Adolescence occurs approximately from 10-22 years old, and is divided into three periods: early adolescence [about ages 10-13], middle adolescence [ages 14-17], and late adolescence [ages 18-22] (Steinberg, 2005). It is the life phase that commences until the conversion to adulthood. It starts with puberty which results to bigger physiques and sexual development (Berk, 2005).
Prosocial behaviors such as empathy are also advanced over the course of growing up. Adolescents would start to depreciate prosocial behaviors that only benefits towards oneself and promotes true acts of empathy instead (Steinberg, 2005).
Moreover, empathy in regards to perspective taking [“the capacity to imagine what other people are thinking and feeling”] can be found…show more content… Indistinctness in literature [restriction of too much detail for the sake of aesthetic literature] that could be mostly found in fiction also encourages the imagination of readers that could lead to creativity (Carey, 2005).
As reported by the PISA [Program for International Student Assessment] survey in 2006, which mainly evaluates the ability of operational reading, 17% of females aged
15 and 30% of males, about double the number of females in the similar age range, go to the set of struggling readers (European Commission, 2008 as cited in Uusen &
Müürsepp, 2012).
Males were also found to be “average or poor readers”. They read fewer classical stories willingly, and spend a fewer period with reading. Still, both sexes turned out as somewhat alike as readers in terms of computer use (Uusen & Müürsepp, 2012).
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Statement of the Problem
The problem is whether or not the empathy of people who read more fiction is higher, compared to those who do not. This may be due to reading fiction according to some researches (e.g. Bal & Veltkamp, 2013). Reading fiction may increase