Empathy

The internal Universe of each person is unique. We come to this world with the type of temperament and we pass through unique life experience which influences our habits, outlook and a way of perception of the world around. Looking at snowfall, one person delightfully will notice: "There are white snow!". Another will nervously throw: "The muck in a face climbs". And despite it, we sometimes nevertheless manage to comprehend inner world and an emotional condition of other person. This phenomenon is called empathy or empathy.

Empathy origin

The empathy is a word of the Greek origin, it means conscious empathy to an emotional condition of other person.

Sorting that means the word "empathy", many confuse it to compassion though in practice this term means ability to empathize any emotions, not only negative, but also positive. Today there were several interpretations of the term "empathy".

In medicine the part of understanding and demonstration of understanding of an emotional condition of other person is assigned to it. To the forefront there is an empatichesky hearing aiming to allow to the patient to be uttered, encourage it to frank expression of the feelings and feelings here.

In psychology the emotional empathy is considered norm, there are even special techniques of identification at people of ability to this form of mental activity who differ from an easy response before full immersion in feelings of the interlocutor. But you should not confuse to identification during which the person not just understands feelings of another as it happens to empathy, but also in some way does not distinguish them with the.

In fiction the term "empat" found new value which reminds emotional telepathy more and is considered ekstrasensorny ability. However in reality similar experiments with empathy did not manage to be repeated.

Types of empathy

In classical psychology the empathy is subdivided on emotional, cognitive and predicative.

The emotional empathy is the form of mental activity based on mechanisms of a projection and imitation reactions of the interlocutor (motor, affective). And speaking about empathy in life, we mean emotional empathy, otherwise, ability to project on ourselves experiences of other person and to reproduce these emotions on ourselves.

The cognitive empathy is based on such intellectual processes as analogy and comparison. It takes place in scientific discussions and polemics.

The predicative empathy represents ability to predict feelings of other person in certain situations. And though this term hardly someone uses in life, in practice ability to put himself to the place of another and to predict what feelings he at the same time will have, most of people can.

Psychologists also allocate such forms of empathy as empathy and sympathy in special categories. The empathy is an experience of emotions of the interlocutor through an identification with it. Sympathy, on the contrary, represents experience of own emotions experienced concerning feelings of the interlocutor.

Development of empathy

The emotional empathy at different people has the special extents of expression. The lowest level is characterized by concentration on itself and indifference to thoughts and feelings of other people. Representatives of this look, appear, do not feel emotional empathy in principle. They seldom understand people around, feel discomfort in the unfamiliar companies, and therefore try to live in solitude. As a rule, people with the low level of emotional empathy have few friends, and what is – rather colleagues.

Second level of empathy the most widespread. His representatives are indifferent to thoughts and feelings of others, but in rare instances can show empathy. They are capable to express emotions, but prefer to keep them under control. Manifestation, characteristic of this level of development of empathy, – the person loves movies and art books, but prefers action, but not the description of experiences.

The third level of empathy – high and at the same time rare. His representatives understand and feel emotions of others better, than own. These are devoted and generous friends, people, not indifferent to problems of people around. They are kontaktna, are sympathetic, sociable, sincere, trust feelings and an intuition. The reverse of the medal is that representatives of this level of emotional empathy wait for social approval of the actions and easily are out of balance.

In addition to levels of empathy there is also a classification of people by this sign. They are subdivided on "not empat", "weak empat", "functional empat" and "professional empat". The first category – those to whom the feeling of empathy is not familiar. The second category well knows about empathy, only has a constant stress with experience of weight of the world. The third category easily adapts to emotions and does not pass them through itself. Professional empata easily distinguish emotions, even those which the interlocutor prefers to hide, but the main thing, they have ability to manage others mental experiences. And it is quite useful skill for psychologists and teachers. If you want to learn to understand other people, consecutive development of empathy will help to find this ability.

Diagnosis of empathy

To define whether you are capable to understand an emotional condition of surrounding people, there are acquired techniques. For example, diagnosis of empathy can be carried out by means of the scale of an emotional response developed by professor of psychology Albert Megrabyan. This scientist offered a simple and effective questionnaire which reveals the level of abilities to emotional empathy on feelings of the interlocutor and degree of its compliance of reality of the subject.

The test for diagnosis of empathy consists of 25 questions which bring to one of five levels of empathy from very high to very low. And though can seem to you that the highest level of empathy at the same time is also the best, actually hypertrophied sensitivity results in emotional dependence, vulnerability and even to psychosomatic diseases. Certainly, it is worth developing in itself ability to listen to another, to paraphrase and reflect his emotions. But at the same time it is necessary to choose effective behavioural strategy which will allow you to observe balance between rational sober mind and sensitive sympathetic emotionality.