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Scoop.it!
Life is like a mirror. Smile at it and it smiles back at you. 
lisa's comment March 14, 2012 6:31 PM
Fab, love it will email around
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Isaiah Berlin argued that genuine intellectual empathy requires creativity and commitment -- a commitment and a willingness to imagine others’ ideas from within, even if you disagree.
This capacity for intellectual empathy is essential to those who wish to live generously and with integrity in a pluralistic society. Perhaps it is even more essential today than in times past, given the social and cultural forces that presently foster division and encourage peremptory dismissal of opposing views -- not to mention our enhanced capacities to destroy one another.
Practicing intellectual empathy is a kind of spiritual discipline, because it necessitates that we put aside our belief that the lens through which we view the world is the only right one (see Rom 12:3).
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This study investigated the relations between altruism, empathy, and spirituality in a sample of 186 university students. Zero-order and partial correlations controlling for age, sex, and social desirability indicated that, although altruism and empathy are related to each other in a manner consistent with previous research, the association of both of these to spirituality is complex and multidirectional.
In particular, empathy was found to be significantly positively related to nonreligious spiritual cognitions, religiousness, and spiritual experiences and negatively associated with existential well-being. Altruism, on the other hand, was most strongly linked to spiritual experiences, followed by spiritual cognitions. Regression analyses revealed that nonreligious spiritual cognitions and spiritual experiences are the most potent predictors of both empathy and altruism, respectively.
img http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:History_of_science/Picture/36
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does that mean psychopaths will not contagiously yawn like the rest of us??
I believe the answer is no (i.e., psychopaths will demonstrate contagious yawning). It's important to note that we can't answer this with certainty as a direct study of this hasn't been done, but let me walk you through some logic based on the available scientific knowledge of psychopathy.
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Designed primarily for the classroom and initially used to train professional counselors, the practical exercises for acquiring empathy skills contained in this book can be used for the benefit of students, couples, families, and people in counseling and in the workplace. Why teach and learn empathy?
The ability to have empathy for others is important as a foundation for caring and compassion and contributes to positive relationships in all areas of life, from the classroom to the living room and the boardroom. Empathy builds a sense of community and reduces the tendency to discriminate against or exclude others.
A person who is insensitive, abusive, or who bullies others can benefit from an awareness of the emotions of those who are being hurt. Children, youth, and adults will be positively impacted by learning empathy with the ten practical exercises clearly described in this book. As empathy skills are acquired by increasing numbers of individuals, beginning with the youngest, relationships and communities can become more caring as a result.
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From
www
Dogs, cats birds, fish and even horses are increasingly being used in settings ranging from hospitals and nursing homes to schools, jails and mental institutions. ....studies have been focusing on the fact that interacting with animals can increase people's level of the hormone oxytocin.
"That is very beneficial for us," says Johnson. "Oxytocin helps us feel happy and trusting." Which, Johnson says, may be one of the ways that humans bond with their animals over time.
... "Oxytocin has some powerful effects for us in the body's ability to be in a state of readiness to heal, and also to grow new cells, so it predisposes us to an environment in our own bodies where we can be healthier."
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It's no shock that showing empathy for your partner leads to a better relationship. What's a little more interesting, though, is that men and women seem to value different kinds of empathy: in a new study, women cared more about their partner understanding their negative emotions, whereas guys were more concerned with sharing happiness...
The good news is that empathy in general seems to be good for relationships, and that if guys do a good job understanding why their partner is upset, they'll be rewarded with a happier lady (which, the study implies, will make them happy).
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Men like to know when their wife or girlfriend is happy while women really want the man in their life to know when they are upset, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.
The study involved a diverse sample of couples and found that men's and women's perceptions of their significant other's empathy, and their abilities to tell when the other is happy or upset, are linked to relationship satisfaction in distinctive ways, according to the article published online in the Journal of Family Psychology.
