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Psychiatrike = Psychiatriki 2019Empathy is the epicenter of the theoretical and clinical interest of many different scientific domains, constituting a common term in different fields as these of... (Review)
Review
Empathy is the epicenter of the theoretical and clinical interest of many different scientific domains, constituting a common term in different fields as these of psychology, psychiatry, clinical psychopathology, neuroscience, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Studying the phenomenon of empathy requires distinguishing the empathy as a method of observation of psychological phenomena from the empathy as a component of the therapy of psychopathological phenomena. In this case, beyond the empathic understanding, the optimum responsiveness of the therapist is included. Empathy means sharing the psychological and emotional state of another as if you were able to sense one's private world. This emotional sharing is a temporary situation and concerns the quality but not the quantity of the emotional experience. The modern scientists of neurobiology and neurobehavior distinguish three types of empathy: the emotional, the cognitive and motivational which help the interpersonal relations occurring in complex groups of society where the transgenerational relationships between parents and offspring are essential for the survival of species. Jaspers introduces, already by the beginning of the 20th century in his monumental work ''General Psychopathology'', the notion of empathy as an interpretative and a diagnostic tool in psychiatry and psychopathology. Meanwhile psychoanalysis, mainly during its early course, was not impressed by this term. The answer to this seems to be that the term empathy is related to the intersubjectivity and the interpersonal relationship, fields that were not really attractive at this point of time for the psychoanalytical theory which during the period of the founder of the psychoanalysis was initially mainly focused on the "intrapsychic" field. However, during the course of time and chiefly with the contribution of Kohut and Greenson, the importance of the concept of empathy is emphasized in the clinical psychoanalysis and efforts are made regarding the clarification of the nature and the psychological mechanisms that operate in this complex intuitive (feeling the other through the interpersonal communication) form of knowledge. The quality of the relationship between the therapist and the patient (therapeutic alliance) plays a fundamental role in the positive outcome in any form of psychotherapy. Empathic understanding plays an important role in the quality of the therapeutic relationship. In the field of general psychiatry, the focus of research for the role of empathy and the potential of its application, has been until today limited. The lack of a model for the application of empathy in psychiatric and psychotherapeutic practice is an important challenge for the training of the new psychiatrists.
Topics: Empathy; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Mental Disorders; Psychiatry; Psychotherapy
PubMed: 31425143
DOI: 10.22365/jpsych.2019.302.156 -
Current Biology : CB Sep 2014As humans we are a highly social species: in order to coordinate our joint actions and assure successful communication, we use language skills to explicitly convey...
As humans we are a highly social species: in order to coordinate our joint actions and assure successful communication, we use language skills to explicitly convey information to each other, and social abilities such as empathy or perspective taking to infer another person's emotions and mental state. The human cognitive capacity to draw inferences about other peoples' beliefs, intentions and thoughts has been termed mentalizing, theory of mind or cognitive perspective taking. This capacity makes it possible, for instance, to understand that people may have views that differ from our own. Conversely, the capacity to share the feelings of others is called empathy. Empathy makes it possible to resonate with others' positive and negative feelings alike--we can thus feel happy when we vicariously share the joy of others and we can share the experience of suffering when we empathize with someone in pain. Importantly, in empathy one feels with someone, but one does not confuse oneself with the other; that is, one still knows that the emotion one resonates with is the emotion of another. If this self-other distinction is not present, we speak of emotion contagion, a precursor of empathy that is already present in babies.
Topics: Brain; Empathy; Humans
PubMed: 25247366
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.06.054 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Apr 2018Empathy and anger are two social emotions that modulate an individual's risk for aggression. Empathy is an emotional reaction to another individual's emotional state.... (Review)
Review
Empathy and anger are two social emotions that modulate an individual's risk for aggression. Empathy is an emotional reaction to another individual's emotional state. Anger is an emotional reaction to threat, frustration or social provocation. Reduced empathy, seen in psychopathy, increases the risk for goal-directed aggression. Atypically increased anger (i.e. irritability), seen in conditions like disruptive mood dysregulation disorder and borderline personality disorder, increases the risk for reactive aggression. In this paper, I will outline core neurocognitive functions that correspond to empathy and which are compromised in individuals with psychopathic traits. In addition, I will outline neurocognitive functions involved in either the generation or regulation of anger and which are compromised in psychiatric conditions at increased risk for irritability/reactive aggression. It can be hoped that improved understanding of empathy and anger will lead to better assessment tools and improved interventions to reduce aggression risk.This article is part of the theme issue 'Diverse perspectives on diversity: multi-disciplinary approaches to taxonomies of individual differences'.
