Forgiveness of Self and Others and Emotional Empathy

Abstract

Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory maintains that individuals enhance their opinions of decisions after they have made them. The present experiment demonstrated this postdecision dissonance enhancement effect by using a no-decision control group to test whether predecision moderation (i.e., impression management) or postdecision enhancement (i.e., dissonance reduction) occurred. Male and female subjects (N = 62) were approached in a shopping mall and asked to estimate their chances of winning a “gumball guess” lottery-type game. In clear support of cognitive dissonance theory, those giving their responses immediately after they had taken part in the gumball guess gave significantly higher estimates of winning than those asked just before they guessed or those in the control group.     

The Evolution of Empathy

Therapeutic empathy has been an often-used construct by counseling professionals. Through that usage, the term has evolved in meaning and significance from its original presentation by Carl Rogers. This article traces that evolution by identifying its users and contributors over the past 20 years. These include counselor-practitioners, counselor educators, researchers, and increasingly, the public. The resulting changes have implications for future research directions, counselor training, and the practice of counseling.     

The Mandate of Empathy

Confucian thinkers seem to have had something like our present concept of empathy long before that notion was self-consciously available in the West. Wang Yang-Ming’s talk of forming one body with others and similar ideas in the writings of Cheng Hao and, much earlier, of Mengzi make it clear that the Confucian traditions not only had the idea of empathy but saw its essential relation to phenomena like compassion, benevolence, and sympathy that are constitutive of the altruistic side of morality. Nowadays, there is increasing interest among Western psychologists and philosophers in the phenomenon of empathy, and it would be lovely and welcome if, having originated these ideas, Chinese philosophers would now take up and help develop what has recently been said and done about empathy, and its relation to altruism, in the West.     

Cognitive Empathy and Emotional Empathy in Human Behavior and Evolution

The Psychological Record - This article presents 7 simple models of the relationship between cognitive empathy (mental perspective taking) and emotional empathy (the vicarious sharing of emotion)....     

The Presence of Others

Hybrid accounts of folk psychology maintain that we sometimes theorize and sometimes simulate in order to understand others. An important question is why this is the case. In this paper, I present a view according to which simulation, but not theory, plays a central role in empathy. In contrast to others taking a similar approach to simulation, I do not focus on empathy’s cognitive aspect, but stress its affective-motivational one. Simulating others’ emotions usually engages our motivations altruistically. By vicariously feeling what others are feeling, we directly come to be motivated by their projects and concerns. Simulation contrasts with more theoretical approaches to psychological attribution that help us understand and explan others, but that do not move us altruistically. This helps us see why we would posit two different folk psychological approaches instead of merely one.     

解释学分类及其他

本文之所以要讲解释学分类,因为研究、实施解释学的人往往有三个忽略:(一)不注意海德格尔为什么要中断解释学循环;(二)不反省现代人比古代人更好的理解古代人的启蒙教条;(三)还原解释经验比作为知识学的解释学更能面向事物(文本)本身.     

The Moral Contours of Empathy

Morally contoured empathy is a form of reasonable partiality essential to the healthy care of dependents. It is critical as an epistemic aid in determining proper moral responsiveness; it is also, within certain richly normative roles and relationships, itself a crucial constitutive mode of moral connection. Yet the achievement of empathy is no easy feat. Patterns of incuriosity imperil connection, impeding empathic engagement; inappropriate empathic engagement, on the other hand, can result in self-effacement. Impartial moral principles and constraints offer at best meager protection against these perils, and hence serve poorly in securing morally contoured empathy. More nuanced and practical guidance should be sought in normatively substantive conceptions of our roles and relationships and their defining moral stakes. These, joined with more abstract moral tools, can facilitate rich, narratively textured interpretations of moralitys demands. While the content of our normative conceptions must be continually debated, engaging in this debate is vital to the achievement of proper empathy, and thus to effective, respectful, morally healthy care of dependents.This paper was originally presented at the conference on Reasonable Partiality at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, October 22–24, 2003. I wish to thank all those present for stimulating discussion. Special thanks go to Bert Musschenga, who organized the conference, and who has provided insightful feedback on this paper. Warm thanks as well to Brenda Almond and Bernie Rollin for lively exchanges on the issues addressed here and to Nancy Sherman for sharing with me an ongoing fascination with, and her own fantastic work on, empathy. Comments from an anonymous reviewer for the journal were challenging and helpful. Finally, I wish to express gratitude beyond normal bounds to Maggie Little both for her generosity, keen insight, and artful intervention at key points in this essays evolution and for her ground-breaking work on deontic pluralism that deeply influences the position I frame here.     

"合法性"概念及其他

1999年10月,中国社会科学院哲学研究所主持召开"新中国哲学五十年"大型学术研讨会.会议开幕式安排十位声望卓著、为新中国哲学事业的发展做出了杰出贡献的老一辈学者发言.     

The Worthwhileness of Meaningful Lives

Philosophia - The M?→?W thesis that a meaningful life must be a worthwhile life follows from an appealing approach to the axiology of life. Yet one of the most prominent voices in...     

临床共情研究进展

共情是指站在对方角度思考问题,能认识、理解他人情感情绪的能力.自20世纪60年代起,以美国为主的西方国家开展大量关于共情临床应用的理论研究、实践调查和教育培训,结果显示临床共情的应用对改善医患关系、提高医疗效果、减少医疗纠纷、促进患者康复和增进医生职业成就感等方面都起着重要作用.     

The Empathy Imbalance Hypothesis of Autism: A Theoretical Approach to Cognitive and Emotional Empathy in Autistic Development

The Psychological Record - There has been a widely held belief that people with autism spectrum disorders lack empathy. This article examines the empathy imbalance hypothesis (EIH) of autism....