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Reflections on empathy
Importance of empathy in society
Reflections on empathy
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REASON ESSAY ON EMPATHY If people showed empathy towards others, then the world would be a better place in which to live. Empathy is the ability to identify with and understand the experiences, thoughts, or feelings of another person or animal. Despite empathy having a complex definition which may be difficult to understand, it is still regularly shown throughout the world. Showing empathy can help the world become a better place for many reasons. It is good to show empathy to get along better with others. An example of showing empathy was when my friend, Eddie, got cut from the basketball team (from the first cut). When he told my other friends and I, he was immediately laughed at. He was so confident that he was going to make …show more content…
A nice example of this was when my friend, Jason, did an all-nighter after letting his homework pile up. He was complaining about how tired he was and that he got almost no sleep. I’ve stayed up late doing homework and knew just how he felt, so I thought about how tired I was after just staying up a little later than normal to do homework, and I thought about how my friend was too tired to do anything that day. Staying up all night was a mistake and Jason has to “pay” the consequences. I learned that doing all-nighters are always a bad idea. Despite the amount of work produced, the quality of it is usually very bad. I talked to Jason about this, and he agreed with me. Through this experience that my friend had, we both learned a lesson. Showing empathy can reveal different perspectives on different situations leading to lessons being learned. In conclusion if people showed empathy towards others, then the world would be a better place in which to live. Showing empathy towards others may not seem like something much, but it makes a big difference to get along better with others, prevent misunderstandings which can lead to fighting, and learn from other people’s
According to Arianna Huffington in the article “Empathy: What We Need Now”, during hardships and instability of society, empathy is needed to find solutions to those issues. Huffington writes about how empathy is needed in our country in order to produce a positive social change. She begins by giving an example of a movement that Martin Luther King created and how empathy was a part of this movement. King as well spoke of how empathy is the sign of living. To become involved in the situations of humanity in order to improve it, displays that empathy is the core of a human’s existence. After reading this article, I do agree with Huffington about how individuals need to fully understand and put themselves within the situation to fully comprehend the issue to solve.
Empathy is used to create change in the world by reaching out to the emotions of people and attending to them. It is used to help others learn and decide on matters that would not be reasonable without feelings attached to them. Empathy helps bring together communities that would have long ago drifted apart, but instead welcomed all who were different. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. This attribute of human-beings really allows us to not only attend to situations as if they were our own, but it allows us to feel most of what others feel because humans are very much alike in some ways. In many of the articles and novels that we have read this quarter, characters from different pieces of context have portrayed empathy whether it was toward
Burton defines empathy as the ability to not only recognize but also to share another person’s or a fictional character’s or a sentient beings’ emotions. It involves seeing a person’s situation from his or her own perspective and then sharing his or her emotions and distress (1). Chismar posits that to empathize is basically to respond to another person’ perceived state of emotion by experiencing similar feelings. Empathy, therefore, implies sharing another person’s feeling without necessary showing any affection or desire to help. For one to empathize, he or she must at least care for, be interested in or concerned about
Empathy is imperative to teach kids from a young age in order to help them recognize mental states, such as thoughts and emotions, in themselves and others. Vital lessons, such as walking in another’s shoes or looking at a situation in their perspective, apprehends the significance of the feelings of another. Our point of view must continuously be altered, recognizing the emotions and background of the individual. We must not focus all of our attention on our self-interest. In the excerpt, Empathy, written by Stephen Dunn, we analyze the process of determining the sentiment of someone.
Empathy is one of the great mysteries of life. Why do people feel empathy? Do others deserve empathy? Is feeling empathy a strength or weakness? These questions may forever go unanswered, or they may not even have an answer. Even if they are answered, they may only be speculation. One author shows his take on the matter with one of his books. In The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien uses Gollum and Thorin to show that people do deserve empathy, no matter how horrible they may be.
Empathy, is a self-conscious characteristic human beings hold that allows them to understand another individual’s situation and feelings (Segal, Cimino, Gerdes &Wagaman, 2013). In regard to ho...