Topics: Adult; Aggression; Anger; Antisocial Personality Disorder; Cognition; Empathy; Female; Humans; Irritable Mood; Male
PubMed: 29483341
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0155 -
Medicine Jun 2018Compassionate care is essential for better clinical and patient outcomes, but during healthcare provision it can be compromised by several factors. This study evaluates... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
BACKGROUND
Compassionate care is essential for better clinical and patient outcomes, but during healthcare provision it can be compromised by several factors. This study evaluates factors affecting compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burnout in nursing.
METHODS
Literature search in electronic databases was followed by data extraction, conversion, and meta-analyses under random effect model. Correlation coefficients (r) reported by individual studies were first converted to z-scores for meta-analyses and the overall effect sizes were then back-transformed into r.
RESULTS
Eleven studies (4054 respondents; 64.34 [95% confidence interval: 38.82, 89.86] % response rate; age 39.81 [31.36, 48.27] years; 87.11 [79.48, 94.73] % females) were used for meta-analysis. There was a strong positive correlation between compassion fatigue and burnout (r = 0.59), whereas compassion satisfaction had weak negative correlation with compassion fatigue (r = -0.226) but moderate with burnout (r = -0.446). Stress and negative affect were moderately positively associated with compassion fatigue (r = 0.405) but weakly correlated with burnout (r = 0.119). Positive affect and personal/social factors had weak inverse relationship with burnout (r = -0.197). Positive affect also had a moderately positive relationship with compassion satisfaction (r = 0.396). Demographic or professional factors were not significantly related to compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, or burnout.
CONCLUSION
In nursing, a variety of stressful factors and negative affect promote compassion fatigue and burnout whereas positive affect is helpful in achieving compassion satisfaction.
Topics: Adult; Affect; Burnout, Professional; Compassion Fatigue; Empathy; Female; Humans; Job Satisfaction; Male; Middle Aged; Nurses; Nursing; Personal Satisfaction; Quality of Life; Stress, Psychological
PubMed: 29952947
DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000011086 -
Nursing Open Nov 2020An empathic approach to patient-centred care is a core of nursing practice. One of the methods to develop empathy, which is gaining currency is the use of virtual...
An empathic approach to patient-centred care is a core of nursing practice. One of the methods to develop empathy, which is gaining currency is the use of virtual reality simulations in education. This paper posits some questions, does it simply reinforce a 'type' of patient, neglecting caring for the patient as unique, is empathy what results or is it pity, does it result in a greater distance being created between the patient and the health care provider? Can we ever really know what it is like to walk in a patient's shoes when what we experience through virtual reality provides a small snapshot of the vicissitudes of living with an illness or disability. We suggest that what matters most in simulations using virtual reality is how the student exits the experience and if they leave knowing just what patients 'like that' feel, or whether they leave with humility and curiosity.
Topics: Education, Nursing; Empathy; Health Personnel; Humans; Virtual Reality
PubMed: 33072391
DOI: 10.1002/nop2.551 -
Neuroscience Letters Feb 2019We cannot help but impute emotions to the behaviors of others, and constantly infer not only what others are feeling, but also why they feel that way. The comprehension... (Review)
Review
We cannot help but impute emotions to the behaviors of others, and constantly infer not only what others are feeling, but also why they feel that way. The comprehension of other people's emotional states is computationally complex and difficult, requiring the flexible, context-sensitive deployment of cognitive operations that encompass rapid orienting to, and recognition of, emotionally salient cues; classification of emotions into culturally-learned categories; and using an abstract theory of mind to reason about what caused the emotion, what future actions the person might be planning, and what we should do next in response. This review summarizes what neuroscience data - primarily functional neuroimaging data - has so far taught us about the cognitive architecture enabling emotion understanding in its various forms.
