How is empathy defined?
Since empathy involves understanding the emotional states of other people, the way it is characterized is derived from the way emotions themselves are characterized.
What is empathy according to Martin Hoffman?
Within the psychological literature, one of the most comprehensive accounts of empathy and its relation to the moral development of a person is provided by the work of Martin Hoffman (for a summary see his 2000). Hoffman views empathy as a biologically based disposition for altruistic behavior (Hoffman 1981).
What is the meaning of empathic distress?
Empathic distress is feeling the perceived pain of another person. This feeling can be transformed into empathic anger, feelings of injustice, or guilt. These emotions can be perceived as pro-social; however, views differ as to whether they serve as motives for moral behavior.
What is empathy according to Stotland?
Stotland, one of the earliest researcher who understood empathy exclusively as an emotional phenomenon, defined it as “an observer’s reacting emotionally because he perceives that another is experiencing or is about to experience an emotion” (1969, 272).
Is empathy balanced between affective and cognitive empathy?
However, even in people without conditions such as these, the balance between affective and cognitive empathy varies.
What is somatic empathy?
Somatic empathy is a physical reaction, probably based on mirror neuron responses, in the somatic nervous system. Studies in animal behavior and neuroscience indicate that empathy is not restricted to humans.
What is empathy-based ethics and why is it important?
His empathy-based system has been taken up by some Buddhists, and is used to address some practical problems, such as when to tell lies, and how to develop culturally-neutral rules for romance . In the 2007 book The Ethics of Care and Empathy, philosopher Michael Slote introduces a theory of care-based ethics that is grounded in empathy.
What is the functional anatomy of empathy?
For instance, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been employed to investigate the functional anatomy of empathy. These studies have shown that observing another person’s emotional state activates parts of the neuronal network involved in processing that same state in oneself, whether it is disgust, touch, or pain.