Empathy Measure
An Empathy Measure is an emotion measure of a state of empathy.
- Context:
- Measure Output: Empathy Ability Score (for an empathy ability).
- It can (typically) be composed of an Emotion Recognition Measure and an Emotion Simulation Measure.
- It can be used to rank an empathic agent as a Low Empathy Person to being a High Empathy Person.
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- Example(s):.
- Q: “What does Susan feel when the frisbee hits her face, and how do you feel about throwing it, even if it was an accident during a game of Ultimate (Normal or Regretful?)?".
- Hare Psychopathy Checklist [1].
- …
- Counter-Example(s):
- See: Empathic System, Empathic Ability.
References
2020
- (Segal et al., 2017) ⇒ Elizabeth A. Segal, Karen E. Gerdes, Cynthia A. Lietz, M. Alex Wagaman, and Jennifer M. Geiger. (2017). “Assessing Empathy.” Columbia University Press,
- BOOK OVERVIEW: Empathy is a widely used term, but it is also difficult to define. In recent years, the field of cognitive neuroscience has made impressive strides in identifying neural networks in the brain related to or triggered by empathy. Still, what exactly do we mean when we say that someone has—or lacks—empathy? How is empathy distinguished from sympathy or pity? And is society truly suffering from an "empathy deficit," as some experts have charged??
In Assessing Empathy, Elizabeth A. Segal and colleagues marshal years of research to present a comprehensive definition of empathy, one that links neuroscientific evidence to human service practice. The book begins with a discussion of our current understanding of empathy in neurological, biological, and behavioral terms. The authors expl...
- QUOTE: ... In its most basic form, empathy is feeling and understanding the emotions and experiences of others. Although seemingly straightforward, this definition is full of complications. Feeling something and understanding what it means are different experiences. When you add the activity of trying to identify and understand the feeling of someone else to your own feelings and understandings in a given situation, matters become more complex, and then they become even more so if you do not know the other person or are very different from that person. The eminent social psychologist C. Daniel Batson (2011) identified eight phenomena that have been considered to express or enact empathy. They are presented in box 1.1.
In spite of the many and various definitions and conceptualizations of empathy we have, Batson (2011) found that what all have in common is that they describe a process in which "one person can come to know the internal state of another and can be motivated to respond with sensitive care" (p. 11). He suggests that the best we can do is to acknowledge and understand these phenomena, clearly identify how we are defining empathy, and then be consistent in how we apply the term. However, given that there are inconsistencies even within the same profession or in similar contexts, attempting to assess and to measure empathy is especially problematic. This book
- BOOK OVERVIEW: Empathy is a widely used term, but it is also difficult to define. In recent years, the field of cognitive neuroscience has made impressive strides in identifying neural networks in the brain related to or triggered by empathy. Still, what exactly do we mean when we say that someone has—or lacks—empathy? How is empathy distinguished from sympathy or pity? And is society truly suffering from an "empathy deficit," as some experts have charged??