Underserving Vs Deserving

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

The historical definitions of worthy and unworthy poor come from the early 1600’s for dealing with the poor. Family was expected to take care of other poor family members (Hansan, 2011). The worthy poor are to be considered true victims of poverty. They were pregnant women, people who are truly unwell and unable to work or someone over the age of sixty. These were the people that were allowed to beg on the street since the government deemed them worthy (Martin, 2014, p.21). The unworthy poor were the legally defined drifter, or beggars. If people were able to work but they were without a job, they were whipped, marched through the streets, returned to where they came from, or thrown in jail. Repeat offenders of begging often had ears cut off or were killed (Martin, 2014, p.21).

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 most pressing problem surrounding social insurance in the United States today is a faulty perception of who deserves to receive assistance from these programs – forwardly referred to simply as deservedness. The idea that two, equally in-need people can have different levels of deservedness creates inequity within social insurance systems.

Ask Haley Jo Hyde, 19, what makes her empathetic, and she 'll mention her childhood on Wisconsin 's Red Cliff Indian Reservation or her struggles leaving an abusive relationship. Talk to Nick Thompson, 37, and he 'll refer to the challenges he overcame to enroll in college as a nontraditional student. A Moving Target Say the word "empathy" around social workers and most will recognize it as a professional "must-have," even if they can 't tell you exactly what it means. Scholars also disagree about the definition of empathy and what it looks like in social work practice. According to some, empathy occurs when a person takes on the feelings of another—the sadness of losing a loved one or the joy of landing a job—as if sharing that experience. Indeed, the Social Work Dictionary defines empathy as "the act of perceiving, understanding, experiencing, and responding to the emotional state and ideas of another person" (Barker, 2003). Others separate empathy into its cognitive and affective forms, that is, a rational understanding of a person 's situation vs. a feeling of shared emotions. According to V. Suthakaran, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, this dichotomy mirrors the one found in cognitive experiential self theory. That theory claims that humans rely on two systems to process information: one tapping into logical thought and one relying on personal experience or intuition (Epstein, 1994). Still others say that empathy

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?

We create this society in which every individual starts off at different points in life due to these social categories based on race and ethnicity, which in turn affects education, social class and our overall lifestyle. After we create these categories and put people there unwillingly, we act as though it is there fault and not ours, so our society is reluctant to help; in this way it would be a “helping hand” rather than a dependency people often associate it with. “Education is a significant factor in poverty” (Wong, Chapter 6); like stated above, different individuals get different starting points in life, therefore affecting where one ends up in life. “A national survey conducted in 1975, found that those living in poverty attributed it to personal failures, such as having a poor work ethic, poor money management skills and low personal moral values” (Martin

10. Empathy means trying to see things from another persons point of view and not judging them from your own set of morals.

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 is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.¨ - Mohsin Hamid. What is empathy exactly? Many people are empathetic in different ways, but the true meaning is to be able to connect with others. By mentioning ¨echoes¨, Hamid is asserting that empathy is a part of every person and shows the reason of thoughts behind one's actions. He shows the universal meaning of empathy through the use of the word, “echo”. This quote is similar to the main message of Harper Lee´s book, To kill a Mockingbird. In a quiet town called Maycomb County, Harper Lee describes a young girl named Scout and her journey navigating through her society's prejudice and lack of empathy towards others. Her book signifies the importance of empathy. It also teaches us that people have to keep an open mind while being empathic even if other’s have a fixed view, and this, in turn, affects our attitude towards them.

The first concept i will be discussing is empthy, which is discussed in Chapter six (Shebib, 2003). Empathy is the ability to correctly interpret another person's feelings to show them you understand. So, empathy is not something we have, but something we do. Empathy is a skill and an attitude and not a feeling (sympathy is a feeling). It is about being able and willing to understand another person from their own point of view, without your own thoughts, feelings, opinions and judgements getting in the way of this understanding. This

How does the author define empathy? Empathy is the ability to put yourself in another person's shoes. Have you ever heard of the phrase "treat others the way you would like to be treated"? That ties in with having empathy for others. The foundation of a good hearted person is kindness and consideration for someone else besides themselves. Putting yourself in other people's shoes allows you to feel the emotional pain they go through when being bullied. By feeling their pain, the individual is less likely to bully others.

     Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the first Beatitude. It tells us that we should accept people for who they are and not the material things they have. You should not treat a person who lives in a nice house and drives a nice car any different then someone who lives in a less desirable house and drives an old car. You should treat everyone how you would like to be treated. Just because someone can not afford some of the things as you might be able to does not mean that they are a bad person. We should accept everyone into our community.

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.