Paul Bloom Essay On Empathy And Compassion

“And yet, it may be that these are the conditions that finally give birth to empathy, the mother of compression. We cannot deny the existence of the helpless as their presence grows. It is impossible to insulate ourselves against what is at our very doorstep. I don’t believe that one is born compassionate. Compassion is

Empathy is an innate trait that all humans have and it is the one that we most readily feel, while compassion is a feeling that must be acquired. Ascher astutely points out that “empathy is the mother of compassion” (par.13). In this noteworthy parallel, Ascher compares empathy to a nurturing mother and compassion to the fruit of her labor. Like a mother who has an inherent instinct to protect and teach her young, so too does one have an innate understanding and sensitivity to the feelings and experiences of another, and it is only from these life experiences that the birth of a new awareness is brought forth in the form of compassion. Similar to a mother’s tutelage, Ascher describes compassion as a “learned” behavior that allows one to consciously act upon the distress of others by actively alleviating it. According to Ascher, “Compassion is not a character trait like a sunny disposition. It must be learned, and it is learned by having adversity at our window…” (par.13). In other words, true compassion can only be learned when one is faced with it every day of ones life and that once it becomes “familiar”, only then it can become identifiable and conjure empathy.

Empathy and caring is an essential part of human health. We love because we can empathize (Szalavitz & Perry, 2010). Empathy underlies everything that makes society work; such as altruism, collaboration, love and charity. Failures to empathize are a key part of social problems, such as crime, violence, war, racism, child abuse and inequity. Although we are genetically predisposed to care for others, the development of empathy requires a lifelong process of relational interaction (Szalavitz & Perry, 2010). More importantly, the first relationship humans experience, the

The importance of empathy in any helping profession, medical or social, cannot be overstated. The workers that exemplified it in their practice did the best that they could with their limited resources.

Furthermore, during empathizing, emotional reaction in the observer correlates with the fact that connections between the person’s mental state and his or her behavior are not always governed by lawful conduct of emotion. The response to the other person’s mental state creates a gap between systemizing and empathizing, for without empathetic response, one could only have a very small or inaccurate reading of a person’s emotion. The systemizer only expects that the person’s mental state will at least constrain their behavior. The level of empathy one has is greatly affected by how systematic they are.

Empathy, the ability to recognize and share feelings of others, has been in our brains since the beginning of time. It was discovered by the Greeks which they called it, “Empatheia” meaning, “In feeling.” Then a German psychologist Vischer in 1837 and he called it

A theory of mind allows for other forms of altruism, reciprocal altruism, in contrast to kin selection (Clegg, 2007) is when the benefit is conveyed on another whom is not a relative and with no guarantee of anything in return. It is a gamble, the altruist must have a theory of mind in order to possess a level of trust that the benefit will be reciprocated and so is therefore a more human trait. This has been studied and observed by evolutionary psychologists using The Prisoner’s Dilemma Game (Clegg, 2007 pg. 147), the most common method used for studying altruism. Similarly with indirect reciprocity, the altruist is not guaranteed a benefit but bases his gesture on the possibility of a gain not from the person who the altruistic act was bestowed upon but from another, such as the wider community, for example, to boost one’s reputation (Clegg, 2007). McAndrew and Farrelly et al used empirical evidence to suggest that one’s reputation has a direct correlation with how attractive they are perceived to be and so therefore could have an influence on reproductive success (as cited in Clegg, 2007). Nedelou and Michod discovered a genetic element for altruism (as cited in Clegg, 2007) and as it has been demonstrated to be universal, it is probable that altruism is an adaptive behaviour.

Empathy is a probable psychological motivation for helping others in suffering. Precursors to empathic distress empathy and compassion are likely from experiences from one’s personal distress. (Zahn-Waxler & Radke-Yarrow 1990). But when society attempts to imagine what it is like to be in a situation they have not yet been in or experienced, they don't stimulate the emotional areas of their brain as strappingly. Instead, they just trying to visualize the problem which can stimulate the visual system in in excess. Which suggests that they are not able to relate to it sensitively (Anders).

Compassion is a term that most are familiar with. It’s that feeling of sympathy and concern for the sufferings and misfortunes of others. But up for discussion, is how we obtain such strong emotions. Most argue that we receive it from observing and then copying those around us, while others believe that it’s strictly biological. In actuality, it’s a combination of both.

Professor Paul Bloom states he is against empathy. He believes it is wrongfully used in our society and should not be used in certain situations. He still thinks it is important sometimes, but should not be primarily used as a result of anger, depression or retaliation. He believes compassion is the solution to empathy. In the long run, Bloom states that empathy will fail or burnout in a person. Hannah the extremely empathic person will eventually burnout according to Bloom. The use of empathy everyday as a core moral code will eventually be overwhelming and burned out and used up. The person will change direction and use empathy less in their lifetime. This essay will explore Paul Bloms opinion of empathy in his article, “Against

The findings in this article were very much important to anyone in interest of Empathy and emotional experience. The conclusions also are valid, they’re very organized and constructed well and to the point. Therefore yes I do agree with these conclusions that were made. The article was a little technical but still very much

Empathy or the capability to comprehend and share the feelings and emotions of another is seen as a positive characteristic for an individual to hold (Guadagni, Burles, Ferrara & Iaria, 2014). Empathy is said to present itself as two types; cognitive and emotional (Blanke, Rauers, Riediger, 2016). Cognitive empathy refers to a person 's ability to recognize another 's emotions while emotional empathy refers to an individual’s ability to resonate with those emotions (Blanke, Rauers, Riediger, 2016). Sleep

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.

Why do we show altruism? Social and evolutionary biologists, psychologists, economists and philosophers alike have made many attempts at providing an explanation for altruism. As a result, many opposing theories have developed over the years. In this essay, I will attempt to explain altruism as the presence of an altruistic gene which is selected for by natural selection in terms of kin selection. I will explore evidence supporting this theory, as well as evidence pointing to psychological explanations such as reciprocal altruism, social norms and primitive sympathy.

Altruistic acts are often seen through the benevolent acts of family members express towards each other on a regular basis. Because of the significant amount of genes we share with our kin, the survival of a family is prioritized equally to the survival of the individual. Each member of the family will therefore behave altruistically towards each other, due to the evolutionary drive for survival. The reason that parents behave this altruistically towards their offspring is because “parents (adults) are in a maximally favorable position to dispense inexpensive aid to offspring (eggs) that maximally resembles the parents genetically” (Alexander, 462). Even through altruism is perhaps highest between family members, people also feel more empathetic towards others who possess similar traits, as a large number of genes are share. As altruism “involves a loss of individual fitness, [it] can evolve only by group selection” (Nunney, 228). Therefore, we can see that nature’s force of the survival of the group is a primary driving factor for the appearance of altruism.