Empathy And Personal Characteristics: The Definition Of Personality

Introduction The definition of personality deals with certain pattens of behavior, thoughts, and feelings. These patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings stem from combinations of various traits. In order to understand a full personality, then each trait must be examined. One trait that can be examined further is empathy. It is important to know what empathy is, it’s origins, dynamics, correlates, manifestations, advantages, and disadvantages, in order to examine its development, and apply it to my own life. The answers to these questions also allows a deeper study of one personality trait that contributes to a full personality. Knowing the individual traits of a person allows the whole personality o be better evaluated.
Definition of Empathy

It is commonly thought of as the ability to understand another person’s feelings, or put yourself in their shoes. Rodgers’ defines empathy as, “The state of empathy, or being empathic, is to perceive the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy and with the emotional components and meanings which pertain thereto as if one were the person, but without ever losing the 'as if’ condition. Thus it means to sense the hurt or the pleasure of another as he senses it and to perceive the causes thereof as he perceives them, but without ever losing the recognition that it is as if I were hurt or pleased and so forth. It this 'as if ' quality is lost, then the state is one of identification”(Rodgers, 1959). The “as if” quality here is the experience of understanding the condition of someone else. Rodgers is saying that, an experience has to be felt by the empathizer, or else the situation is just identifying the person’s condition(Rodgers,