Psychology And 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.

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?

A human's innate reaction to another person’s pain is piteous. We don’t like seeing others in pain, and often make advances to help them. On the other hand, we may see one who is in pain due to their own detriment, and have a conflicted heart over if their pain is validated according to their sin. Most of the human population choses to overlook the bad, and find the good in others, despite their previous actions. Similarly, in the novel The Inferno as well as the film adaptation of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, the characters in the novels feel pity for and forgive the ones who had sinned in their previous lives. The immediate reaction in one’s heart for another who is suffering is pity and forgiveness, despite the fact that they may

Suggests that someone who needs help will have an increased amount of empathic emotion which leads to long-term helpful behaviours.

Healthcare professionals who should learn to exhibit empathy range from doctors and nurses to therapists and pharmacists. While it has been established that a

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

Empathy is the ability to understand and vicariously share the feelings and thoughts of other people. Empathic feelings are fundamental for humans in social and interpersonal life because they enable human beings to tune their mental states to their social environment as well as to understand others’ intentions, actions, and behaviors. In particular, empathy for pain is a source of deep emotional feelings and a strong trigger of prosocial behavior. In the fictional short “Cathedral”, written by Raymond Carver, the author cast significant irony: a narrator who ignorantly disdains blindness while being oblivious to his own limitations in sight. In parallel, “Flight Pattern”,

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).

The act of empathy enables our society to share in another’s pain and make it almost impossible not to be involved in someone else problem. I do believe

On October 9th 2013, a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience by the ‘Max Planck Institute for Human and Cognitive Brain Sciences’ revealed neurobiological roots of how our own sentiments can distort empathic capacity.4 An incredible part of the brain, the right supramarginal gyrus, has been attributed with the ability to recognise a lack of empathy and autocorrect. Studies have revealed our brain’s neural circuitry is malleable and potentially rewired through neuroplasticity. Hence our personal tendency for empathy and compassion can be labeled ‘innate’, but never fixed. In recent years, these same researchers have found compassion may be trained through short, daily exposure: meditation, volunteerism, mindfulness training and physical activity that puts the human body through challenging experiences, are among these findings.

Bohart, A. C., Greenberg, L. S., Elliot, R., & Watson, J. C. (2011). Empathy. Psychotherapy , 48 (1), 43-49.

Society is built upon a foundation of norms, but not all individuals adhere to said norms, some are outliers. If the actions of an individual causes pain onto another, society defines that the normal reaction for that individual would be to exhibit a state of empathy, but this is not always the case, as there are those who do not feel or exhibit the normal psychological reactions to differing scenarios (sociopaths). As individuals’ progress and experience obstacles in their lives, they become familiar with the different aspects of their mind, such as their persona, shadow, and self, ultimately achieving individuation. In

Wondra, J. D., & Ellsworth, P. C. (2015). An Appraisal Theory of Empathy and Other Vicarious Emotional Experiences. Psychological Review, 122(No. 3), 1-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0039252

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.