Browsing by resource type "Doctoral thesis"
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Development of sympathy during childhood: attachment relationships, feelings of guilt and respectPublication . Martins, Mariana Ginja da Costa; Veríssimo, ManuelaThis dissertation centered on children’s socio-emotional and moral development, with an emphasis on the emergence of moral and kind emotions such as sympathy, guilt and respect during childhood. It focused on sympathy as concern for the state and suffering of others, investigating its predictors (namely, attachment relationships), and associated socio-emotional outcomes (such as pro-social behavior). The theoretical framework (Chapter I) was based on fundamental contributions from developmental psychology and moral philosophy, namely Bowlby’s attachment theory, Piaget’s model of moral development and the Kantian perspective on respect for others. The journey began with two systematic literature reviews. The first (Chapter II) looked at the relationship between attachment quality and moral emotions, revealing a scarcity of studies centered specifically on sympathy. The studies found used mostly distinct models and referred interchangeably to the concepts of empathy and sympathy, which prevented a differentiated analysis. Even so, the relevance of secure attachment - characterized by sensitivity, responsiveness and emotional communication - as a facilitator of emotional regulation and the emergence of adaptive moral emotions was highlighted. This effect of secure attachment is evidenced in literature not only in the emotional domain, but also in the behavioral domain, which was explored in greater depth in the following study. The second review (Chapter III) focused on the relationship between attachment and pro-social behavior, showing a slightly larger number of studies and revealing interconnections between emotional and behavioral development. In both reviews, the absence of studies with pre-school children was identified - a relevant limitation, given the recognition of this stage as critical for socio-emotional and moral development. The subsequent empirical study (Chapter IV) sought to fill these gaps by longitudinally examining the influence of attachment on sympathy and guilt, mediated by emotional regulation, in 74 children aged 4. Attachment security explained sympathy (including for oneself and for others) and healthy guilt (both ethical and non-ethical), with significant mediation by emotion regulation in all these domains, except for sympathy for others. These emotions correlated negatively with isolating behaviors, reinforcing the role of attachment and emotional regulation in the development of social skills. These results suggest important clinical implications, particularly in the design of early intervention programs. The final study (Chapter V) delved deeper into the relationship between sympathy and respect, involving interviews with 53 children. Their conceptualizations and reasoning about respect were explored, as well as levels of sympathy (self-reported and parent-reported). The results indicated that sympathy was positively associated with pro-social definitions of respect, while authority-based conceptualizations correlated with lower levels of sympathy. Sociodemographic variables that might influence this relationship were also analyzed. These contributions point to the importance of attachment relationships in the emergence of moral emotions and pro-sociality in childhood, and in the associated relational and individual well-being, influencing social behaviors such as manifestations of respect related to these emotions. Thus, the development of interventions that promote these emotional competences from an early age, pointing to the need for more research with diversified samples and instruments that are even more suitable for pre-school ages.