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The Journal of Psychology
Interdisciplinary and Applied
Volume 145, 2011 - Issue 4
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Original Articles

The Role of Affective and Cognitive Empathy in Physical, Verbal, and Indirect Aggression of a Singaporean Sample of Boys

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Pages 313-330 | Received 31 Aug 2010, Accepted 02 Mar 2011, Published online: 14 Jun 2011
 

ABSTRACT

Bullying behavior is a serious form of school violence, affecting many children. This study investigated the contributions of 2 specific components of empathy (affective and cognitive empathy) on the 3 forms of aggressive behaviors in a sample of 241 Grade 4 and Grade 5 boys from Singapore. The 2 components of empathy differed in their relation with the 3 types of aggression. After accounting for cognitive empathy, affective empathy was associated with physical aggression. Neither affective empathy nor cognitive empathy was associated with verbal aggression. With control for affective empathy, cognitive empathy was associated with indirect aggression. Results suggest that empathy training based on specific deficits may be helpful in intervention and prevention of specific aggressive behaviors.

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