Empathy And Sympathy

Topics:	EmpathyFeeling Human Behavior
Words:	542
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Empathy is the ability to recognise and understand what someone is going through.( Burnard 1992) defines it as the ability to enter the perpetual world of the other person to see the world as they see it. Sympathy is feeling sorry for themselves. Empathy becomes a shared experience at both cognitive and emotional levels (Kozier erb and Blais). With sympathy the feeling is not shred. Empathy make the other person experiencing a situation stronger while sympathy actually weaknesses an individual. Empathy can build reasonable bonds between people while sympathy does not. Empathy is a feeling related to an action, it feels the pain and tried to alleviate it. Sympathy relates well with pity. Empathy turns on emotion into accomplishment. Sympathy is used to convey commiseration or feeling of sorrow for someone who is experiencing a misfortune. In sympathy one does not know how it feels to be in their shoes whereas in empathy one actually experiences the felling.

Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the eyes of another feeling with the heart of another. Empathy refers to feeling what the other person is experiencing whereas sympathy means that one understands what the other person is feeling even without feeling it themselves. Empathy is about feeling and co-experiencing the emotions of an individual with whom we connect to. Sympathy is about support or care and feeling sorry for people.

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In order to achieve sympathy an individual has to give fully their attention to a person or a group. Distraction has a big impact and limit the capacity to produce strong effective responses. (Tuck, Dennis, Gatchel, Robert (2002).

If distractions are removed, people are able to attend to and respond to a variety of emotional experiences and subjects. Attention facilitates the experience of sympathy. Sympathy can be achieved by the need of an individual or group. Needs can be different depending on the type of the situation. These can include vulnerability of different kinds of pain which need unique reactions from human and can range from attention to sympathy. An individual with a cancerous condition can draw a stranger feeling of sympathy than one with a cold.

Sympathy can be achieved also du to the vulnerability of the group such as the sick, elderly or young children. Moods of individual, pervious experiences, social connections can also influence sympathy. People who would have experienced similar situations or those with positive state in their mood are more likely to produce sympathy. So individuals can be in a positive mood to achieve sympathy.

In order to achieve sympathy, there is a need for clear communication. Verbal communication is good and understandable when expressing sympathy. This can be done by acknowledging the current condition being experienced by an individual or group. Non verbal communication such as facial expression, bodily motions and physical contact can be seen to achieve sympathy. These are best understood by observers and not by one experiencing them. Pat at the back, touch of the hand can be ways of achieving sympathy. The combination of verbal and nonverbal communication facilitates the expression and achievement of sympathy.

Sympathy can be achieved due to specific circumstances. If someone is geographically closer it attracts sympathy. People who are more like otherssurrenderthem also attracts sympathy. (Dhanda J 2000)

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