Research Paper on Empathy

The purpose of this essay is to define empathy and discuss its use on how it is used on a daily basis and what makes people feel empathy for others. Empathy is being able to feel and understand what another person is going through or what they have experienced. Typically, it would be a happiness, sadness or anger that would immediately affect how we feel, we would generally feel the same emotion as the person we are in contact with, where as sympathy we would be in agreement on the emotion, really just respecting one another.

Empathy is used as a noun, the dictionary meaning for empathy is the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. The second dictionary meaning of empathy is, the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself.

Empathy is became apart of the English language in 1909 by E.

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B. Titchener, while try to translate the German word Einfühlungsvermögen. Later near the end of the 19th century it was changed to empathie and is now being used as that in Germany. The German meaning of empathy is, physical affection, passion, partiality and also passion" or "suffering. The word was founded by Hermann Lotze and Robert Vischer to be added to the German language as Einfühlung which means (feeling into) while later Edward B. Titchener translated to the English term Empathy. Empathy, in the 1900-05, was also used from the Greek word empátheia which in turns means affection.

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Empathy is used in so many forms and has so many definitions and starts off being imaginative. Imagining how the other person feels, putting yourself in the other person shoes and being able to feel what the person is going to through. Empathy involves being able to understand the emotional state how people feel, empathy would be described as a bodily feeling. Bodily feelings include body language, facial expression, and tone of voice. Being able to relate to one of the following and immediately responding to it is what empathy is. Automatically knowing what the other person is thinking and in turn making you feel the way the other person feels.

Scientifically, some scientist believe that empathy is linked to observing another person's emotional state activates parts of the neuronal network involved in processing that same state in oneself. Certain objects are known to automatically activate neural representations, and activation automatically to prime or generate the associated autonomic and somatic responses, unless inhibited. This very example that scientist have worked on trying to prove, is compared to common coding theory between perception and action. Meaning empathy is determined by whatever activity is going on around the person and how the brain perceives it. This theory also means that some people may have beliefs that are different from one's own, and is thought to involve the cognitive component of empathy. Empathy has been linked to be genetically inherited in our DNA its labeled as traditional science and used as alternative healing practioners.

Empathy has been linked to being associated with mental disorders like, Psychopathy, Narcissistic personality disorder, Sadistic personality disorder, Anger and Distress. These kinds of disorders have been known to scientist to cause rapid activity of neurotransmitters that deal with emotion and personality. Like psychopathy, some are able to pick up on others theory of mind mimic others emotionally and convince others their feeling a certain way when they really are not. In some cases psychopaths may be able to sense what others are feeling but may not be able to put themselves in their position. This shows that empathy in the brain waves of psychopaths are dysfunctional. Another mental disorder would be Narcissist one feeling them own self and unable to feel for others.

So with this being said they would lack empathy to protect and make them self feel secure for the sake of their own vulnerability. Now Sadistic disorder this is most likely shown in 16 to 18 year old boys with aggressive problems. This is a conduct disorder where the boys showed too much aggression. Performing violent behaviors and taking pleasure out of other peoples pain. Showing no sign of empathy for the victims of these violent crimes at all. Emotion like anger is another form linking to empathy. When people get angry over a certain situation somebody else that is close to them would immediately feel what their feeling also.

Anger has a affect on certain people directly and indirectly its known to triggers states of empathetic angers. Empathy and anger linked together has been investigated as negative arousal. That was only if empathetic behavior triggered a response to anger. Distress is also another form of empathy, feeling pain for somebody else which in turn can immediately turn into empathetic anger for somebody else. This would include feelings such as guilt and injustice, etc. Some scientist say this can be seen as pro social and moral behavior.

These are some example statements to define what empathy means. Jean Decety: "A sense of similarity in feelings experienced by the self and the other, without confusion between the two individuals." Frans de Waal: "The capacity to (a) be affected by and share the emotional state of another, (b) assess the reasons for the other’s state, and (c) identify with the other, adopting his or her perspective. This definition extends beyond what exists in many animals, but the term “empathy” … applies even if only criterion (a) is met." Alvin Goldman: "The ability to put oneself into the mental shoes of another person to understand her emotions and feelings."

Heinz Kohut: “Empathy is the capacity to think and feel oneself into the inner life of another person.” Wynn Schwartz: “We recognize others as empathic when we feel that they have accurately acted on or somehow acknowledged in stated or unstated fashion our values or motivations, our knowledge, and our skills or competence, but especially as they appear to recognize the significance of our actions in a manner that we can tolerate their being recognized.” In conclusion, empathy is a strong emotion exerted from an emotional level to feel, think and understand what somebody else is feeling at the time of any emotion they may be experiencing.

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/empathy?s=t http://healing.about.com/cs/empathic/a/uc_empathtraits.htm

Empathy

Empathy means physical affection or partiality is commonly defined as a person's ability to recognize, perceive and feel directly and deliberately the emotion of another person as well. Since the states of mind, beliefs, and desires of others are intertwined with their emotions, one with empathy for another may often be able to more effectively define another person's mode of thought and mood. Empathy is usually described as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes", Or might as well, experience the feelings and emotions of another being within oneself.

