The fourth stage is reached later in childhood, that a child can show a richer cognitive form of empathy. What the person should be feeling, given the information and understands the other persons situation. Dr. Mark A. Barnett, a professor of psychology at Kansas State University in Manhattan, takes it further with his theory, that to express genuine healthy empathy in adulthood. One must have a clear, defined and strong sense of self. With a solid sense of self and control over ones own identity, only then can a individual reach out to other people, and tend to their needs.
Children learn from their parents both distress and empathy.
If abuse prevails, the world is always in crisis, unstable and unsafe. If empathy prevails, a child learns empathy towards others outside the home, unless it is only self serving. These are just a variety of studies that have used Piaget's theories to argue or enhance the developmentalists view. We hoped to see where in this age category children actually make the change from egocentric behavior to nonegocentric behavior. The independent variables in our experiment are the children and their ages.