ipl-logo

Essay On Empathy

841 Words4 Pages

EMPATHY: A significant Pro-social behavior

By-
Shohinee Deb

In the human world of reality when most people are rushing by driven with self-centered motives of ambition, financial gains, independence, it is surprising and of course very rare to observe a stranger helping out another complete stranger in need of assistance. A more common scene is that of pluralistic ignorance i.e. of an observer/ bystander in an emergency situation, involving someone in need of assistance, to rely on the reactions of other observers present, even though none of them is sure about how to react. More often than not, all the observers hold back and behave as if the problematic situation does not exist. Thus, it is interesting to observe behaviors in …show more content…

(2003) empathy can be conceptually divided into affective & cognitive response to another person’s emotional state and includes “sympathy, a desire to solve the problem of other, & taking the perspective of the other person.” An empathetic person feels what another person is feeling & understands why that person feels as he/she does. (Azar, 1997; Darley 1993; Duan, 2000).

The cognitive component of empathy includes the ability to consider the viewpoint of another person, referred to as ‘perspective taking’. Batson, Erly & Salvarini(1997) have identified 3 different types of perspective taking :- • A person can imagine how the other person perceives an event & how he/she must feel as a result –taking the ‘imagine other’ perspective. Those who take this perspective experience relatively pure empathy.
• A person may imagine how he himself would feel, taking the ‘imagine self’ perspective. People who think like this also feel empathy, but tend to be motivated by self interest.
• This perspective taking involves identifying with fictional characters- feeling empathy for someone/ some creature in a story. In this phenomenon, there is an emotional reaction to joys, sorrows, fears of character in a book, movie or a TV programme.
(Baron A.R, Byrne D., Nyla R.B. (2008) Social Psychology, 11th

Show More
Related
762 Words | 4 Pages

By being exposed to different types of literature, I have observed they often use empathy to place the readers in each character’s shoes. By doing so, the reader will be able to understand the perspective of each character, as authors want you to. Though their perspectives are different, it is the similarities and comparisons between such that allow the readers to have a better understanding. Often these themes will show a conflict and a resolution; such as a character tolerating the judgement of society, to a resolution where the character accepts that they do not need to pay any heed to the

Read More
468 Words | 2 Pages

Empathy is the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. In English class this year, we’ve learned about the Holocaust and how the Jews were affected. Reading the book Night, by Elie Wiesel showed us a close up to lives of the Jews and more specifically his life. We talked about the bystander effect and not doing something is the worst thing you can do. An example could be the story we read on Kitty Genovese, who was killed while like almost thirty watched.

Read More
642 Words | 3 Pages

Empathy towards others grows relationships, as Reuven

Read More
634 Words | 3 Pages

Taking the example of Reserve Police Battalion 101 as example, even those who refused to commit murder were still crucial enablers of the holocaust. Without them provided their indifference the game could not have continued. Not only did the bystanders allow for the game to continue smoothly they actually add to its efficiency, waller tells us as humans we look for social cues in one another to distinguish what is appropriate. This phenomenon is the root of the bystander effect. Bystanders provide these social cues and attribute to the concept of the path of least resistance mentioned by Johnson.

Read More
754 Words | 4 Pages

Empathy-the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Empathy is showed in To Kill a Mockingbird many times. One example of empathy is shown when Mrs. Maudie is telling the kids not to bother Boo Radley. Another example of empathy is when Atticus is being really nice to Mrs. Dubose. A third example of empathy in the story is when Atticus defends Tom Robinson in the case.

Read More
574 Words | 3 Pages

There is a Native American quote that says “Don’t judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes.” This quote shows a great example of empathy. Put yourself in their place and see how it feels, you don’t have to agree with, but you should understand them before you make judgements. That is empathy in a nutshell. In In To Kill a Mockingbird Empathy is an essential in the narrator Scout’s growing up or coming of age. There are countless amounts of empathy, which enforces how important empathy is.

Read More
584 Words | 3 Pages

It is what makes people want to live another day. Empathizing with another person may be challenging, but it will make a tremendous difference in the end. Empathizing with someone else makes their life easier and helps them to feel better about their situation. Empathy is essential, helps us to learn to not be judgmental, and makes the world

Read More
1112 Words | 5 Pages

Empathy, a most basic human quality, but how many can define it. Empathy according to the Oxford Canadian dictionary empathy is the power of identifying oneself mentally with (and so fully comprehending) a person or object of contemplation, but what does this mean? In simpler terms empathy is the ability to share the thoughts and feelings of another being or object. If that's the definition where can we find examples of this trait that has long been forgotten by society? In Harper Lee’s award winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird, a tale about friendship, loyalty, loss, and perhaps most importantly a story about empathy.

Read More
416 Words | 2 Pages

Empathy is understanding one’s feelings and problems. The word empathy is utilized to share what they feel. Empathy gives us a way to understand people and the ability to relate to the person. It is a vital factor that can thus create a new connection. The word empathy has a deep meaning and uses the topic of understanding to connect to one another.

Read More
519 Words | 3 Pages

A part of understanding their situation is realizing that they may have faced some pretty big barriers. Preparatory empathy is when “you put yourself in the place of your client and realize how

Read More
3502 Words | 15 Pages

When you are being empathic, you are focusing on the other person from their own perspective, not your perspective. This enables you to be more compassionate. Empathy helps you focus on the ways you are similar to others instead of fixating on differences. This makes it easier to form more positive judgments and let go of the negative ones” (Bradly). Learning to feel empathy will help others form different connections with others, it also can provide more opportunity to obtain an open

Read More
1263 Words | 6 Pages

For example, when a bystander witnesses a child being abused or an old man being pushed and does not offer any means of help when the situation involves other people around, we can form a strong argument that the bystander has a lack of stability and personal security, which are the basic elements for passing the ‘safety and security needs’ tier; therefore, it can be said that according to Maslow’s (1943) theory ,the bystanders have a human strive for safety and security due to the fact that they do not have the basic required traits to pass this stage properly in the pyramidic

Read More
470 Words | 2 Pages

The world needs more empathy. Empathy is not really shown around us. What the word “empathy” means is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. S.E. Hinton created empathy by showing two sides of the story in The Outsiders, and Eugenia W. Collier created empathy throughout life events in ‘’Marigolds.’’

Read More
1581 Words | 7 Pages

Whereas in a crowd, there are many people who have the potential to help but don’t because, they believe someone else in the crowd will (Feist and Rosenberg, 2015). There is also the fact that people are getting misinterpretations based on the acts of others. If no one is doing anything, then there maybe is no emergency. This is an example of informative social influence (Feist and Rosenberg, 2015). Another factor of the bystander effect can be the cost-benefit analysis.

Read More
2239 Words | 9 Pages

Characteristics of Effective Helper In 1952, Eysenck examined 24 uncontrolled studies that looked at the effectiveness of counseling and Psychotherapy and found that “roughly two-thirds of a group of neurotic patients will recover or improve to a marked extent within about two years of the onset of their illness, whether they are treated by means of psychotherapy or not [Italics added]”. Although found to have serious methodological flaws, Eysenck’s research did lead to debate concerning the effectiveness of counseling and resulted in hundreds of studies that came to some very different conclusions: It is a safe conclusion that as a general class of healing practices, psychotherapy is remarkably effective.

Read More

More about Essay On Empathy

Related Topics

Open Document