The relation of empathy to aggressive and externalizing/antisocial behavior.

Two Sides of the Same Coin? The Relations between Prosocial and Physically Aggressive Behaviors

“…Consistent with previous research, sympathy was positively related to altruism and compliant, dire, emotional, and anonymous prosocial behaviors and negatively related to public prosocial behaviors (Carlo and Randall, 2002;Eisenberg and Fabes, 1998;Feshbach and Feshbach, 1986;Miller and Eisenberg, 1988). Scholars have noted that sympathy is a primary motive for prosocial behavior, especially prosocial behaviors that consider the perspective of needy others and are linked to strong internalized moral principles (e.g.…”

“…These aggressive children sometimes display a greater concern towards strangers at younger ages because of their poorer impulse control and emotion regulation (Feshbach and Feshbach, 1986;Gill and Calkins, 2003;Hastings et al, 2000). However, Miller and Eisenberg (1988) in their meta-analysis reported overall negative relations between empathy and externalizing or aggressive behavior.…”

“…A second reason to suggest that prosocial behavior and aggression might be interrelated is that both constructs are theoretically and empirically linked to empathy (i.e. understanding another's emotions and perspective) and sympathy (i.e., feelings of concern or sorrow towards another; Feshbach and Feshbach, 1986;Hill, 2004;Miller and Eisenberg, 1988;Strayer and Roberts, 2004). While empathy and sympathy have been thought to be precursors to prosocial behavior, it is also plausible that being prosocial can make an individual more attentive and sensitive to the troubles of others.…”

The relation of psychopathy to concurrent aggression and antisocial behavior in high‐risk adolescent girls and boys

“…These findings highlight the importance of affective and empathic deficits as factors involved in adolescent aggression. Indeed, empathy has long been regarded as a protective factor, in both males and females, that mitigates one's inclination towards aggressive behavior (Bjorkvist, Osterman, & Kaukiainen, 2000;Miller & Eisenberg, 1988); in contrast, deficits in the capacity to identify with and respond to others' emotional states have been linked to a range of antisocial behaviors including aggression, violence, and conduct disorder in youth samples (Broidy et al, 2003;Cohen & Strayer, 1996). As the onset of adolescence is associated with increased capacity for complex perspective-taking and integration of empathy into behavioral regulation skills (Moretti & Higgins, 1999), deficits in the capacity to represent others' emotional perspectives puts youth at risk for responding inappropriately and/or aggressively.…”

Do the same risk and protective factors influence aggression toward partners and same‐sex others?

“…Clements, Holtzworth-Munroe, Schweinle & Ickes, 2007) and same-sex aggression (e.g. Miller & Eisenberg, 1988) although a more recent meta-analysis found only a weak overall negative relationship between empathy and aggression, which varied little by type of aggression or empathy measure (Vachon, Lynam & Johnson, 2014).…”