshback and Roe, 1968; Borke, 1971; Hamsher,
1971). In fact, Feshback and Roe (1968) found that
children empathized better with children of like-sex.

Other researchers, arguing that empathy needs to be sep-
arate from identification, have used adults as the ob-

jects of empathy (Gates, 1923; Walton, 1936; Dimitrovsky,

13

1964; Rothenberg, 1970; Cheyne and Jahoda, 1971). Unfor-
tunately, by limiting the objects of empathy to either
children or adults, few researchers have addressed the
comparative question of whether children identify other
children's feelings more or less accurately than they
identify adults' feelings. Of the few studies which have
used both adults and children in the stimulus material
(Dymond, Hughes, and Raabe, 1952; Ruderman, 1962; Flapan,
1968), only Flapan has looked at the difference in the
child's awareness of children's and adults' feelings. She
found that, while there was not much difference between
subjects in identifying the children's feelings, the 9
and 12-year-old children commented significantly more
often on the adults' thoughts and feelings, than did the
6-year-olds. Thus, it seems that children can empathize
more easily with those who are most like them, and that
as they get older, they are more able to be aware of
peoples' feelings who are different from them.

Thus far, the research which has been concerned
with empathy in children has indicated that empathic
ability increases with age, is related to intelligence
and social adjustment, is greater for positive than nega-

tive feelings and greater for child's feelings than

14

adult's feelings. While the research has elucidated some
of the important parameters associated with empathy, very
little attention has been paid to the process by which

empathy is acquired and develops. The literature related
to this more basic question is primarily of a theoretical

nature.

Theoretical Literature

 

Sullivan (1953, 1964) views empathy as a biolog-
ical process, innate within the young infant. He defines
empathy as a "peculiar emotional communication between
the parent and the child," which is strongest between 6
and 27 months of age, but which endures through life for
some peOple. Olden (1958) sees this early form of empathy
as being based on a bodily sensing of one another. In
the second and third year of life, empathy becomes more
cognitive, with the child studying his mother's moods,
guessing her reactions to possible actions of his, and
becoming aware of her likes and dislikes. Hoffman (1963,
1970) proposes that empathy is influenced in part by the
kind of discipline the parents use. He feels that disci-

pline which uses reason, especially when it explains the

15

effect of the child's actions on someone else, helps the
child to be more aware of the feelings of others. Fer-
guson (1970) further suggests that the "democratic" parent,
who both expresses his own feelings and also is aware of
the needs and wishes of his child, provides a model for
empathy.

Slotkin (1952), a social anthropologist, describes
in detail the various aSpects of the socialization pro-
cess, which have relevance for the development of empathy.
He first describes "sensibility," which is the "process
of inferring an activity of another--inc1uding his inner
experiences" (p. 75). This arises from the infant's
efforts to coordinate his actions with his mother to bring
about a satisfying result. To do this, he needs to both
anticipate the mother's response in a situation and to
anticipate her expectations of his responses in that
situation. This process of sensibility can be seen as
early as three months when the child makes anticipatory
movements prior to being lifted. Slotkin states that the
infant learns this process "when it is subjected to the
direct, harmonious and close social acts of ministering
adults" (p. 75). This process which Slotkin has termed

as "sensibility" has been observed in monkeys (Miller,

16

Banks, and Ogawa, 1962) who learned an avoidance task by
observing another monkey who received the shock.

Slotkin adds that as the child develops, he learns
that various peOple behave differently in similar situa-
tions and may expect quite different responses from him
("differential sensibility"). Around the same time, as
the child becomes aware of his own reactions to certain
situations, he imputes the same reactions to others in
these situations ("identical sensibility"). This latter
process seems to be similar to what others have termed as
"projection." From Slotkin's theory, one could postulate
that the child would first be able to empathize in those
situations where he has a part in the interaction and
where he needs to anticipate the responses of others,
before he could empathize in situations where he has no
part in the interaction. Murphy (1937), in her study of
the development of sympathy in pre-school children, found
that children first exhibit sympathy towards those with
whom they are most familiar. Looking at the transition
to being able to empathize with someone with whom the
child is not interacting, Murphy noted that children show
sympathy to others who are confronted by situations which

the child himself has experienced previously and thus has

l7

first-hand knowledge of the feelings involved. Using
Slotkin's phrase, perhaps the child is able to empathize
with someone with whom he is not interacting first
through the process of identical sensibility.

Another question which is relevant to the devel—
opment of empathy is whether the child first becomes
aware of the feelings of others by first being aware of
his own, or whether he becomes aware of his own feelings
by first perceiving how others feel. Piaget's theory of
cognitive development (1932) would predict that the child
would first be aware only of his own feelings and then
become aware of the feelings of others. He views the
young child as primarily "ego-centric," unable to adopt
another's point of View. Around the age of seven, the
child is capable of "social reciprocity," or coordinating
his point of view with that of another. What Piaget says
about the development of moral behavior might apply to
the development of awareness of feelings: "It is . . .
obvious that to judge [in terms of intentions] will re-
quire a greater effort in the case of other peOple's
actions than in that of our own" (p. 180).

Thus, one could postulate that empathy develops

first from the child being aware of his feelings and then

18

being able to project those feelings on to others who are
in similar situations. Furthermore, the child first would
be aware of the feelings of another when he is interact-
ing with that person and is the causative agent of those
feelings, before he would be aware of the feelings of
another when someone else is the causative agent of those

feelings.

