Empathy is presented as a relation between persons and by analogy between persons and non-human entities in which case it is called quasi-empathy. The characteristics of empathy, the sufficient and necessary conditions for its creation and nurturance, and various types of empathy, both authentic and mistaken, are examined. The role of empathy in various types of knowing especially personal knowing are discussed leading to an attempt to classify interpersonal relations. In the course of this analysis different ways of construing human beings are presented and contrasted with particular interest in the extent to which empathy, quasi-empathy and other relations are involved. A variety of emotional bonds which have some bearing on or similarity to empathy are compared with empathy. The dissertation concludes with a review of a selection from the empathy literature in which contrasts are made with the outline theory of empathy developed in this dissertation.

No / This paper examines what the originally psychoanalytic concept of reverie can add to non-psychoanalytic practitioners’ understandings of empathy. It uses case material from a study into UK therapists’ experiences of reverie, which centres on a single moment in a session, when an image of her own living room flashed suddenly through a therapist’s mind. Reverie – a capacity to contain the other’s unprocessed emotional experiencing - can offer a magnifying lens through which to view some forms of empathy, revealing the relational, embodied and imaginative materials from which they are constructed. The paper links shared experiencing like that found in reverie with simulative accounts of empathy, but does not claim this enables us to experience exactly what the other feels; rather, when approached sensitively, tentatively and with clients’ needs foremost, it can foster deep connection, enabling us, as it were, to enter others’ inner worlds – perhaps even their living rooms - and make ourselves at home there. Finally, practical ways to work empathically with reverie are suggested, which may interest therapists from a range of modalities, including humanistic approaches.

Elever med sociala och emotionella svårigheter beskrivs ibland som problematiska och svårhanterliga. Lärarens bemötande och inlevelseförmåga av eleven är av stor betydelse. Syftet med studien var att undersöka lärares empati i mötet med elever med utagerande beteende. Centralt har varit hur empatin yttras samt om lärares empati skiljer sig åt mellan elever med och utan diagnos. Utifrån att deltagarna fick läsa två olika fallbeskrivningar utfördes en skriftlig intervju med totalt 13 personer, varav nio kvinnor och fyra män. I fallbeskrivningarna redogjordes för två scenarier med elever i utsatta situationer. Kvalitativ innehållsanalys användes som forskningsmetod och därav baserades studien på tolkning av texter. Med en hermeneutisk ansats i studien fanns en strävan om att inta en så objektiv ställning som möjligt till texterna. Analysen resulterade i ett antal bemötanden som är vanliga hos lärare: (1) läraren visar varsamhet och hänsyn till eleven, (2) läraren känner ansvar, (3) läraren vill förstå eleven, (4) läraren skuldbelägger inte eleven, (5) läraren vill hjälpa eleven. Resultat pekar på stor empatisk förmåga hos lärarna inom dessa områden. Det var även vanligare att lärarna bemötte eleven med diagnos mer empatiskt än eleven utan diagnos. Resultaten kan vara till hjälp för lärare att öka sin medvetenhet kring empati.

Empatiträning i form av simuleringsövningar är en frekvent använd metod inom psykologin. Effekterna av den ger dock motstridiga resultat på ökningen av empatin. Den här undersökningen testade om flickor har högre empati än pojkar, om empati går att öka med övningar samt om det finns ett samband mellan välmående och empati. Övningarna inbegrep bland annat simulering av blind- och dövhet samt forumspel om mobbning. Deltagarna fick före och efter övningarna svara på en enkät som analyserades kvalitativt och kvantitativt. Deltagarna var 74 skolbarn, 11-13 år, och övningarna genomfördes av Svenska kyrkan. Resultatet visade ingen effekt av övningarna på empati. Flickorna hade högre empati än pojkarna. Det fanns ett positivt samband mellan välmående och empati. Författarna föreslår utbildning inom funktionsnedsättning som ett komplement till övningarna samt vidare forskning i barns, speciellt pojkars, välmående och trivsel relaterat till empati.

