Definitional Problems

Problems

• Different definitions in different disciplines

  • • In humanistic–existential psychology, the practice of empathy is located in the body as a “resonance chamber” (Hart & Ingle, 2019, p. 6).

    • psychology

    • neuroscience

    • social scientists.

• Makes it difficult for research. 

• When I read about empathy I don't know what they are referring to.

• there is a collection of related phenomena

• researchers are looking for a meta definition

• "Empathy has often been conceptualised as consisting of two primary features: cognitive empathy, defined as the ability to recognise and understand another’s experience, to communicate and confirm that understanding with the other person, and to take effective action to then act appropriately in a helpful manner, and affective empathy, defined as emotional resonance." (Decety et al., 2014, p. 233).

• Defining empathy approaches

  • • analyze papers on empathy and see the most 

      • "inductively define empathy through inference based on observed definitions and concepts in a corpus of  literature on empathy."

  • The Wholistic Empathy Definition approach

    • • using the empathy circle as a foundation

      • make the definition practical and useful

      •