The Caring Child

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Much of the 20th century's empirical research in the social sciences has been devoted to understanding the causes and contributing factors of antisocial behaviour. In studies of children's moral reasoning and conduct, developmental psychologists have probed the cognitive and social bases of aggression, conflict delinquency, and prejudice. In contrast to psychology's lengthy preoccupation with negative behaviour in children, the study of children's altruistic, cooperative, and sharing behaviour has a relatively short history. "The Caring Child" aims to provide the most up-to-date account of our current understanding of the motivations behind prosocial behaviours and how these motives develop and are elicited in various situations. When do children first exhibit prosocial behaviour, particularly altruism? How do helping, sharing, and comforting behaviour change with age? Are differences among children's prosocial behaviours a result of hereditary factors, of how children are raised, or both? Can prosocial tendencies be enhanced by parents' and educators' deliberate attempts to instill altruistic motives and to teach caring behaviours? Nancy Eisenberg seeks to broaden our concept of the moral potential of children as she shifts the focus from censoring antisocial behaviours to the active promotion of kindness and caring in children.