Accurately guessing the thoughts and feelings of another person, known as empathic accuracy, is thought to be a useful skill across many domains. However, the evidence supporting the value of empathic accuracy has been mixed, perhaps because the domains previously examined did not require accuracy for functionality. Negotiation may be one domain in which being accurate really matters for positive outcomes for the perceiver. Additionally, men and women may have different motivations to be accurate, including the presence of a competitive or cooperative situation. The primary research questions of this study are: 1) Is empathic accuracy related to outcomes in the negotiation?; 2) Is accuracy dependent on how the negotiation is framed?; and 3) Does how the negotiation is framed affect men’s and women’s empathic accuracy differently? Individual differences in personal power and Machiavellianism are also examined in relation to accuracy in this context. In this study, 336 participants interacted in same-sex dyads to negotiate over small items in either a competitive or cooperative context, resulting in a 2 (gender) x 2 (context) design. Accuracy was measured both as empathic accuracy for partner’s thoughts during the negotiation as well as accuracy for guessing their partner’s idiosyncratic item preferences (provided prior to the negotiation). Actor-Partner Interdependence models were used to estimate the contributions of each person in the dyad to the outcome of interest. Neither empathic accuracy nor accuracy for guessing item values led to any increases in personal gain in the negotiation. However, empathic accuracy was predictive of satisfaction with the outcome of the negotiation, such that more accurate actors and having more accurate partners both led to significantly increased satisfaction with the outcome. Contrary to the hypotheses, accuracy was not affected by gender or the framing of the negotiation or any interactions between the two variables. Individual differences in power and Machiavellianism did not lead to increases in perceiver empathic accuracy, but rather led to decreases in partner’s accuracy: actors that had partners who were high in power or high in Machiavellianism were less empathically accurate. The implications for negotiation research and future empathic accuracy research are discussed.

Empathy is a central concern in the counselling process. Though much researched, and broadly commented upon, empathy is still largely understood through the words within a client-counsellor interaction. This semantic focus continues despite converging lines of evidence that suggest other elements of an interaction – for example body language – may be involved in the communication of empathy. In this thesis, the foundations of empathy are examined, focusing on empathy’s professional instantiation. These foundations are then related to the idea that the face, and its ability to express emotion, are an important part of the empathic process. What follows is an experiment testing 60 participants. This was a between groups design, with participants assigned to two even groups; one group receiving training in how emotion appears on the face: using the training program eMETT; the other reading a passage on empathy. Following the intervention, hypothesised group differences were assessed using the following analyses. Firstly, an Independent sample T-test, compared group means on the Ickes Empathic Accuracy paradigm, the measure of empathy used. Secondly, a further Independent sample T-test assessed the effect of eMETT training. Thirdly, an ANCOVA, evaluated whether the obtained results may have been confounded by age difference between the experimental groups. Finally a correlational analyse tested for any relationship between baseline and outcome measures. The hypothesis tested stated: training in facial expressions of emotion will enhance counsellors’ empathic accuracy; a hypothesis for which positive evidence was shown. The implications of this evidence suggest efficacy of the eMETT training to enhance empathic accuracy, though this is qualified through critical examination of the experimental method. Suggestions for refinement of this method are discussed.

Empathic embarrassment is an emotional state that belongs to the self-conscious category of emotions. It is an uncomfortable condition where someone feels embarrassed over another person’s mishap or violation of social norms. It is prosocial in that one is motivated to help a person who expresses embarrassment. To experience it, one needs to be able to imagine how the other person is feeling and how one would feel if the situation happened to oneself. One is likelier to feel empathic embarrassment if one likes the person who is experiencing the mishap or if one has experienced the mishap oneself. This thesis investigates whether empathic embarrassment is a prosocial emotion and what neural basis empathic embarrassment has. The results show that empathic embarrassment is perceived as a prosocial emotion, while the areas that are the most involved are the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and medial prefrontal cortex.

Previous research suggests that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can greatly impact a child’s physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing later in life. ACE exposure has been associated with lower levels of empathy in the literature. Spirituality is often associated with a number of positive outcomes, including those associated with empathy, like prosocial behaviors. The present study examines spirituality as a buffer against reduced empathy in those with exposure to adverse events in childhood. Participants for this study were recruited through the SONA research platform at East Tennessee State University as part of a larger research project, the REACH (Religions, Emotions, and Current Health) study. Results of this study did not support the working hypotheses that we would find a negative correlation between ACEs and empathy, as well as a moderation relationship via spirituality between ACEs and empathy. However, we did find that empathy was positively associated with spirituality, and ACEs were negatively associated with spirituality. Future research should dig deeper into the relationship between ACEs and empathy, as well as search for other possible protective factors for the effects of ACEs.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / It is the hypothesis of this dissertation that interpersonal empathetic ability and aesthetic empathic ability constitute one factor or ability. A secondary purpose of the dissertation is to explore and evaluate all possible methods of measuring empathic ability, and to develop a good pencil and paper test of empathic ability. "Empathy" is understood here as "pathic perception" -- the perception or cognition of feeling emotion. The methodology of the dissertation involves a theoretical review and synthesis, and an experiment. A review of the literature reveals four basic types of empathy theories: (1) self-theories; (2) associationist theories; (3) Gestalt theories; (4) motor theories. Though the theorists representing these four positions argue among themselves as to how the process of empathy operates, almost without exception they agree that it operates in the same manner in the perception of persons as it does in the perception of objects of art. The weight of theoretical opinion is overwhelming on this point. Inerpersonal empathy and aesthetic empathy are held by all of the major empathy theorists to be one and the same process [TRUNCATED]

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