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Even though people believe empathy is important and refer to it constantly, “empathy” is a word with many meanings—so many that some researchers wonder if we should continue using it...
As you can see, empathy has been given many meanings. However, calling so many different ways of feeling and thinking and acting by the same term is a problem. Not only do we not know how to measure “it,” but we also can’t be sure we are even referring to the same thing.
Judith A. Hall &Rachel Schwartz
21 May 2018
The empathy concept has central significance for social and personality psychology and in many other domains, including neuroscience, clinical/abnormal psychology, and the health professions. However, the current diversity in conceptual and operational definitions, and the promiscuous use of the term “empathy,” threaten the ability of researchers to advance the field. The present article provides a quantitative review and conceptual analysis of empathy definitions and usages by examining 393 studies published between 2001 and 2013, and 96 studies published in 2017.
Hall, J. A., & Schwartz, R. (2019). Empathy present and future. Journal of Social Psychology, 159, 225-243.
WHAT IS EMPATHY? YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW
Aug 28, 2020
by Judith A. Hall, Fred Duong, and Rachel Schwartz
Just in case you don’t remember the anecdote about the blind men and the elephant: Several blind men touch the elephant but on different parts of its body, and each thinks they are touching a completely different object. The man touching the leg thinks it’s a tree, the one touching its side thinks it’s a wall, and so on.
What does this have to do with empathy? In our version, the parable is reversed: the blind men are all touching different things, yet they all proclaim, “It’s an elephant!”
Hall, J. A., & Schwartz, R. (2019). Empathy present and future. Journal of Social Psychology, 159, 225-243.
Hall, J. A., Schwartz, R., & Duong, F. (2020). How do laypeople define empathy? Journal of Social Psychology. Advance online publication.
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