Empathy Examples

Empathy is the ability to share emotions and feelings with others. This skill requires people to look at things from another person’s point of view. Harper Lee implies in To Kill A Mockingbird that having the ability to feel empathy for others not only benefits others, but also can lead to personal gains in the long run. Empathy is demonstrated through the relationship of the characters of Scout with Walter Cunningham, Atticus with Tom Robinson and the children, and finally, Jem Finch with Mrs. Dubose.

Babies are born with two important skills to prepare them for empathy – the ability to begin to imitate facial gestures and the automatic responses in which the cries of other infants causes another infant to cry (Szalavitz & Perry, 2010). From the first hour after birth, babies can imitate several

Younger generations aren’t feeling as empathetic as older generations and this will lead to a dangerous society. Empathy is the ability to understand and share feelings. Teaching empathy at a young age will allow one another to accept and communicate with each other. It is also a necessity skill in life that helps each other to recognize one’s emotions. According to the article, This is How Literary Fiction Teaches us to Be Human by Tom Blunt, he emphasizes empathy can be taught through literary fiction and it is vital that young children feel empathy toward each other.

Empathy is the ability to understand and experience the feelings of others, particularly others’ suffering. Humanity’s gift of understanding complex emotions ushers in a new way of understanding ourselves and how we react to stimuli. This ultimately leads to questioning of everything, leading us to one strong notion: Does empathy guide or hinder moral action?

In literary texts, authors best evoke empathy in the audience by using appeals such as ethos, logos, and pathos. When a reader is given appeals they are able to better understand the world around them and how others outside of their own lives feel. Books and speeches such as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Statement on the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. by Robert F. Kennedy are prime examples of authors evoking empathy from their readers.

¨As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, it is necessary to maintain our principles. We can't allow ourselves to be satisfied with empty gestures that make us feel better about ourselves without eliciting any actual change. Empathy is an important part of the process, but empathy is useless without

Empathy is the ability to understand and the feelings of someone else. This is a major theme all throughout Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird. The citizens of Maycomb County begin to see things through the eyes of others, but a series of events has to happen before change can me made. Lee uses characters such as Scout, Jem, and Atticus to express the importance and value of empathy.

Empathy can be defined as “the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions” (Merriam Webster). After reading Montana 1948, I feel more empathy for people who struggle to follow the law while still providing justice, a concept that can be extended beyond the realm of technical legalities and into more personal situations, as well as an increased empathy for people who do not receive equal treatment due to their race, such as Ronnie Tall Bear.

Poet, Walt Whitman, once said, “I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.” Whether you're trying to understand a wounded person or the next president, learning to become the person for a moment; applying empathy lets us for just a moment, see through their eyes, feel through their skin, and fight their battles. Likewise in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the author exclaims to the characters the effects of empathy. The novel takes place in Alabama, in a small boring town of Maycomb. Scout Finch, a young girl, has an older brother, and a father with distinctive yet wise morals.

We live in the age of rapid change. Empathy can help us navigate thru this new world of innovation. Not only do we get along better with our peers, empathy will help us resolve conflicts more quickly, and work collaboratively with our colleagues. Empathy, when properly defined, is vital and should not be so quickly dismissed. Far from an inhibitor to reason, it is powerful complement to reason.

Empathy is like gravity. Similar to how the gravitational force between two objects are stronger when they are closer together, I find it easier to empathize with people who live in my neighbourhood because we are more likely to share similar personal experiences. In the same way, it becomes more difficult to empathize with those who live farther away because they have differing experiences. Consequently, literature functions to introduce foreign perspectives to readers and evoke empathic tendencies within people. Many social leaders are empathetic individuals who recognize the needs of others and are motivated to create change in society.

Empathy is being able to understand and share another person’s feelings or emotions. It allows a team to develop trust and understand others. Leaders who express empathy towards their team shows that they truly care about the people within their team.

Social Justice is defined as “the equal distribution of opportunities, rights, and responsibility despite differences in physical traits and/or beliefs and behavior. It is an international and multifaceted issue that fights for better treatment and equality of people.” (“Pachamama Alliance,” 2017). According to this definition, my understanding of social justice is that it is a way to advocate for other individuals in order to assist their needs in society. For example, I would want to advocate for Hispanic mothers and children who have been through abuse. My empathy towards this group started because of my personal history with an abusive father who suffered from alcoholism. “Empathy involves thinking about a person and the challenges he or she is facing and coming to understand what it is like for that person to have that experience.” (Cameron & Keenan, 2013, p. 72).

Most definitions of empathy are based on the same core idea - empathy is the ability to understand and identify someone else’s thoughts and feelings, as if they were one’s own (wordreference online dictionary, 2016). Although it’s been said “there are probably nearly as many definitions of empathy as people working on the topic.” (de Vignemont & Singer, 2006, p.435) suggesting that there is no singular way to even define empathy, let alone explain its impact on our behaviour. Due to the sheer depth and complexity of empathy it’s understandable that each discipline within psychology presents it’s own explanation for why we experience it, and how it can affect our interaction with the world around us. Psychologists have been exploring empathy for decades, in hope of gaining a complete grasp of what it means and how it can vary between each person, therefore its important we look at different psychological perspectives to try to understand it’s many dimensions.

Empathy is a feeling of putting yourself on others situation, giving caring and understanding the circumstances of someones who need help, being aware of what others felt behind his/her struggles and also a feeling you want to comfort his/her despite of their worst experiences.