STATEMENT .0]? PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESES

It was the purpose of this study to investigate
the early manifestations of empathy in children in order
to understand how the process of empathy begins. Three-
year-old children were selected as subjects, since this
age is about as young as one could expect to be able to
respond to the demands of the experimental situation.
Also, Ames (1952) noted that age three marks the begin-
nings of social awareness as evidenced by their verbal
behavior. It was decided to place the emotions within
the setting of the family, the setting with which the
three-year-old child is most familiar. The child's
ability to identify feelings in three different contexts
was explored: l) the child's ability to identify his
own feelings when they are caused by another; 2) the
.child's ability to identify another's feelings when he
is the causative agent of those feelings; and 3) the
child's ability to identify another's feelings when
someone else is the causative agent. Within the context
of the family, the following situations were specifically

19

20

investigated: 1) the child's feelings caused by the
mother; 2) the mother's feelings caused by the child;
and 3) the mother's feelings caused by the father. The

following hypotheses were made:

Hypothesis 1

Subjects will more accurately identify the child's
feelings than the mother's feelings, whether the mother's

feelings are caused by the child or the father.

Hypothesis 2

It seems that the transition for the child from
being aware only of his own feelings to being aware of
others' feelings might be marked by the child's being
aware of feelings in another when he has been the causa-
tive agent of those feelings. Therefore, subjects will
more accurately identify the mother's feelings when the
child has been the causative agent of those feelings than

when the father has been the causative agent.

METHOD

Subject Population

 

The subjects for this study came from three local
day care centers. The criteria for inclusion in the study
were:

1. Subjects must have had their third birthday by
the time of testing and must not have had their

fourth birthday before the testing was concluded.

2. Subjects must be judged by their teachers to be
of at least average intelligence.

3. Subjects must have both mother and father present
in the home. (Since the stimulus pictures involved
both a mother and a father, it was felt that
children from one-parent families might be at a
disadvantage.)

Thirty-one children (15 girls and 16 boys) met the
three criteria. The mothers of these children were tele-
phoned by the experimenter who asked their permission for
their three-year-old child to participate in a study con-
cerned with the development of empathy in children. In
addition, they were asked if they would be willing to have
the experimenter visit their home for one half hour some

evening to talk with them about their child and to have

them fill out a short questionnaire. All of the 31 mothers

21

22

agreed to participate in the study. Five children (2
girls and 3 boys) were eventually excluded from the final
sample, four for extensive absences during the testing
and one for lack of cooperation in the testing itself.
Therefore, the final sample included 26 children (13
girls and 13 boys). The ages ranged from 3 years, 0
months to 3 years, 11 months, with a mean age of 3 years,
6 months (median = 3 years, 7 months). The children had
all attended a day care center for at least two months,

and were predominantly from middle class homes.

Procedure

 

The method used to test the child's empathic
ability was similar to that used by Borke (1971). She
found that by using a non—verbal measure, children as
young as three years of age were able to demonstrate
empathic ability, whereas with methods that demanded a
verbal response, empathy in young children had been un-
detected.

Each child was seen by the experimenter in an
empty room at the day care center for a total of three

sessions, each less than 10 minutes in length and not

23

more than a week apart.1 The time Span of the three ses-
sions for each child ranged from 4 to 10 days. The same
procedure was used for all three sessions.

Each child was first shown a response card with
three faces depicting the emotions of happiness, sadness,
and anger (See Appendix A). The child was asked to label
the emotions, and was helped on any with which he had
difficulty, until he could correccly label the three faces.
Next, the child was told stories in which either the
mother or the child might easily be perceived as feeling
happy, sad, or angry (See Appendix B). Each story was
accompanied by an illustrative picture (See Appendix C
for sample pictures).

To help the child identify with the stories, so
that his responses would be indicative of how he or his
mother would feel in such situations, and not some fic-
titious child and his mother, each story was introduced
by a question which asked the child if he had ever exper-
ienced what was about to be described in the story (for

example, "When you go to the grocery store with your

 

1One subject, who was being withdrawn from the
day care center, was seen on the same day for his last
two testing sessions, with a two hour break, including
a trip to the park, between the sessions.

24

mother, does she ever buy you a candy bar?"). To further
aid in identification, the child in each picture was of
pre-school age and of indeterminant sex. The child was
described in the stories as being of the same sex as the
subject. In general children seemed to identify with the
stories. In the pilot test, children made comments such
as "That's my mom and my dad," or "That's what happened
to me."

Following the presentation of each story, the
experimenter asked the child to point to the face that
best showed how the mother (or child) in the story was
feeling. If the child hesitated in answering, he was
further asked what kind of face he thought the mother (or
child) would have. If he said that he did not know, he
was urged to make a guess, and finally told that he had
to choose one of the faces. At the end of each testing
session, the child was asked to label the emotions on the
response card once again, to insure that he had remembered
the correct feelings during the testing.

A total of 27 stories were presented to each
child, involving three types of affects (happy, sad, and
angry), three sources of the affect (child's feelings

caused by the mother, mother's feelings caused by the

25

child, and mother's feelings caused by the father), and
three situations for each type-source combination. The
27 stories were divided into three sub-tests with nine
stories in each. Each sub—test contained one situation
for each type-source combination. Each sub-test was
presented to the subjects in a separate session to help
prevent boredom. The order of the sub-tests was counter-
balanced among the subjects and the order of the stories
within each sub-test was randomized for each subject,
using a random numbers table.

