About me

Vanligt förekommande komponenter i empatidefinitioner är bland annat känsla, förståelse och omsorg. Syftet med den här artikeln är att granska närvaron och frånvaron av dessa tre komponenter i nio inflytelserika empatiforskares empatidefinitioner. De nio är Rogers, Kohut, Hoffman, Eisenberg, Batson, Ickes, Davis, Decety och Singer. Granskningen visar att känsla finns med i åtta av definitionerna, förståelse i sju och omsorg i två. Det föreslås att framtida forskning bör försöka närma sig konsensus om en empatidefinition.

Two studies tested associations among self-efficacy and prosocial behavior. In Study 1 wemeasured academic self-efficacy, emotional self-efficacy and self-reported prosocial behavior.The study showed that academic but not emotional self-efficacy was positively correlated withprosocial behavior. Study 1 included only self-oriented emotions, and the absence of empathicemotions may explain the lack of association between emotional self-efficacy and prosocialbehavior. In Study 2 we included empathic as well as self-oriented emotions, because previousresearch (C. D. Batson, 1991) has shown that empathic emotions generate altruistic helping. Asexpected, empathic self-efficacy had a positive association with prosocial behavior. Empathicself-efficacy appears to be an important, largely overlooked antecedent to prosocial behavior.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify connections between empathy and social care and to describe aspects of empathy in social care work, by bringing together research from different fields.

Design/methodology/approach – Five doctoral theses which discussed empathy among care workers of older people in Sweden were analysed as a group. The theses had been published over the period 1996 to 2007. Methodologically, the examination underpinned an interpretive content analysis.

Findings – The meta-analysis revealed conflicting feelings among care workers. Most experienced frustration when they were not able to express empathy in their working practices. Empathy was typically hindered by lack of time, care workers' own needs, and inflexible home care systems. However, a key element of the job-satisfaction reported by care workers appeared to be its empathic nature. Most care workers perceive encounters with older people as opportunities to respond empathically rather than indifferently. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Originality/value – The study is an overview that attempts to build a bridge across the two concepts, social care and empathy. The main strength of this analysis is its originality of approach undertaking a specific literature review and reflecting on a subject that has not previously been explored in the Swedish context.

To explore how people experience grief and what factors are perceived as facilitating successful grief work, a survey was distributed to people who had completed a grief recovery course. The results showed that emotions, cognitions, physical expressions, and behaviors all characterize grief, but that emotions are the most central component. The course brought relief and was regarded most favorably by those having at least 1 year between the grief trigger event and participation in the course. Writing a letter in whichcourse participants express their feelings to the loss object was perceived as the most successful aspect of the course. The letter might help with grief recovery by bringing aspects that have not been dealt with into conscious awareness.

Although a number of theoretical frameworks have been developed in previous empathy research, the extent to which these frameworks consider cultural and ethnic aspects is limited. This literature study reviews the most influential frameworks of general and ethnocultural empathy. The core components of ethnocultural empathy are identified as well as factors facilitating empathy for persons from other cultures. Most notably, the realization that people in other cultures have similar worries and goals should facilitate ethnocultural empathy, in both informal and professional contexts. This analysis can provide useful insights and tools for practitioners working with patients and clients from cultures other than their own. © 2011 Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology.

To explore how people experience grief and what factors are perceived as facilitating successful grief work, a survey was distributed to people who had completed a grief recovery course. The results showed that emotions, cognitions, physical expressions, and behaviors all characterize grief, but that emotions are the most central component. The course brought relief and was regarded most favorably by those having at least 1 year between the grief trigger event and participation in the course. Writing a letter in which course participants express their feelings to the loss object was perceived as the most successful aspect of the course. The letter might help with grief recovery by bringing aspects that have not been dealt with into conscious awareness.

Although a number of theoretical frameworks have been developed in previous empathyresearch, the extent to which these frameworks consider cultural and ethnic aspects islimited. This literature study reviews the most influential frameworks of general andethnocultural empathy. The core components of ethnocultural empathy are identified aswell as factors facilitating empathy for persons from other cultures. Most notably, therealization that people in other cultures have similar worries and goals should facilitateethnocultural empathy, in both informal and professional contexts. This analysis canprovide useful insights and tools for practitioners working with patients and clients fromcultures other than their own.

This thesis presents three studies on empathy based on qualitative and quantitative data. In Study 1, narrative accounts of empathy situations were collected to identify constituents that exist in both empathizers' and targets' experiences of empathy. From both perspectives, the constituents of empathy included the empathizer understanding the target, the target experiencing emotion, the empathizer perceiving a similarity with something the empathizer has experienced earlier, and the empathizer being concerned for the target's well-being. Study 2 consisted of experiments exploring the role of a person's actions in how empathetic the person is perceived as being. In the experiments participants read different versions of a story. The results suggested that action is crucial in the experience of empathy from both empathizers' and targets perspectives', as well as from the perspective of an unspecified observer. Study 3 explored in experiments how empathy is related to viewing another individual as a subject/object. The results revealed that subject view and perceived difficulty of the situation together explain a considerable part of differences in empathy.

