2013, Vol.26, No.4

THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.67

pISSN : 1229-0718 / eISSN : 2671-6542
https://journal.kci.go.kr/baldal

This study examined the differences in cognitive and affective empathy in six types of participant roles in bullying. Cognitive and affective empathy was measured using three self-report questionnaires on empathy, Korean version of EQ-C (Cha, et al., 2011), BEI (Bryant, 1982), and IRI (Davis, 1983), on a sample of 299 Korean children in the fifth and sixth grade. Based on the results of a peer nomination questionnaire on participant roles (Sutton & Smith, 1999), the children were assigned to one of six roles: “bullies,” “reinforcers,” “assistants,” “defenders,” “outsiders,” and “victims.” It was found that affective empathy scores were higher for defenders than for victims, outsiders, assistants, and reinforcers, whereas cognitive empathy scores were higher for defenders than for victims, but were not higher than those for outsiders, assistants, and reinforcers. The results demonstrated that defenders displayed both aspects of empathy, affective and cognitive, but victims displayed neither. In contrast, bullies displayed cognitive but not affective empathy.

This study explored life satisfaction in geriatric population. The following tests were administered to 103 people over the age of 60: mindreading tasks and cognitive tasks, personality questionnaires measuring extroversion and agreeableness, and questionnaires measuring the amount of social participation in activities and social adaptation. The analysis revealed a strong correlation between mindreading abilities and cognitive abilities, but was not correlated with agreeableness. Additionally, mindreading abilities was negatively correlated with life satisfaction. Furthermore, life satisfaction was positively correlated with agreeableness, extroversion, economic status, and the amount of social participation. It was expected that older people who were good mindreaders would demonstrate more appropriate social interactions and better social adaptation. However, it was found that an appropriate level of insensitivity to other people’s mental states was associated with increased life satisfaction. Society's widespread negative views about older people, and the loneliness from decreasing social relationships, are two possible explanations for these counterintuitive results.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the home environment and child development at 3 years of age on intelligence development at 7 years. The participants were 143 mother-child dyads whose home environment and child development were measured using the mothers' reports when the children were 3 years old. At 7 years, the children’s intelligence was evaluated using the Korean version of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III. The results indicated a significant positive correlation between home environment and child development, as well as positive correlations between child development and intelligence, and between home environment and intelligence. Educational stimuli, acceptance, and linguistic stimuli from the home environment demonstrated significant positive correlations with intelligence. Positive correlations were found between intelligence and each of the following: fine-motor, linguistic, and cognitive development. The results of the structural equation model showed that home environment at 3 years had a small influence on intelligence at 7 years, and home environment had direct positive effects on child development. Furthermore, the stage of development had direct positive effects on intelligence at the age of 7. This study suggests that home environments and the developmental levels of children in early childhood affect their intellectual development in middle childhood.