Questionnaires were given to the mothers of the
subjects in which the same situations as were presented
to the children were described and the mothers were asked
to circle the emotion (happy, sad, or angry) which most
closely indicated how she or her child typically responded
to such a situation (See Appendix D). Originally it was
intended to exclude from the study any child whose mother
responded to one or more situations differently from that
which was expected, since, for example, it would be dif-
ficult to interpret the responses of a subject whose
mother typically reacted with anger to sad situations.

In the pilot test, however, it was discovered that both

mothers and college psychology students consistently gave

26

one to four atypical responses to the questionnaire. It
was then decided to score the subjects' responses accord-
ing to what was typically regarded as the correct re-
sponses, and to use the mothers' questionnaires in com-
parison with her child's responses to generate hypotheses

for further research.

RESULTS

For every subject, the 9 questions on each sub-
test were scored either 1 or 0 according to whether the
emotions were correctly identified or not. Since each
subject was given all three sub—tests, each subject re-
ceived a score from 0 to 3 for every emotion for each
source of the emotion. The data were analyzed by a
2x3x3 factorial analysis of variance for repeated mea-
sures design. Geisser and Greenhouse's rules for inter-
preting analysis of variance for repeated measures
designs (Kirk, 1968) were followed, using a conservative
F test of significance. The summary table for this

analysis is given in Table 1.

Source of Affect Main Effect

Hypothesis 1 concerned the difference in the
accuracy with which the subjects identified the child's

feelings and the mother's feelings. It was expected that

27

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muomnasm aHsqu

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29

subjects would identify the child's feelings more accur-
ately than the mother's feelings.

Hypothesis 2 concerned the difference in the
accuracy with which the subjects identified the mother's
feelings, when those feelings were caused by the child
and when they were caused by the father. It was expected
that subjects would identify the mother's feelings more
accurately when the child was the causative agent of
those feelings than when the father was the causative
agent.

The main effect of the source of the affect was
found to be significant at the .01 level. The mean scores
for each source are given in Table 2.

TABLE 2.--Mean Numbers of Correctly Identified Emotions
for Each Source of Affect (Maximum = 3).

 

 

Child's Mother's Mother's
Feelings Feelings/Child Feelings/Father
(Bl) (B2) (B3)
1.590 1.974 1.949

 

To specifically test for the hypotheses, planned ortho-

gonal comparisons using an F ratio were performed to

30

locate the source of the variance. The results of this

analysis are given in Table 3.

TABLE 3.--Orthogonal Comparisons of Means from Source of
Affect Main Effect.

 

 

Comparison F

 

Child's Feelings (Bl) X Mother's Feelings

B2+B3

2

 

( ) 46.500***

Mother's Feelings/Child (B2) X Mother's
Feelings/Father (B3) 2.273

 

***p < .001

The orthoqonal comparisons show that subjects identify
mother's feelings more accurately than child's feelings;
thus, Hypothesis 1 is not supported. The comparisons also
show that there is no difference in the accuracy with
which subjects identify the mother's feelings when they
are caused by the child or the father; thus, Hypothesis 2

is not supported.

31

Type of Affect Main Effect

The main effect for the type of affect was found
to be significant at the .001 level. The mean scores for
each type of affect are given in Table 4.

TABLE 4.--Mean Numbers of Correctly Identified Emotions
for Each Type of Affect (Maximum = 3).

 

 

Happy (Cl) Sad (C2) Angry (C3)

 

2.667 1.487 1.359

 

Scheffe's method for post-hoc comparisons (Kirk,
1968) was used to test for the source of variance. The
results of this analysis are given in Table 5.

TABLE 5.--Post-hoc Comparisons of Means from Type of
Affect Main Effect.

 

 

Comparison Difference

 

Positive Feelings (C1) - Negative Feelings

 

c+c
( 2 3) 1.244**
2
Sad (C2) - Angry (C3) .128

 

**p < .01

32

The comparisons of the means show that subjects
identify positive feelings much more accurately than nega-
tive feelings (p < .01). There is no difference in the
accuracy with which the subjects identify sad and angry

feelings.

Source X Type Interaction

 

The interaction between the source of the affect
and the type of affect was significant at the .01 level.
The mean scores for the type of affect for each source of
the affect are given in Table 6.

TABLE 6.-—Mean Numbers of Correct Identifications of Each Emotion
for Each Source of Affect (Maximum = 3).

 

Child's Mother's Mother's
Feelings (Bl) Feelings/Child (B2) Feelings/Father (B3)

 

Happy (Cl) 2.692 2.577 2.731
Sad (c2) 1.538 1.423 1.500
Angry (c3) .538 1.923 1.615

 

Scheffe's method of post-hoc comparisons was used
to test for the source of variance of the interaction. The

results of this analysis are summarized in Table 7.

33

TABLE 7.--Post-hoc Comparisons of Means from the Type X
Source Interaction.

 

 

Comparison Difference

 

For happy feelings (C1):

 

 

 

 

B2+B3
Child's (Bl) - Mother's ( 2 ) .038
Mother's/Child (B2) - Mother's/Father (B3) -.154
For sad feelings (C2):
B2+B3
Bl - 2 .076
B2 - B3 -.077
For angry feelings (C3):
B +B
2 3
- **
B1 2 1.231
B2 - B3 .308
For Child's feelings (B ):
l
C2+C3
Positive (Cl) - Negative ( 2 ) 1.654**
Sad (C2 - Angry (C3) 1.000

For Mother's feelings/Child (B2):

 

 

 

C +C
2 3
_ *
C1 2 .904
C2 — C3 -.500
For Mother's feelings/Father (B ):
3
. C2+C3
_ **
C1 2 1.173
C2 - C3 -.115
*p < .05

34

The results of the Scheffe' tests have implica-
tions for the interpretation of the source of affect main
effect. The results as shown in Table 7 reveal that, for
happy and sad feelings, subjects do not differ in the
accuracy with which they identify the child's feelings
or the mother's feelings; it is only with angry feelings
that subjects identify the mother's feelings more accur-
ately than the child's feelings. Thus, the significance
of the source of affect main effect is primarily due to
the difference in the accuracy with which the subjects
identified angry feelings.