ScienceDaily
Study Source
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"Women can be difficult to understand, some men say, but new empathy research indicates that to keep a woman happy, their partners just need to try to understand their emotions, not necessarily succeed at it...
(This ability to empathize, or understand another's emotions, has been shown in past research to boost relationship satisfaction.) ....
"When working with couples, it seems particularly important for therapists to help both partners, especially males, heighten the empathic connection around reading one another’s positive emotions,"
By Jennifer Welsh
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Having a partner who tries to understand them is more important to women in relationships than actual understanding.
Women can be difficult to understand, some men say, but new empathy research indicates that to keep a woman happy, their partners just need to try to understand their emotions, not necessarily succeed at it.
Men, on the other hand, just want to know whether their significant other is happy. If they notice that their partner is unhappy, and is possibly about to initiate a split, the thought decreases their relationship happiness. Women's happiness, however, is not dampened by a partner's dissatisfied emotions.
by Jennifer Welsh
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A collaboration by University of Chicago neuroscientists Inbal Bartal, Jean Decety, and Peggy Mason has produced groundbreaking findings on empathy and helping behavior.
Published in Science, the paper, entitled Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats, finds that rats repeatedly work to free their trapped cagemates, motivated by empathy for their distress.
see pdf file. http://ccsn.uchicago.edu/static/ccsn/newsletter/12/Page1-2.pdf
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I've thought for a while now that the concept of "empathy" most commonly used when talking about autism is excessively narrow.
Autistics --- especially Asperger's autistics --- are often said to lack empathy, which usually means two things: we can't infer a person's emotional state from their facial expression, body language, tone of voice or whatever other indirect cues they may be sending out, and we don't respond emotionally to other people's emotions, even when they are clear to us.
Here's Simon Baron-Cohen's definition of empathy, taken from the first chapter of his book The Essential Difference: Male and Female Brains and the Truth about Autism*:
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The “upper class,” as defined by the study, were more likely to break the law while driving, take candy from children, lie in negotiation, cheat to raise their odds of winning a prize and endorse unethical behavior at work, the research found. The solution, Piff said, is to find a way to increase empathy among wealthier people.
By Elizabeth Lopatto
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This is the 2012 Local to Global Justice teach in by Dr. Randall Amster, author of The Criminalization of Homelessness. 2-25-12
For transcripts and more see http://cultureofempathy.com/References/Experts/Others/Randall-Amster.htm Empathy is a radical concept. Sometimes the word radical is unnecessary, it's embedded in the notion. Empathy, as a working concept, if we actually put it into practice in our lives, would be among the most radical things we could do in this world.
Radical Empathy - A Starting Point
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John Fea, one of my former history professors, recently blogged about the concept of "intellectual empathy" and I would like to share some thoughts that he passed along from Michael Jinkins, president of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. I recommend reading Dr. Fea's original post here; additionally, you can see the entirety of Michael Jinkins' post here...
This capacity for intellectual empathy is essential to those who wish to live generously and with integrity in a pluralistic society. Perhaps it is even more essential today than in times past, given the social and cultural forces that presently foster division and encourage peremptory dismissal of opposing views -- not to mention our enhanced capacities to destroy one another.
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HumaneSpot.org is the world's most comprehensive resource for attitude and behavior research relating to animal and environmental protection issues.
This literature review examines past studies on empathy in animals. It discusses evidence for empathy in non-human primates, other mammals, and birds. The authors argue that researchers need to develop a more nuanced method of measuring empathy in non-human animals.
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“Can’t Buy Me Love” might be the headline of the Super Tuesday primaries: Mitt Romney prevails on electability, but in terms of a personal connection with voters’ concerns, it’s another matter.
Then consider Tennessee, otherwise a very different state, with, for example, far more evangelical and very conservative voters than Ohio – but a similar story on electability vs. empathy.
There’s a bit of a shift in these preliminary results from Florida, the only state where the empathy question was asked previously this year. There Romney did prevail on empathy, but by less of a margin than his vote total. Thirty-four percent picked him as best understanding average people’s problems, vs. 27 percent for Newt Gingrich – a 7-point gap in a state Romney won by 14.