Two experiments examined the role of valuing the welfare of a person in need as an antecedent of empathic concern. Specifically, these experiments explored the relation of such valuing to a well-known antecedent--perspective taking. In Experiment 1, both perspective taking and valuing were manipulated, and each independently increased empathic concern, which, in turn, increased helping behavior. In Experiment 2, only valuing was manipulated. Manipulated valuing increased measured perspective taking and, in part as a result, increased empathic concern, which, in turn, increased helping. Valuing appears to be an important, largely overlooked, situational antecedent of feeling empathy for a person in need.

Filosofen Edith Stein (1891-1942) definierade empati som ”upplevelsen av främmande medvetande överhuvudtaget”. Vad kännetecknar en sådan empatisk upplevelse? I den här artikeln analyseras empati med utgångspunkt i Edith Steins definition. Efter att ha granskat Edith Steins definition av empati försöker jag att komplettera och precisera denna: Först modifieras Steins definition ”upplevelsen av främmande medvetande överhuvudtaget” till ”upplevelsen av främmande upplevelse”. Genom att sedan analysera begreppet upplevelse vidare, bortom vad Stein själv gjorde, föreslås att empati innebär att förstå och bry sig om vad någon annan förstår och bryr sig om. Vidare argumenteras för att minne (inlevelse med sitt eget förflutna) och förväntning (inlevelse med sin egen framtid) är processer som också innebär att uppleva främmande upplevelser och därmed också kan beskrivas som empati.

Avslutningsvis föreslås att empati spelar en central roll inom etiken.

Empathy and viewing another person as a subject rather than an object are often associated in theoretical contexts, but empirical research of the relation is scarce. The purpose of the present research was to investigate the relationship between subject/object view and empathy. In Study 1, participants watched film clips and indicated their empathy for specific characters in the clips, as well as the extent to which they saw these persons as subjects and objects. The subject/object view explained some, but not all, of the differences in empathy, which raised the question of what else accounts for differences in empathy. A second study was conducted to investigate whether the difficulty of the other's situation also contributes. In Study 2, another group watched the film clips and rated the difficulty of the film character's situations in addition to empathy and subject/object view. The results of Study 2 revealed that subject view/object and perceived difficulty together explain a substantial part of differences in empathy. It was concluded that empathy is evoked primarily when a person in difficulty is viewed as a subject.

Although empathy is the phenomenon that connects otherwise isolated individuals, knowledge concerning the nature of this phenomenon is still scarce. This thesis presents three studies on empathy based on qualitative and quantitative data. In Study 1, narrative accounts of empathy situations were collected to identify constituents that exist in both empathizers’ and targets’ experiences of empathy. From both perspectives, the constituents of empathy included the empathizer understanding the target, the target experiencing one or more emotions, the empathizer perceiving a similarity between what the target is experiencing and something the empathizer has experienced earlier, and the empathizer being concerned for the target’s well-being. Similarity of experience occurs at different levels of abstraction. Study 2 consisted of three experiments exploring the role of a person’s actions in how empathetic the person is perceived as being. In the experiments participants read different versions of an empathy story. The results suggested that action is crucial in the experience of empathy from both empathizer’s and target’s perspectives, as well as from the perspective of an unspecified observer. Study 3 explored in two experiments how empathy is related to viewing another individual as a subject/object. The results revealed that subject view and perceived difficulty of the person’s situation together explain a considerable part of differences in empathy. The empirical findings are discussed in a broader context of altruism, morality, similarity of experience, and foreign experience.

The purpose of this study was to find the constituents of empathizers' and targets' experiences of empathy. We analyzed 28 empathizers' and 28 targets' narrative accounts of situations when they had experienced empathy. From both perspectives, the constituents of empathy included that (1) the empathizer understands the target's situation and emotions, (2) the target experiences one or more emotions, (3) the empathizer perceives a similarity between what the target is experiencing and something the empathizer has experienced previously, and (4) the empathizer is concerned for the target's well-being. The data suggested that actions associated with the fourth constituent - concern - make empathy an interpersonal phenomenon.

Three experiments explored the role of a person's actions on how empathetic the person is perceived to be from the perspective of an unspecified observer (Study 1) and from the empathizer's and the target's perspectives (Studies 2 and 3). In each experiment, undergraduates read different versions of a story about a boss who fires an employee and afterwards rated the boss' empathy. The results of the three experiments suggested that action is crucial in the experience of empathy from both empathizer's and target's perspectives (Studies 2 and 3), as well as from the perspective of an unspecified observer (Study 1). It is concluded that the convergence between the empathizer and the target on the importance of action in empathy can be understood in terms of empathy being an interpersonal phenomenon.