The results summarized in Table 7 also have impli-
cations for the interpretation of the type of affect main
effect. For all sources of the affect, subjects identify
positive feelings more accurately than negative feelings.
While there is no difference in the accuracy with which
subjects identify mother's sad and angry feelings, in
identifying the child's feelings, subjects identify sad
feelings more accurately than angry feelings. Thus, while
in terms of the type of affect main effect, there was no
difference in the accuracy of identifications of sad and

angry feelings, considering child's feelings alone, sad

35

feelings were identified more accurately than angry feel-

ings.

Sex Differences

 

As seen in Table 1, there was no difference due

to sex, either by itself or in any of the interactions.

Errors

In order to look at the kinds of errors which were
made by the subjects, the frequency of each response
category was calculated for each type of affect for each
of the three sources of affect (Table 8).

For both happy and sad situations, regardless of
the source of affect, the type of errors seem to be random;
that is, the frequencies are similar for each pair of in-
correct responses. The pattern of errors for the angry
situations is more complex. For mother's feelings, the
ratio of happy to sad errors is approximately 1:2.5. For
child's feelings, the ratio is about 1:4. In fact, it
appears that children consider sad the correct response

for the angry situations, as the frequencies of happy

36

 

 

 

 

 

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mom. oom. mom. wvm. vnv. Nmm. Hmm. mam. 0mm. pom
Hmo. mmo. cam. omo. Hmo. mmm. who. omo. mom. mmmmm

humsa pom ammmm mumcd pmm mmmmm humsd pom mmmmm

mmsommmm oncommmm mmsommwm
T uommmm
mo mama
Hw£DMM\m@sflHmwm m.um£uoz UHH£U\mmGHHmmm m.um£uoz mmsflammm m.UHH£U

 

uommmm m0 moohsom

 

 

.uommmm mo mousom zoom How “comma mo mm>9 zoom Mom huommumu

mmsommmm zoom CH mocwsvmumll.m mqmda

37

and angry responses are equal and considerably less than
the frequency of sad responses.

Excluding child's feelings-angry from Table 8,
there is no difference among the sources of affect, for

both correct and incorrect responses.

DISCUSSION
Sources of Affect

While it was hypothesized that (1) subjects would
identify the child's feelings more accurately than the
mother's feelings and that (2) subjects would identify
the mother's feelings when caused by the child more ac-
curately than when the mother's feelings were caused by
the father, neither hypothesis was supported. Instead,
with the exception of child's angry feelings, subjects
identified happy, sad, and angry feelings across sources
of the affect with equal accuracy.

Rather than explaining the develppment of empathy
in terms of a switch from the child's being aware of his
own feelings to being aware of the feelings of another,
and from being aware of someone else's feelings when he
has caused them, to being aware when someone else has
caused them, one might conceptualize empathy at this age
as the learning of rules which predict someone's feelings
in a given situation. Once the child has learned the
rules, he can apply them to a variety of peOple. Thus,

38

39

he has learned that peOple feel happy when they get some-
thing they want, that people feel sad when others are hurt
or sick and that people feel angry when someone does some-
thing that they do not like. The question of whether the
child first learns the rules through his own experience or
through the observations of others, can not be answered
from this study. By the age of three, the child seems to
be equally aware of his own and other's feelings.

Several other researchers have used Piaget's theory
of cognitive development to hypothesize that children below
the age of eight should have difficulty in recognizing the
thoughts and feelings of others (Dupont, 1959; Flapan,
1968; Rothenberg, 1970; Borke, 1972), and yet, consistently,
researchers have found that children as young as three have
some awareness of the feelings of others (Amen, 1941 and
Borke, 1972). Perhaps two different processes are involved
in taking a person's visual perSpective into account and in
being aware of another person's feelings. The first pro-
cess involves ignoring one's own visual perspective, while
the second involves combining visual, auditory, and situa-
tional cues to form a judgment. Piaget's theory might
hold, however, in the instances where another person's ex-

perience is quite different from what the child might feel

40

in the same situation; in these cases, the younger child
might have difficulty in ignoring what his own feelings
would be and attending to the cues which the other person
is giving. Thus, one would predict that while empathic
ability gradually increases with age, there should be a
sharp increase in ability around age eight. Such an in-
crease has been noted by several researchers (Dupont, 1959;
Flapan, 1968; Rothenberg, 1970), although it has not been
attributed to a switch in the child's ability to recognize

someone else's feelings which are different from his own.

Child's Angry Feelings

 

Subjects identified the child's angry feelings
significantly less accurately than the mother's angry
feelings. In fact, by inspecting the types of errors
which were made by the children, it would seem that
subjects felt that "sad" was the correct response for
the angry situations.

One explanation would be that in young children,
the behavioral response to feelings of sadness and anger
is often the same (crying), while in mothers, anger and

sadness is usually differentiated behaviorally. It is

41

interesting that the mothers of the subjects, while com-
pleting the questionnaires, often remarked that they were
not sure how their child would feel in the child-angry
situations. While the majority of the mothers chose
"angry" as the way their child would feel, the variability
of response on the questionnaire was greatest for the
child-angry situations.