A matter that implies an emotional coherence and resonance. Empathy Prelude The word 'empathy' is a previous translation into English from the German 'Einfuhlung'. This final word was coined by the philosopher Robert Vischer . Vischer meant by the term something like "aesthetic sympathy. " This practically is the sentiment, not otherwise definable, which one feels in the face of a work of art. His father Friedrich Theodor Vischer had already made use of the evocative word 'einfuhlen' in his studies about architecture, in accordance with the rules of the Idealism (Stein, E. On the problem of empathy, p. 11. Washington: ICS Publications,1989).

Empathy is a concept recognized as "reading" another person as well, deliberately translating each movement into comprehensive conversation. Usually, an empath can quite literally feel the emotions of another person or persons. Empathy, like any other complex term, has attracted to itself specific more-overt metaphors, especially those of mirrors and resonance. In addition, one theorist has proposed structural affinities between empathy and touch.

A Chinese translation proposes the metaphor of the reasoning heart. Philosopher Edith Wyschogrod asserts: “Since touch is the paradigmatic sense for bringing what is felt into proximity with feeling, structural affinities between touch and (empathy and sympathy) can't be shown. ” Wyschogrod points out that visual objects and auditory sensations are both apprehended as occurring at a distance from their objects or sources, while touch implies not only proximity but contact (Stein, E. , On the problem of empathy, p. 11. Washington: ICS Publications,1989).

Empathy as an Application In general, “in intersubjective encounter is involved in caress and sexual arousal, as well as in aggression, slapping, punching etc. ” Wyschogrod notes a vulnerability in empathy which is indeed more like that of touch; empathy implies that we can be genuinely affected, saddened, grieved, touched by those with whom we empathize. While she doesn’t precisely summarize in this way, by the time she is done, Wyschogrod’s vision of empathy links it to a sense which is not only that of our fingertips, or even of our entire skin surface, but of our limits, location, and movement.

Conventional English usage supports Wyschogrod’s approach. When empathizing with another, we are reaching out to the other with our guard down which makes us vulnerable in a way. If the other chooses at that point to lash out, we can easily be very hurt. When this happens, it feels like nothing so much as a fresh wound being pierced We can take Wyschogrod’s metaphor and go further, suggesting that the kinds of touch, such as surgery, which move beyond the surface, and which fail thereby to observe Carl Roger’s "as if," are, even if well intentioned, invasive, and do necessary violence.

Examples of this invasive type of empathy are not hard to find, with a paradigmatic case being a parent using her superior empathic skill to invade and attempt to control the inner life of her child, in an exploitation of her child’s vulnerability (Stein, E. , On the problem of empathy, p. 11. Washington: ICS Publications,1989). Since empathy involves understanding the emotions of other people, the way it is described is aberration of the way emotions themselves are characterized.

For instance, emotions are taken to be centrally characterized by physiological feelings, then grasping the physiological feelings of another will be central to empathy. On the other hand, if emotions are more centrally characterized by combinations of beliefs and desires, then grasping these beliefs and desires will be more essential to empathy.

• Furthermore, a distinction should be made between deliberately imagining being another person, or being in their situation, and simply recognizing their emotion. The ability to imagine oneself as another person is a sophisticated surreal process (Eisenberg, N. , Empathy-related emotional responses, altruism, and their socialization. In R. J. Davidson & A. Harrington (Eds. ). Visions of compassion: Western scientists and Tibetan Buddhists examine human nature. (pp. 135; 131-164). London: Oxford University Press. , 2002).

However, the basic capacity to recognize emotions is probably innate and may be achieved unconsciously. Yet it can be trained, and achieved with various degrees of intensity or accuracy. The human capacity to recognize the bodily feelings of another is related to one's imitative capacities, and seems to be grounded in the innate capacity to associate the bodily movements and facial expressions one sees in another with the proprioceptive feelings of producing those corresponding movements or expressions oneself.

Humans also seem to make the same immediate connection between the tone of voice and other vocal expressions and inner feeling (Stein, E. On the problem of empathy, p. 11. Washington: ICS Publications,1989). Empathy Requisites There is some debate concerning how exactly the conscious experience (phenomenology) of empathy should be characterized. The basic idea is that by looking at the facial expressions or bodily movements of another, or by hearing their tone of voice, one may get an immediate sense of how they feel (as opposed to more intellectually noting the behavioral symptoms of their emotion).

Though empathic recognition is likely to involve some form of arousal in the “empathizer”, they may not experience this feeling as belonging to their own body, but instead likely to perceptually locate the feeling 'in' the body of the other person. Alternatively, the empathizer may instead get a sense of an emotional atmosphere, or that the emotion belongs equally to all the parties involved. More fully developed empathy requires more than simply recognizing another's emotional state.

Since emotions are typically directed towards objects and states of affairs, the empathizer, of course may first require some idea of what that object might be (where object can include imaginary objects, concepts, other people, or even the empathizer). Alternatively, the recognition of the feeling may precede the recognition of the object of that emotion, or even aid the empathiser in discovering the object of the other's emotion. The empathizer may need to determine how the emotional state affects the way in which the other perceives the object as well.

For instance, the empathizer needs to determine which aspects of the object to focus on. Hence, it is often not enough that the empathizer recognize the object toward which the other is directed, plus the physiological feeling, and then simply add these components together. Instead, the empathizer needs to find the way into the loop where perception of the object affects feeling and feeling affects the perception of the object.

Updated: Sep 29, 2022
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Research Paper on Empathy. (2017, Jan 09). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/research-paper-on-empathy-essay

Research Paper on Empathy essay
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