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It has a fair claim to be the ugliest philosophy the postwar world has produced. Selfishness, it contends, is good, altruism evil, empathy and compassion are irrational and destructive. The poor deserve to die; the rich deserve unmediated power. It has already been tested, and has failed spectacularly and catastrophically. Yet the belief system constructed by Ayn Rand, who died 30 years ago today, has never been more popular or influential.
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Will the presidential election be decided by how compassionate voters feel this year? The publication last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of “Higher Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior” provided fresh fodder for the liberal critique of the Republican Party and the corporate ethic.
A third scholarly essay, “Power, Distress, and Compassion: Turning a Blind Eye to the Suffering of Others,” produced similarly striking findings. In a test measuring empathy, each participant was assigned to listen, face to face, from two feet away, to someone else describing real personal experiences of suffering and distress...
Republicans recognize the political usefulness of objectification, capitalizing on “compassion fatigue,” or the exhaustion of empathy, among large swathes of the electorate who are already stressed by the economic collapse of 2008, high levels of unemployment, an epidemic of foreclosures, stagnant wages and a hyper-competitive business arena.
By THOMAS B. EDSALL
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Women are empathetic creatures. We provide a shoulder to cry on and a listening ear. We experience other's pain so deep that we even sob along when fictional characters lose loved ones (that scene in Grey's Anatomy when Izzy loses Denny to heart disease is a killer)...
Diverse samples of couples were studied and it was discovered that men and women perceive empathy differently. Researchers used 156 heterosexual couples for the experiment. The study concluded that the more men and women try to be empathetic to their partner's feelings, the happier the couple is in their relationship. It doesn't necessarily mean that the partner has to be empathic. Faking it, this time, also works.
by Sujeiry Gonzalez
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When it comes to the tiffs (or the full-blown fights) that inevitably come up in relationships, it turns out that a woman doesn't need the man in her life to feel her pain. She just needs to think that he's trying to feel it...
For women, satisfaction in a relationship was most strongly associated with feeling that their partners' were making that effort -- no matter whether their partners actually understood them or not. “Women may place greater value on partners’ empathic effort, perhaps because this behavior emphasizes the desire and investment of their male partners to be attentive and emotionally attuned in the relationship,” the authors wrote in the study, which was published online by the Journal of Family Psychology.
For men, that effort mattered too, but a stronger indicator of their relationship satisfaction was whether they were able to identify when their partners were happy.
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Researchers sampled a diverse group of couples and found that men’s and women’s perceptions of their significant other’s empathy, and their abilities to tell when the other is happy or upset, are linked to relationship satisfaction...
“It could be that for women, seeing that their male partner is upset reflects some degree of the man’s investment and emotional engagement in the relationship, even during difficult times. This is consistent with what is known about the dissatisfaction women often experience when their male partner becomes emotionally withdrawn and disengaged in response to conflict,”..
Researchers believe the bottom line is that the more empathetic an individual can be to the other partner’s feelings, the happier the couple. Future research should encourage couples to better appreciate and communicate one another’s efforts to be empathetic.
By RICK NAUERT PHD
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Believing a partner is trying to empathize is more important to relationships than actual empathy, according to a study...
“Wow, honey. That sounds rough. I totally get how you feel.”
These are comforting words to a woman’s ear – even if they’re insincere, researchers have found. In fact, believing a partner is trying to empathize is more important to relationships than actual empathy, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association.
by ADRIANA BARTON
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Melike Fourie, Ph.D., an affiliate member of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, investigates empathy using crossdisciplinary methods as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Cape Town.
Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience 12:WINTER 2012
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Bloomberg's Elizabeth Lopatto reports that the "upper class," as defined by a research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were more likely to break the law while driving, lie in negotiation, and take candy from children. She spoke yesterday on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." (Source: Bloomberg)
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