Confusion over sad and angry feelings, however,
is not a sufficient explanation of the child's difficulty
in responding to the child-angry situations. If the
children were simply confused, one would predict that
they would make an equal number of sad and angry guesses,
but instead, children chose "sad" about four times as
often as they chose "angry." Another explanation would
be that children as early as three years of age have been
taught by our culture that it is not acceptable to be
angry, and so they repress or deny their feelings of anger
and respond "sad." Other studies have found that, while
children will label a negative emotion in another child,
they are less likely to react with a similar vicarious
affective response to that child's feelings (Feshbeck and
Roe, 1968) or to admit to having ever experienced a sim-

ilar negative feeling (Dupont, 1959). Furthermore, many

42

adults are afraid to feel angry towards a significant
other, for fear that if they expressed that anger, the
other person would reject them and the relationship would
be destroyed. If three-year-old children have similar
fears, it would be very threatening to feel angry towards
their mother, on whom they are totally dependent.

A third explanation stems from the child-angry
situations in themselves. All three situations involve
the child being deprived of something he wants (to play
outside, to stay up when it is bedtime, and to have a
candy bar). While Jersild (1946), in his discussion of
emotional development, mentioned that frustration of
wishes, plans, or desires leads to anger in the three-
year-old child, it could be possible that many children
experience sadness in such situations, but that adults
impute their feelings to be that of anger. It is of
interest that most of the highly empathic Children in the
study consistently responded "sad" in the child-angry
situations, while responding correctly to all, or almost
all, of the other situations. In considering what causes
someone to be angry rather than sad in a situation in-
volving a deprivation of some kind, it seems that people

most often feel angry when they feel that rightfully they

43

should not have been deprived; whereas, when they feel
that they do not have the rights to have something they
want, they would probably feel sad. Accordingly, Blacks
did not start to be militant until they felt that they
were entitled to have what others in society had. Like-
wise, perhaps three-year-old children do not feel that
they have the right to have a candy bar or to stay up
past their bedtime if their mother says no, and thus feel
sad.

Further research is definitely needed to elucidate
how children actually feel in such situations. An inter-
esting study would involve asking children to make up
"angry stories" where various people (mother, father, sib—
lings, friends) have caused the child's anger. In fact,

a wide range of ages could be sampled to see if there is

a developmental change in the kinds of situations which
lead to anger. Then, in terms of acceptance of angry
feelings, it would be interesting to give those situations
to another sample of children and see how the recognition
of anger changes with age and also varies with the kind

of person who causes the anger. It might be that a pre-
school child would label anger when caused by a peer, but

not when caused by a parent; whereas, an adolescent might

44

be less likely to label anger involving a peer and more

likely when involving a parent.

Positive Versus Negative Feelings

Subjects identified positive feelings significantly
more accurately than negative feelings. This finding is
very consistent with the literature (Dupont, 1959; Fesh-
beck and Roe, 1968; Rothenberg, 1970; Alexander §t_gl.,
1971; Borke, 1972). Borke (1972) postulated that this
discrepancy might be due to the fact that, while the
response to happy situations is fairly unambiguous, both
anger and sadness are often apprOpriate responses to the
same situation: "While some individuals react to the
frustrating agent and feel angry, others respond primarily
to the deprivation resulting from the frustration and
feel sad" (p. 269). Following Borke's argument, one would
expect children to make very few "happy" errors and to
respond with a negative emotion to the sad and angry situ-
ations. While the data from the angry situations somewhat
support Borke's hypothesis, the errors from the sad situ-
ations were evenly divided between happy and angry. The

greater variability of errors in the sad situation could

45

indicate that those situations involved a more complex
response. Whereas the feelings of anger and happiness
were reactions to the actions of someone, the sad feelings
involved a sympathy towards the misfortunes of someone
(while one felt happy because someone gave him a present,
one felt sad because someone was sick).

Another explanation, proposed by several re-
searchers (Dupont, 1959; Feshbeck, 1968; Rothenberg, 1970)
and discussed in the preceding section, is that negative
emotions arouse anxiety in children and thus are subject
to repression and denial. Rothenberg (1970) postulates
that the amount of anxiety aroused and the concommitant
amount of errors in recognizing negative emotions is
related to ego-strength in children. One could further
postulate that younger children and more disturbed children
would have more difficulty in identifying negative feel-

ings.

Questionnaire

 

The mothers' responses to the questionnaire closely

corresponded to the expected answers. The average number

46

of errors per questionnaire was about 1.5, with the range
being from 0 to 4 errors.

Comparing the responses of each child to those of
his mother, it was interesting to note that in terms of
the mother's feelings, the child seldom made the same
error as his mother, whereas with the child's feelings,
the child often made the same error as his mother. Thus
it seemed that in identifying the mother's feelings, the
child responded in terms of mothers-in-general, without
being aware of his own mother's idiosyncracies. In terms
of the child's feelings, the subjects responded with
their own feelings, which might differ from the norm at
times, but which were similarly perceived by their
mothers. While the situations were chosen to be as unam-
biguous as possible, it would be interesting to construct
situations which might elicit a variety of feelings from
different peOple, and look at mother-child agreement in
terms of the feelings involved. Perhaps the amount of
agreement for each situation would be related to the
degree of ambiguity inherent in the situation, rather
than the feelings involved.

