One of the most important things to remember about empathy is that anyone can be empathetic. Empathy is not limited to a few types of people. Empathy is something that can be used by everyone in any situation. For some people, it is hard to be empathetic towards other people if they do not even know what empathy really means. The definition of empathy is “the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling,” according to the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkley. One major component of being empathetic is the ability to understand what the other person is dealing with at the time. It is impossible to be able to empathize with someone if you have never felt what they have felt. If not then it is sympathy instead of empathy.
For a person to be truly empathetic there are four qualities to take into consideration according to Brené Brown’s video about empathy. The four qualities are perspective taking, staying out of judgment, recognizing emotion in people, and communicating that. Understanding a situation is different than just hearing what they are saying. Perspective-taking is putting yourself into their shoes and understanding it from their point of view. Although you might be listening to their story, hearing it and thinking about more than just the story and thinking about how they feel is how you empathize. Next is to stay out of judgment. This step is difficult because sub-consciously most people judge other people. But you can concentrate for a small period of time and make sure that you do not judge the other person for their story that they are telling you. After you hear what they have to say and avoid judging them, you have to recognize the emotion that they are conveying to you. The emotion is a vital component because that is one of the main reasons why they are telling you the story. And lastly, you must communicate the emotion that they are trying to show you and you must communicate it back to them and also communicate your own emotion to them.
Although aspects of empathy seem to be just being nice, being empathetic is more than just being nice. As I said in the last paragraph, empathy is putting yourself into someone else’s shoes and understanding their problems. According to an article by Michael Ventura he talks about what empathy is not. Although the things he says do help with empathy, they are not what makes someone empathetic. He says being generous, courteous, having good manners, and a pleasant tone of voice are not what make you empathetic. What makes you truly empathetic is combining all of those things with the four qualities that Brown talked about earlier.
According to the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkley, there are many reasons why we should be empathetic. When looking at the list of reasons it includes things such as the fact that empathy is contagious. When groups of people encourage empathy with each other those people are more likely to be empathetic towards other people in other situations. Along with the contagiousness being empathetic is good for office morale. Managers who are more empathetic towards their employees have reported that there has been less time called in sick and overall office happiness is improved. Lastly, empathy is beneficial for personal health care. A study stated that empathetic doctors have reported that their patients enjoy better health. Along with the patients, the doctors themselves have reported that their own emotional well-being has improved as well.
Empathy itself is also not just one individual thing, but actually, there are two different types of empathy. There is cognitive empathy and there is affective empathy. Cognitive empathy is being able to understand other people’s emotions. In other words, it is perspective taking and putting it someone else’s perspective. Affective empathy is in response to emotions. It is the empathy that we cannot put into words and is what we feel when hearing these problems or stories. In other words, it is the sensations and feelings we get in response to other people’s emotions.
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