Ruch & Julkunen (2016) further define empathy is attempting to put ourselves in another person’s place to understand their sentiment. This gives us the ability to perceive the service users views and feelings. According to David Howe (2013) if there is no empathy this can this can make it difficult for the conversation to flow consequently the service users’ needs could be overlooked this would make it difficult to sense the service user’s emotions. However Tsang (2016) disputes that empathy can constrain the ability to understand a person or their sentiment due to language, or ethnic differences. These can be barriers making it difficult to understand the person and the empathy can be
Empathy is a complicated - but significant - trait in society. This characteristic binds people together, resonates within souls, and strengthens bonds. The ability to personally identify with and share others’ emotions, it can make the world a better place in various ways. Shown in the 1960s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, this is an important topic and theme that continues throughout its entirety. It is in her hometown of Maycomb that Scout, the protagonist, faces many biases, slightly atypical neighbors, and unexpected events, and her personality changes preferably. One important character is Boo Radley, believed to be violent and psychopathic, and rumored that he murders, has stabbed his parents, and conducts similar malicious crimes. Scout’s gradual expansion of empathy through her experiences and interactions within Maycomb reveals its importance in understanding people, ultimately suggesting that this
Emotional empathy is necessary in developing a relationship. Emotional empathy is sharing similar feelings with another person. In the Human Relationship Encyclopedia it mentions that “empathy is a psychological phenomenon that at least temporarily unites the separate social entities of self and other” (Reis et al. 515). Emotional empathy can be seen as if the feelings of another were contagious. It is the idea of developing and being able to express similar sensitivity. Emotional empathy makes a person more aware of the emotions that another person have experienced. In the Human Relationship Encyclopedia it states that “Another important way in which empathy influences social relationships is evident when someone acts in a way that is hurtful to the partner.” (Reis et al. 518) A person is able to perceive the emotions that belong to a different person and act in response. These actions may be a sense of compassion or feeling the need to assist. Emotional empathy individually does not complete the communication involved in a relationship.
Empathy is the ‘capacity’ to share and understand another person’s ‘state of mind’ or their emotion. It is an experience of the outlook on emotions of another person being within themselves (Ioannides & Konstantikaki, 2008). There are two different types of empathy: affective empathy and cognitive empathy. Affective empathy is the capacity in which a person can respond to another person’s emotional state using the right type of emotion. On the other hand, cognitive empathy is a person’s capacity to understand what someone else is feeling. (Rogers, Dziobek, Hassenstab, Wolf & Convit, 2006). This essay will look at explaining how biology and individual differences help us to understand empathy as a complex, multi-dimensional trait.
Misusing the empathy into sympathy will not help become an effective service leadership as it cannot find the exact needs of the others. Some people may use sympathy as empathy as they do not truly understand the meaning of empathy and sympathy. The difference between empathy and sympathy is that, empathy is a process to input effort to attempt to “comprehend another’s experience”, while sympathy is a “direct perceptual awareness of another person’s experience” (Decety & Chaminade, 2003, p.127). For personal experience, one time, a friend felt hungry, the possible solution was suggested to buy a food to eat, however, the problem that lead to hunger was lack of money. In this case, the need is not the food but money. Sympathy can only see other’s situation or circumstance apparently, but cannot feel what exactly the person needs and recognize the difficulties of the situation. As a result, a satisfying support of care may not be provided as a low level of empathy is adopted, which is
When someone is empathetic, it means they can relate or understand someone. This could be someone’s feelings, actions, or even situations. Empathy however should not be confused with sympathy. Many patients might not like feeling pitied, and it could lead into problems between the care giver and the patient.
Careers, school, work, activities, and spending time with friends are only some of the reasons why people are becoming inconspicuous and are unable to show compassion towards the problems and feelings of other people. Having compassion and sharing the feelings and problems of another is called empathy. Displaying empathy towards another person’s stress and worries is an extremely important concept that more people should know about because it will help both themselves and the other individual. Not only does it help them, but it helps shape society. Even adolescent students
“Empathy is the ability to understand and accept another person’s reality, accurately perceive feelings… (Potter, 2013).” When my patient stated that both of his grandmothers had dementia which in turn means his parents and his self also have a chance of getting dementia; I used empathy by stating “It must be hard to know what might be ahead.” Because I was able to see the situation from the patient view it helped the patient to open up more about his fears. By knowing the patient’s fears, it will benefit the care team if the patient were to be diagnosed with
Empathy also assists me to be helpful to my workmates. If I put their feelings at heart, I will manage to assist them when need be. They could have problems not only at the work place but also in their social life. This may be a hindrance to their productivity at work. In this case I can step in on their behalf. By being helpful to my patien...