Topics: Brain; Cues; Emotions; Empathy; Fear; Functional Neuroimaging; Humans
PubMed: 28624265
DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.06.018 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Apr 2020Stressful experiences can be transmitted among individuals through social interactions. Like humans, rodents are social creatures whose behavior and physiology can be... (Review)
Review
Stressful experiences can be transmitted among individuals through social interactions. Like humans, rodents are social creatures whose behavior and physiology can be influenced by the emotional state of fellow rodents. This paper will review rodent studies which have explored two conditions of potential social stress contagion using the social defeat paradigm. In the vicarious social defeat model, mice and rats that witness a conspecific being socially defeated exhibit physiological stress responses and develop a host of depressive- and anxiety-like behavioral deficits. Likewise, social interaction with a stressed partner in the aftermath of social defeat stress results in physiological stress responses and social avoidance behavior. After summarizing the existing literature on this newly emerging area of social defeat stress contagion in rodents, we will discuss the potential utility of these rodent models for investigating the neurobiological processes and sensory channels of information that allow for the spread of psychophysiological effects of stress across individuals.
Topics: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Empathy; Mice; Rats; Social Defeat; Social Interaction; Stress, Physiological; Stress, Psychological
PubMed: 31931035
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.01.011 -
Clinical Psychology Review Jul 2016The importance of compassion is widely recognized and it is receiving increasing research attention. Yet, there is lack of consensus on definition and a paucity of... (Review)
Review
The importance of compassion is widely recognized and it is receiving increasing research attention. Yet, there is lack of consensus on definition and a paucity of psychometrically robust measures of this construct. Without an agreed definition and adequate measures, we cannot study compassion, measure compassion or evaluate whether interventions designed to enhance compassion are effective. In response, this paper proposes a definition of compassion and offers a systematic review of self- and observer-rated measures. Following consolidation of existing definitions, we propose that compassion consists of five elements: recognizing suffering, understanding the universality of human suffering, feeling for the person suffering, tolerating uncomfortable feelings, and motivation to act/acting to alleviate suffering. Three databases were searched (Web of Science, PsycInfo, and Medline) and nine measures included and rated for quality. Quality ratings ranged from 2 to 7 out of 14 with low ratings due to poor internal consistency for subscales, insufficient evidence for factor structure and/or failure to examine floor/ceiling effects, test-retest reliability, and discriminant validity. We call our five-element definition, and if supported, the development of a measure of compassion based on this operational definition, and which demonstrates adequate psychometric properties.
Topics: Empathy; Humans
PubMed: 27267346
DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2016.05.004 -
Neuroscience Bulletin Feb 2018Empathy is traditionally thought to be a unique ability of humans to feel, understand, and share the emotional state of others. However, the notion has been greatly... (Review)
Review
Empathy is traditionally thought to be a unique ability of humans to feel, understand, and share the emotional state of others. However, the notion has been greatly challenged by the emerging discoveries of empathy for pain or distress in rodents. Because empathy is believed to be fundamental to the formation of prosocial, altruistic, and even moral behaviors in social animals and humans, studies associated with decoding the neural circuits and unraveling the underlying molecular and neural mechanisms of empathy for pain or distress in rodents would be very important and encouraging. In this review, the author set out to outline and update the concept of empathy from the evolutionary point of view, and introduce up-to-date advances in the study of empathy and its neural correlates in both humans and rodents. Finally, the author highlights the perspectives and challenges for the further use of rodent models in the study of empathy for pain or distress.
Topics: Animals; Biological Evolution; Empathy; Humans; Pain; Rodentia; Social Behavior; Stress, Psychological
PubMed: 28493169
DOI: 10.1007/s12264-017-0135-0 -
International Journal of Environmental... Jan 2022Empathy is one of the leading social abilities to understand or feel the emotions of other people. Attachment is thought to be a critical influential factor of empathy,... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
Empathy is one of the leading social abilities to understand or feel the emotions of other people. Attachment is thought to be a critical influential factor of empathy, as revealed by attachment theory and experimental studies, while empathy is also believed to facilitate the quality of attachment. Although many studies are conducted concerning the two subjects, the direction and magnitude of their relationship still remain unclear. In order to clarify the discrepant results in the previous study and explore the moderators in the empathy-attachment association, three-level meta-analyses were conducted in the present work. Based on 212 effect sizes from 59 samples in 50 studies with a total of 24,572 participants, random effect model analyses showed that empathy was insignificantly correlated with anxious attachment, significantly negatively correlated with avoidant attachment, and significantly positively correlated with secure attachment. The meta-analytic results indicated that children and adolescents with high secure attachment tend to show more empathy than those with low secure attachment. The meta-regression model revealed significant effects of the empathy dimension, culture, empathy measurement tools, and publication state. Additionally, implications and future directions for the empathy-attachment relationship were also discussed.
Topics: Adolescent; Anxiety; Child; Emotions; Empathy; Humans; Object Attachment
PubMed: 35162410
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19031391