In retrOSpect, the questionnaire could have been

of more value had an interview based on the mother's

47

responses been conducted after completing the question-
naire. Helpful questions would have been: Do you think
your child knows how you would feel in this situation?
How do you let him know? How do you know that your child
feels that way? What kinds of cues does he give you?

How sure are you of your answer? Such questions would
have been useful in interpreting both the mothers' and

children's responses.

Instrument

 

The instrument used in this study proved to be an
effective measure of empathy in three-year-old children.
Only one child of 27 was unable to understand the task.
Since it utilizes a non-verbal measure of empathy, it
might even be used with children from 2-1/2 years of age.

The test seems to discriminate among children.
The total scores ranged from 9 to 24. The next question
would seem to be to find what kinds of social behaviors
are related to high and low scores on the test.

In the sample used in this study, it seemed that
low scores were related to social immaturity. The seven

children who were superficially judged by the experimenter

48

to be immature, received the lowest scores in the group
(scores from 9-15). The only other child to receive a
score in this low range, was a child whose parents were
on the brink of divorce and who consistently chose "happy"
to be the mother's feelings, as if to deny the situation
at home. While a relationship between empathy and social
maturity can only be hypothesized from these observations,
it would be interesting to study the relationship more

rigorously.

SUMMARY

The purpose of this study was to investigate the
early manifestations of empathy in children, using three-
year-old children as subjects. It was hypothesized that
subjects would identify feelings of a child more accur-
ately than feelings of a mother. Furthermore, subjects
would identify a mother's feelings more accurately when
her child had caused her feelings than when the father
had been the cause of her feelings. Three different
feelings were of interest: happy, sad, and angry.

Twenty-six three-year-old children (13 boys and
13 girls) participated in the study. Each subject was
told 27 stories, accompanied by an illustrative picture
in which the mother or the child might easily be perceived
as feeling happy, sad, or angry. The sex of the child
in the story was the same as the subject. At the conclu-
sion of each story, the subject was asked what the
mother (or the child) was feeling. The subject indicated
his response by pointing to one of three faces which
depicted the emotions of happiness, sadness, and anger.

49

50

The 27 stories were divided into 3 sessions for each sub-
ject, to help prevent boredom.

Results of the statistical analysis showed that
for happy and sad feelings, there was no difference in
the accuracy with which the subjects identified the
child's and the mother's feelings; for angry feelings,
subjects identified the child's feelings significantly
less accurately than the mother's feelings (p < .01).
For all three emotions, there was no difference in the
accuracy with which the subjects identified the mother's
feelings when caused by the child or when caused by the
father. Finally, subjects identified positive feelings
significantly more accurately than negative feelings
(p < .01). Possible explanations of the results were
discussed and directions for further research on empathy

in young children were proposed.

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logical Monographs, 1936, 48, 40-67.

 

Whiteman, M. Children's conception of psychological
causality. Child Development, 1967, 88, 143-155.

 

Wilson, F. R. Empathy: an interpersonal process.
Unpublished manuscript, Michigan State Univer-
sity, 1972.

APPENDIX A

RESPONSE CARD

55

 

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APPENDIX B

STIMULUS STORIES

APPENDIX B

STIMULUS STORIES

Sub-test A:

I. Child's feelings caused by mother.

A.

Happy: When you go to the grocery store with your
mommy does she ever buy you some candy? Well,

this little boy1 was shopping with his mother and
he saw a candy bar that he really wanted. He asked
his mother if he could have a candy bar and she
said,‘“Sure you can. Go over and pick out the
candy bar that you'd like." See, here she's giv-
ing him the candy bar. How does this little boy
feel cause his mother is giving him a candy bar?

Sad: Did your mother ever plan something really
special for you, and then something happened and
you couldn't do it after all? Well, this little
boy had always wanted to go to the zoo. His
mother said that she would take him one day, and
they both couldn't wait. Well, when that day
came, his mother was sick and they couldn't go to
the zoo after all. See how the mother is sick in
bed? How does the little boy feel cause he can't
go to the zoo after all?

Angry: Does your mommy ever make you go to bed
when you really don't want to? Well, this little
boy was having so much fun playing with his toys
that he really didn't want to go to bed. He
wanted to stay up and play lots more. But his
mother said, "No, you have to go to bed right

 

jects.

1These stories are told in respect to male sub-
For female subjects, "little girl," "she" and

"her" was substituted for "little boy," "he," and "his."

56

57

now!" See how the little boy is going upstairs?
How does the little boy feel cause his mother is
making him go to bed?

II. Mother's feelings caused by child

A.

Happy: Do you ever give your mommy a big kiss and
tell her that you love her? Well, that's what
this little boy did. He ran in from play, gave
his mom a big hug and kiss, and said, "Oh, Mommy,
I love you!" See how he's just about to give his
mom a kiss? How does the mother feel cause the
little boy gave her a kiss and said that he loved
her?

Sad: Do you ever fall down and hurt yourself?
Well, this was in the winter time--see how there's
ice on the sidewalk? Well, this mother and her
little boy were out walking when it was winter

and the little boy slipped on the ice and fell
down and really hurt himself. See how the little
boy fell down? How does the mother feel because
her little boy fell down?

Angry: Did you ever eat something that your
mother told you not to eat? Well, this mother

had worked all afternoon to make a special cake
for a party. You know what happened? This

mother came into the room and found that her
little boy had taken a chunck out of the cake

and was eating it. See how part of the cake is
gone? How does the mother feel because her little
boy took a piece out of the cake?

III. Mother's feelings caused by father

A.

