Are complex emotions like empathy genetic or learned behaviors? The answer to this question has not chosen a particular orientation. I will examine and compare whether complex emotions such as empathy arise through genetics or learned behaviors.
When we look at the development of empathy, it has been noted that empathic children show more interest in their mothers' distress and show interest in strangers. (Young et.al, 1999). Empathy is associated with parental attachment and peer attachment (Laible et al., 2004).
Feedback, reinforcement and the child's interaction with the adult have a great influence on the existence and development of complex behaviors such as empathy. The positive approach of the teacher is the emotional expression of social behavior (Eisenberg et al., 1996) and empathy is improved through empathy training (Kapıkıran & Kapıkıran, 1998). We know how important cognitive development is for complex behaviors, but how does Vygotsky interpret this?
I would like to give an example from Vygosky's sociocultural and cognitive learning theory: It has been seen that Vygotsky's theory mostly refers to the effect of the social environment. Vygotsky emphasized that the interventions of the instructor, adult parent, and others are very important in terms of cognitive development (Eroğlu,2023). According to Vygotsky's theory, empathy is a skill that develops during children's interactions with adults and peers by trying to understand and empathize with the feelings of others.
Empathy is therefore shaped by the influence of the environment and learned behaviors. Vygotsky's concept of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is defined as the difference between 'the child's actual developmental level, defined as independent problem writing' and 'the latent developmental level, defined as problem-solving under adult guidance or in cooperation with more capable peers' (Eroğlu, 2023). In other words, the child's potential complex behaviors develop in this region by acquiring skills and knowledge learned from the environment, not by the child's maturation.
An example of this is the development of empathy skills as children grow older and gain more social experience. The opposing idea argued that complex behaviors such as empathy are shaped by genetics. First, the evolutionary impact of genetics was mentioned: “From a bio-evolutionary point of view, these modulations in automatic reflexive responding to others' pain might represent adaptive modulations to increase prosociality which overall might improve the survival of the group.” (Lamm et.
al, 2018). Later, opposing idea argued that mirror neurons are neurons that are activated when observing the actions and emotions of other individuals. However, the article I found stated that mirror neurons are necessary but not sufficient for empathy.
“Moreover, mirroring of actions does not necessarily lead to correct mirroring of the associated affective response… mechanisms other than motor resonance alone mediate the empathic response and its regulation.”(Lamm et. al,2018).
Furthermore, oxytocin, also known as the “attachment hormone”, is associated with empathy and social bonding. “Furthermore, oxytocin has been shown to improve mind reading and enhance emotional empathy."(Domes et al.,2007 as cited in Lamm et. al 2018 ).
Also according to (Decety et al.,2016), OXTR rs53576 is associated with individual differences in ToM (Theory of Mind) and is associated with prosocial behavior such as empathy even at younger ages. Lastly, during empathy, the insula allows us to feel as if we are experiencing the emotional states of others in our bodies. “The concept of shared representations builds up on the observation that empathy for a certain emotion recruits similar brain areas as the first-hand experience of that emotion."(Lamm et al.,2018).
Also (Rütgen et al.,2015) mentioned that shared representations involve overlapping activations in the anterior insula, suggesting that this region may play a role in linking self and other emotional states. As a result, building block of empathy is actually shaped by genetics and then developed by environmental factors.
Kaynakça
- Decety, J., Ben-Ami Bartal, I., Uzefovsky, F., & Knafo-Noam, A. (2016). Empathy: The force behind prosocial behavior across species—Conserved neurobehavioral mechanisms. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 371(1686), 20150077. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0077
- Eroglu, M. (2023). Cognitive development in childhood: Examining and comparing Piaget and Vygotsky's theories of cognitive development. Journal of Education and New Approaches, 6(1), 69-77. https://doi.org/10.52974/jena.1258278
- Lamm, C., & Tomova, L. (2018). The neural bases of empathy in humans. In Neuronal Correlates of Empathy (pp. 25–36). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-805397-3.00003-6
- Rütgen, M., Seidel, E. M., Riecansky, I., & Lamm, C. (2015). Reduction of empathy for pain by placebo analgesia suggests functional equivalence of empathy and first-hand emotion experience. Journal of Neuroscience, 35(23), 8938–8947. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0244-15.2015