Importance of Empathy
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Importance of Empathy
Empathy is crucial because it assists individuals to comprehend the emotions of other individuals to influence an aspect of responding to them appropriately. In most cases, it is considered as an important social behaviour. Empathy has been known to assist individuals in their hour of needs. According to De’ Waal’s work, human empathy has the power to extend to strangers and other species. However, little is known about humans having broad empathetic responses. The study also expands to the primates, who are considered to be close human relatives. Primates such as apes and different animals have been seen to demonstrate empathy in the relationships with others. This has shown that empathy is not a unique trait; it is one that is shared across human beings and animals. A good example of the United States having a president who had a peculiar display of his face. The president would often bite his lower lipa and tell his member audience that he felt their pain. The president is not mentioned, but the example is important in showing the role and position of empathy in society. Empathy serves as a strong emotional background to the members of the society such that when an individual misses it, it means that the society may consider him as either being dangerous or have a negative mental illness. Through De Waal’s work, the paper shows the significance of empathy in societies, provides examples, and its position among women and men.
Debugging the Work of De Waal in the Society
Human empathy is one of the main issues that have continued to attract significant studies across the world. The nature of empathy is still found to be intriguing, mostly because it extends to animals and human beings. The main question has been about: how could animals develop such a behavioural trait? Some cases have been seen where an animal was seen to assist another person. An example comprises a video that went viral a few years ago regarding a leopard that was hunting for a gazelle and found it giving birth. The gazelle’s mother ran away from the newborn, leaving it at the fate of the leopard. However, instead of the leopard eating the newborn, she licked it and decided not to eat it. Such a case is intriguing because the leopard is highly considered to be carnivorous that feeds on other animals. To leave the young born is a greater sign of empathy.
De Waal has been one of the most important scholars that have continued to become intrigued by the concept of empathy among animals and other species. De Waal looks at empathy from the aspect of both primates and elephants. He looks at the relationship between empathy and mirroring. The monkeys are used to undertake mirror neurons experiments to identify the nature of empathy. The experiment has been known to look into the aspect of self-awareness among primates (De Waal, 2010). It has been significant in creating results that primates, elephants, and human beings have the capacity and capability to understand themselves. They tend to study their environments first before they get to become comfortable in it. This one trait that is closely linked to the development of empathy among animals, mostly primates. Empathy tends to be fused with the mind and the body.
Advanced empathy forms can differentiate different emotions that individuals have in their environments. The example of the mirror experiment has been instrumental in showing that animals can recognize themselves when they are placed in front of a mirror. Animals such as elephants and dolphins have been successfully shown that they may recognize themselves and be aware of the nature of their bodies by looking at their reflection in the mirror. Hence, the work has shown that empathy is a sign that one can look into the environment and become a helper (BratekBulska, Bonk, Seweryn, & Krysta, 2015). It is about understanding and putting oneself in the position of another person. The result may include feeling the pain of another individual and extending a helping hand to the person.
With this, it is important to study different forms of empathy in our society. Human beings are known to be fully aware of their studies. Empathy has been known to be a significant part of their lives. With this, they can improve the lives of those around them. This evident with the many non-governmental organizations that continue to come to developing nations to assist others without any discrimination. De Waal has shown that empathy is common among individuals and is important. However, recognizing it in our environments tend to be challenging. There are genuine examples that will and continue to assist individuals in identifying situations where they can show empathy (Farrell, Seager, & Barry, J2016). Empathy seems to be important in professional and personal settings. When one understands empathy and empathetic statements, better relationships and opportunities of becoming a great leader become common.
Three main empathy forms tend to exist. The first one includes emotional empathy. This involves an aspect of an individual feeling something because another person feels the thing. An example includes a person crying when watching a sad scene in a film. The second includes cognitive empathy. Cognitive empathy involves an aspect of an individual having to think more than feeling (Vongas, & Al Hajj, 2015). As reiterated above, it involves an aspect of a person putting oneself on someone’s shoes. A person may talk to a person about a disturbing issue and may feel understood by the person. Most friends tend to show empathic feelings through cognitive empathy. Compassionate empathy is more focused on leading individuals to the undertaking of an action. When one sees another in need and provides some money and food to that person, this is known as compassionate empathy.
Occurrence between Men and Women
Much of the studies undertaken on empathy between men and women were based on stereotypes, which has been wrong throughout time. The main reason is that the studies suggested that women were more emotional compared to men. Women were vulnerable emotionally, making it easy for them to feel the pain of others. However, this has not been the case with modern studies. Despite some truth in the situation, it does not mean that men are not empathetic. Nature and nurture have and continues to play a major role in the development of empathetic feelings among men and women (Mellor, Fung, & Binti Mamat, 2012). Men tend to be rational in their environments compared to women. The women’s brains are structured in a way that they look at their environment from an aspect of having to improve it. They pour their emotions to the environment, making them more empathetic than men. However, both men and women do not differ consistently when it comes to the ability of them having to detect their emotions and the ones that belong to other people.
Conclusion
The study by De Waal and other scientific research tends to suggest that empathy is an important emotion among humans and animals. Animals such as dolphins and elephants have shown that they can identify themselves and their environment, which creates some aspects of attachments. With this, they tend to align emotions with what they do and how they relate to others, making it possible for them to become helpful in improving situations that may go against their empathetic principles. Empathy has been seen through how people relate to each other. Cognitive empathy is one good example that has shown people helping others deal with their challenges. When it comes to both men and women, they somehow have tendencies of showing empathy. However, women tend to be good at it compared to men who seem to be rational in terms of having to assist others. They have to get the right reasons before doing something to help others.
References
Bratek, A., Bulska, W., Bonk, M., Seweryn, M., & Krysta, K. (2015). Empathy among physicians, medical students and candidates. Psychiatr Danub, 27(Suppl 1), S48-52.
De Waal, F. (2010). The age of empathy: Nature’s lessons for a kinder society. Broadway Books.
Farrell, W., Seager, M. J., & Barry, J. A. (2016). The Male Gender Empathy Gap: Time for psychology to take action. New Male Studies, 5(2), 6-16.
Mellor, D., Fung, S. W. T., & Binti Mamat, N. H. (2012). Forgiveness, empathy and gender—A Malaysian perspective. Sex roles, 67(1-2), 98-107.
Vongas, J. G., & Al Hajj, R. (2015). The evolution of empathy and women’s precarious leadership appointments. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 1751.