Happy: Does your daddy ever give your mother a
present? Well, this dad knew that the mother
really liked flowers. So one day, he brought home
a whole bunch of flowers for her as a special sur-
prise. See how he's giving her the flowers? How
is the mother feeling cause the father is giving
her some flowers?

58

Sad: Did your daddy ever get so sick that he had
to go to bed? Well, that's what happened to this
father. He was so sick that he might have gone
to the hospital. See how the father is in bed
and the mother is standing by him? How does the
mother feel cause the father is so sick?

Angry: Does your daddy ever mess up the house?
Well, this mother had worked very hard to clean
up the house for company. After she had worked
so hard to clean up the family room, look what
happened. The father messed up the whole room.

“See how there are newspapers all over the place?

How does the mother feel cause the father messed
up the family room?

Sub-test B

 

I. Child's feelings caused by mother

A.

Happy: Does your mother ever give you a present?
Well, this little boy had wanted a certain toy
for a long time. One day his mother saw the toy
in a store and bought it for her little boy. See,
here she's giving her little boy the toy, all
wrapped up. How does the little boy feel cause
his mother is giving him a present?

Sad: Does your mom ever get so sick that she has
to go to bed? Well, this mother was so sick, she
might even have to go to the hospital. See how
she's in bed? How does the little boy feel cause
the mother's so sick?

Angry: Did you ever go to the grocery store with
your mother and want some candy, but your mother
wouldn't get you any? Well, that's what happened
to this little boy. He really wanted some candy
and he asked his mother again and again, but she
said, "No, you can't have any." See how she's
walking away? How does the little boy feel cause
he can't have any candy?

59

II. Mother's feelings caused by child

A.

Happy: Do you ever pick up your toys before your
mom even tells you to? Well, that is what this
little boy did.’ See, he has already started to
pick up his toys and his mother didn't even ask
him to. How is the mother feeling because the
little boy is picking up the toys?

Sad: Did your mom ever plan something special for
you and then you got sick? Well, this little boy
had always wanted to go to the zoo and so his
mother said she would take him one day. Well,
that day came and look what happened. The little
boy was sick in bed and they couldn't go. How
does the mother feel cause they can't go after
all?

Angry: Did your mom ever get you dressed to go
somewhere and told you to stay clean, but you
forgot and got dirty? That's what happened to
this little boy--They were going to the doctor's
and she told him not to get dirty and look what
he did. When his mom was ready to leave, he was
playing in the sandbox and was dirty from head to
toe. How does the mother feel cause the little
boy got all dirty and they're going to be late?

III. Mother's feelings caused by father

A.

Happy: Does your daddy ever give your mother a
big kiss and tell her that he loves her? Well,
that's what this dad did. When he came home from
work, he gave the mother a big hug and kiss and
said, "Honey, I love you." How does the mother
feel cause the daddy gave her a kiss and said that
he loved her?

Sad: Does your daddy ever hurt himself? Well,
this was winter time--see how there is ice on the
sidewalk? Well, this mother and father were
taking a walk, when it was-winter and the father
slipped on the ice and fell down and really hurt
himself. See how the father fell down? How does
the mother feel cause the dad fell down?

60

Angry: Did your daddy ever eat something that
your mommy told him not to? Well, that's what
this daddy did. This mother had worked all after-
noon to make a special cake and then look what
happened! This dad helped himself to a piece

of cake. How does the mother feel cause the

dad ate a bite of the cake?

Sub-test C:

 

I.

II.

Child's feelings caused by mother

A.

Happy: Does your mother ever let you stay up
late, after your bed-time? Well, this little

boy was having so much fun playing with his toys
that he didn't want to go to bed. This night his
mother said, "Well, tonight can be a special
night. I'll let you stay up a while longer and
you can play some more. You don't have to go to
bed right now." See, here, the boy is still
playing. How does the little boy feel cause his
mother said he didn't have to go to bed?

Sad: Does your mother ever hurt herself? Well,
this was winter time--see how there is ice on the
sidewalk? Well, this mother and her little boy
were out walking when it was winter and the mother
slipped on the ice and fell down and really hurt
herself. See how the mother fell down? How does
the little boy feel cause his mother fell down?

Angry: Does your mom ever call you to come inside
when you're having so much fun playing? Well,
that's what happened to this boy. See, he's
having so much fun playing in the sandbox--he
really didn't want to go inside. But his mother
said, "You have to come in, right now." How does
the little boy feel cause he has to go inside?

Mother's feelings caused by child

A.

Happy: Do you ever draw a special picture for
your mother? Well, that's what this little boy
did. He made a special picture in nursery school

61

and gave it to his mother as a present. See, here
he's giving her the picture. How does the mother
feel cause the boy is giving her a present?

Sad: Do you ever get sick and have to stay in
bed? Well, that's what happened to this little
boy. He was so sick that he might have to go to
the hospital. See how the little boy is in bed
and the mother is standing by him? How does the
mother feel cause the boy is so sick?

Angry: Do you ever mess up the house when your
mother doesn't want you to? Well, this mother
had worked very hard to clean up the house for
company. After she had worked so hard to clean
up the family room, look what happened. The
little boy messed up the whole room. Look how
there are toys all over the place? How does the
mother feel cause the little boy messed up the
room?

III. Mother's feelings caused by father

A.

Happy: Does your daddy ever help your mommy clean
up the house? Well, this mother was having com-
pany and had lots of work to do. So the father
said he would help her get the house clean for
company. See how he's sweeping. How does the
mother feel because the father is helping her
clean up the house?

