Essay on Reflexive Embodied Empathy

Carl Rogers describes empathy as the ability to sense the client’s world as if it were your own. Sanders (1999)

Riley (2017 pg 8) continues to say that, empathy is a dangerous notion if it’s thought to be a mindless, experimental, existential connectedness….whereas some patient encounter may require empathy; some will just be theory or experience. Contextualising empathy is therefore is difficult.

This literature review of the emergence of empathy does not adhere to any particular theoretical models, but to summarize research findings about what contributes to empathic responses. Firstly, we will focus on infants’ early social interactions. We focus on imitation, emotion matching, and emotional contagion as precursors of empathy. These support the formation of strong bonds of attachment with primary caregivers. This relationship promotes reciprocal responsiveness in the infant. Following a section on emotional attunement, we discuss research relating to infants’ abilities to discriminate emotions. Responses to other people’s displays of emotion are discussed and associated with prosocial behaviour and the cognitive skills that support its development. While there is little research addressing the neurobiology of empathy during infancy, links are proposed between studies of infant behaviour and neurospscyhology studies.

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.

¨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

Daniel H. Pink once said, “Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eye. Not only is empathy hard to outsource and automate but it makes the world a better place”. This quote is explaining the basics of empathy. Empathy is seeing a problem or life in general, from another person’s of view. It allows us to understand another and overall helps make the world a better place.

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

Although different emotions sprout different response, Smith argues that people’s cannot go beyond their own selves and therefore use personal conceptions to judge others’ sentiments of joy or grief. Smith states that although we can sympathy with others’ emotion, we cannot truly go beyond our own personal experience and preconception because “it is by the imagination only that we can for any conception of what he suffers” (1). Therefore, although one may sympathy with others’ feelings, people are always limited to their “own person.” Smith explores “there are some passions of which the expressions excite no sort of sympathy” (2) because it may depend on people personal perception or preconceptions. For instance, Smith argues that “the furious

Suppose I was guilty of murdering my boyfriend, what would be your reaction? Would you reconsider the verdict? Would you show some compassion? Would you even try to understand my reason? If you answer yes, you are showing me what is called empathy. “Deepa Kodikal, spiritual adept, says, “Empathy is putting yourself in another’s shoes to find out what exactly that person is feeling or going through at the given time. It basically refers to being at a common wavelength with someone” (Bajaj). Empathy is our confirmation that we haven’t lost our humanity.

We all experience empathy at some point in our lives, it feels nice to know that there is someone that you can call on and that you know they can help you get through any hardship. Whether that be family, friends, or anyone that you are in close relations with. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird and Daryl Cameron’s article Empathy Is Actually a Choice, they show great examples of empathy and why people show each other compassion and feel this emotion that believe it or not most people don’t experience. This essay is to show how these articles are related and a good example of how people should act in today’s society.

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

According to Gerdes and Segal (2001), empathy is the ability to perceive, understand, experience, and respond to the emotional state of another person. They advocate that therapists should be able to pay attention to clients’ “behavior, facial expression, the tone of voice, choice of words, and so on, should be able to keep objectivity and regulate emotion (Gerdes and Segal, 2001). In Thelma’s case, Yalom shows highly empathy to Thelma. During the sessions, Yalom kept paying attention to Thelma’s tone of voice, behavior, and choice of words. For example, Yalom (1989) wrote that “Thelma’s tone of voice contained no invitation to come closer,” “Thelma turned away and looked out the window…she was speaking more deliberately, in a bitter, forlorn

The overall purpose of this article is to show how empathy and emotional experiences are linked. This article also gives various theories and ideas by world renowned psychologists. The theme of this article is how much empathy we have toward others in social experiences. A few new ideas and purposes of this article were when they talked about all the different Theories based on appraisal and empathy in certain situations. It’s really important to publicize these ideas because for one this stuff is very interesting, it could help others discover new approaches to situations, and it would very well help people themselves deal with empathy.

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.