Sad: Did your daddy ever plan something Special
for your mother and then something happened and
they couldn't go? Well, this mother really wanted
to go to a special play and the father was going
to take her and they both couldn't wait to go.
Well, when the night came to go, the father was
sick and so they couldn't go. See how the father
is sick in bed? How does the mother feel cause
they can't go to the play after all?

Angry: Does your daddy ever make your mommy late
when they are going some place? Well, that's what
this dad did. The mother and father were going
some place and look, here the mother is all ready

62

and the daddy IS Sitting reading the newspaper.
He hasn't even changed his clothes and they are
going to be late. How does the mother feel be-
cause the dad has made them late?

APPENDIX C

SAMPLE PICTURES

63

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APPENDIX D

QUESTIONNAIRE

66

Ear-1e :

 

Please read the followine situations. and for each situation.
circle the word that most closely describes how ygu would typically
feel in such a situation. Each word represents a range of emotion
(cg. aner. can mean annoyed or furious: happy can mean 13139-30d or
overjoyed. Circle one and only one answer for each situation.

There are no rieht or wrone answers-o- I an interested in how mothers
misht feel in such situations.

1. Your child gives you a picture that he has drawn "Just for you".

happy angry sad
Your

2. husband is very sick and might have to go to the hospital. he
is lying in bed right now. feeling miserable.

hflppv angry sad

3. You have spent the whole afternoon making a cake for a special
occasion. Ybu come into the kitchen to find that your husband has
helped himself to a piece of the cake.

happy angry sad
4. You and your husband are poine to pick up another couple to so to
a movie. As you dash downstairs. you find your husband engrossed in
the evening newspaper. He still has to change his clothes and shave.
and you are goiny to be quite late.

happy angry sad

5. Your child runs in from play. throws his arms around you. gives
you a big kiss and says. "oh. Honey. I love you!"

happy anyry sad
6. Ybur child has a doctor's appointment. Ybu have gotten him all
ready and told him to be careful and keep himself clean while you

get dressed. ehen it is time to go. you find him outside in the
sandbox. dirty from head to toe. and you are going to be quite late.

happy angry sad

7. Ybur child is quite sick and mieht have to go to the hospital.
He is lying in bed right now. feeling miserable.

happy angry sad
8. Yen have Just cleaned the family room in preparation for enter-
taining tonight. The next thing you know. your husband has messed
up the entire room. scattering newspapers here and there. and
leaving an empty beer can and potato chip crumbs around the sofa.

happy angry sad

67

9. IOu and your child are walking on a cold. icy winter's day. when
your child slips on the ice. fallinn and hurting hiaself.

happy angry sad
10. YOu and your child had planned a special trip to the zoo. and you
you both were lookinm forward to it. Today is the day. but your child
is sick. so you won't be able to so.

happy angry sad
11. Ybur husband brings you a bouquet of flowers as a special surprise.

happy angry sad

12. Ybu and your husband are walking on a cold. icy winter's day.
when your husband slips and falls on some ice. hurting himself.

happy anyry sad

13. Yen are expecting some guests soon and your husband offers to help
you finish straightening the house.

happy ensry sad
14. Ybu have spent all afternoon baking a cake for a special occasion.
Ybu come into the kitchen to find that your child has dug his hand into
the cake and is eating a chunk of it.

happy angry sad

15. Your husband comes home. gives you a bi? kiss and tells you that
he loves you.

happy angry sad
16 Ybu have Just cleaned up the family room and are expecting suests
any minute. Ihough'you told your child to stay out of the family room.
you come in to find that your child has scattered his toys from one
end of the room to the other.
happy anrry sad
1?. Yen and your husband had planned a special nieht-on-the-town. and
you both were really looking forward to it. Tonight is the night. but
your husband came hone from work sick. so you won't be able to go.
happy angry sad

18. Your child spontaneously picks up his bedroom. which previously was
littered with toys.

happy ansry sad

68

how reed the followine situations. and for eech situation, circle
the word that most closely describes hOw your child would feel in such
9 situstion. Aemenber. each word represents 0 ranve of ewotion. Give
one and only one snswer for each situation. deain. there ere no risht
or wrong answers--- I em interested in how children nieht feel in such
situations.
1. You and your child are at the grocery store. and your child sees a
csndy bar that he really wants. He asks you several times if you will
buy it for him and each time you say no.

heppy angry sad

2. You are really sick end niWht have to "o to the hospital. YOur
child understands that you are feeling miserable.

happy ancry sed

3. It is your child's bed-tine. end he is enerossed in his plsy.
he is edemant about not ventine to no to bed. but you insist.

hpDDY emery 99d

4. Your child has wanted 9 particular toy for a long time. On a
whim. you buy it for hin and yive it to him as 9 special surprise.

happy snfry sad
5. Ybu and your child planned 9 special trip to the zoo. end you
both were looking forward to it. Today is the dev. but you are siey.
so you‘won't be able to GO.

happy snery sad

6. You end your child are at the erocery store. end your d"ild sees
e candy bar that he reelly wants. Yeu buy it for his.

happy' .

30

nvrv sed

7. Your child is rieht is the midst of some very excitiny pley. when
you call to him and tell his that it is time to come inside.

haPDY emery sad

8. You end your child are welkins on a cold vinter's day. when you slip
and fell. hurting yourself.

happy snery sad

9. It is your child's bed-time and he is ensrossed in his play. You
tell him thet he can stay up a few minutes lonwer.

happy enery sed

IIIII IIIII III IIII III IIIIII III IIII II III II IIIIII IIII III III

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