Victims' Stories and the Postcolonial Politics of Empathy

This paper discusses Diana Meyers's book in light of postcolonial feminist insights. It argues that though Meyers's defense of empathy is admirably sensitive to the ways philosophical concepts and popular discourses can undermine our empathetic capacities, building a human rights culture requires attention to the relational and distributional dimensions of empathy. Meyers's criticism of the expectation of moral purity from victims attests to the richness of her work on agency and helps dismantle unduly narrow conceptions of who counts as a victim of a human rights violation. Meyers's argument for empathy over sympathy is especially useful for understanding culturally encoded forms of degradation. However, human rights violations are caused not only by empathy deficits; they are caused also by empathy excesses toward some people and savior mentalities that can coexist with empathy. Empathy should be supplemented by a political analysis that helps us identify the causes of global injustice.     

作为政治实践的“同情”:同情、审议民主与社会结构

在关于审议民主的讨论中,情感被认为:有损于认知,影响人们的判断;是主观的、个体的,难以形成普遍性的道德规范;会阻碍共识的达成。但关于情感的新的理解,为我们重新看待情感在政治生活中的意义提供了契机。本文关注的是同情在审议民主中的意义,在现有研究的基础上,将同情视为一个过程和一种实践,而不仅仅是一种心理机制。同情能够影响个体的判断,是健全理性的必要构成部分。情感有助于"角色承担",形成普遍化的立场和规范。同情也为我们重新设想"多元公众"提供了视角。但不平等的社会结构、距离、心理机制等因素都有可能阻碍同情的发生。"他者"的问题是政治实践所处理的重要议题。随着"他者"问题的凸显,作为政治实践的同情在未来的政治生活中将会扮演更为重要的角色。     

认知共情和情绪共情的发展差异:元分析初探

共情的毕生发展模型表明认知共情和情绪共情两维度可能存在发展差异,本研究借助元分析技术考察个体认知共情和情绪共情的毕生发展特点。通过文献检索和筛查,获取了136项研究和178个独立效应量,共计50606名被试。发表偏差检验表明文献选取不存在发表偏差,异质性检验表明应选取随机效应模型进行分析。随机效应模型分析的结果表明,总体而言个体的共情反应以认知共情为主（Z=5.39,p<0.001）。进一步的调节效应分析表明,不同发展阶段个体的共情反应受认知共情和情绪共情的影响存在差异（Q_b=73.99,p<0.001）。具体而言,学前期儿童主要以情绪共情为主,儿童中期至成年早期主要以认知共情为主,成年中期至成年晚期主要以情绪共情为主。     

Grace and Reconciliation as Gift

Through examples of grace and gift of reconciliation the meaning of grace is interpreted in relation to social and political transformation. Grace is understood as the unexpected kairotic moment of change, where the future opens up for new possibilities of reconciliation in situations of conflict. It is a moment you cannot plan for, but hope for to happen. Trusting in the possibility of a gracious moment can influence your work in the present. Hoping and waiting for the gracious moment of reconciliation is linked to a praxis of active nonviolence as seen in the work of Martin Luther King, Jr.     

认知共情和情绪共情的发展差异:元分析初探

共情的毕生发展模型表明认知共情和情绪共情两维度可能存在发展差异,本研究借助元分析技术考察个体认知共情和情绪共情的毕生发展特点。通过文献检索和筛查,获取了136项研究和178个独立效应量,共计50606名被试。发表偏差检验表明文献选取不存在发表偏差,异质性检验表明应选取随机效应模型进行分析。随机效应模型分析的结果表明,总体而言个体的共情反应以认知共情为主（Z=5.39,p<0.001）。进一步的调节效应分析表明,不同发展阶段个体的共情反应受认知共情和情绪共情的影响存在差异（Q_b=73.99,p<0.001）。具体而言,学前期儿童主要以情绪共情为主,儿童中期至成年早期主要以认知共情为主,成年中期至成年晚期主要以情绪共情为主。     

Unpacking the Unethical Gift: Gift Experience and Unethicality Assessment

This research investigates how contextual factors affect unethicality assessment of products. The research is conducted in the context of gifts and compares interpersonal gifts (IGs) and self-gifts (SGs) by examining individuals’ reactions in front of unethical gifts. Five experiments investigate how individuals assess product unethicality differently, depending on the source of the gift, being the Self or a gifter. This research employs attribution theory to explain the differences between IGs and SGs and identify psychological distance as a boundary condition for the effect.     

Empathy and the Self-Absorption Paradox II: Self-Rumination and Self-Reflection as Mediators Between Shame,Guilt, and Empathy

The present study tested the hypothesis that proneness to shame would predict self-rumination (and personal distress) whereas proneness to guilt would predict self-reflection (and perspective taking, and empathic concern). Results supported the majority of these predictions, and revealed that self-reflection mediates the relationship between guilt and perspective taking. Additional results provided some support for the hypothesis that self-rumination mediates the relationship between shame and personal distress. However, results also revealed that shame mediated the relationship between self-rumination and personal distress, suggesting that shame and self-rumination may feed each other within a reciprocal cycle that is likely to result in a maladaptive empathic response (i.e., personal distress). Empathic concern was associated with higher levels of guilt, but results failed to replicate earlier findings demonstrating a positive relationship between empathic concern and self-reflection. The present results replicate and extend past research and suggest several promising avenues for future research.     

Just Promise: Reformulating Justice as a Practice of the Gift

The triune God's justice is best understood as promised justice. Promised justice enables Christian practices that critique and end injustice.     

Empathy, Shame, Guilt, and Narratives of Interpersonal Conflicts: Guilt-Prone People Are Better at Perspective Taking

Both guilt and empathic perspective taking have been linked to prosocial, relationship-enhancing effects. Study 1 found that shame was linked to personal distress, whereas guilt was linked to perspective taking. In Studies 2 and 3, subjects were asked to describe a recent experience of interpersonal conflict, once from their own perspective, and once from the perspective of the other person. Guilt-prone people and guilt-dominated stories were linked to better perspective taking (measured by changes between the two versions of the story) than others. Shame had no effect. Guilt improved relationship outcomes but shame harmed them. Path analysis suggested that trait guilt-proneness leads to perspective taking, which leads to actual guilt feelings, which produces beneficial relationship outcomes. Guilt feelings may mediate the relationship-enhancing effects of empathy.     

Empathy and viewing the other as a subject

Empathy and viewing another person as a subject rather than an object are often associated in theoretical contexts, but empirical research of the relation is scarce. The purpose of the present research was to investigate the relationship between subject/object view and empathy. In Study 1, participants watched film clips and indicated their empathy for specific characters in the clips, as well as the extent to which they saw these persons as subjects and objects. The subject/object view explained some, but not all, of the differences in empathy, which raised the question of what else accounts for differences in empathy. A second study was conducted to investigate whether the difficulty of the other's situation also contributes. In Study 2, another group watched the film clips and rated the difficulty of the film character's situations in addition to empathy and subject/object view. The results of Study 2 revealed that subject view/object and perceived difficulty together explain a substantial part of differences in empathy. It was concluded that empathy is evoked primarily when a person in difficulty is viewed as a subject.     

Moral Development and Counselor Trainee Empathy

A high moral development group was superior to a low moral development group in the demonstration of empathy on a counseling tape.     

The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire: Scale Development and Initial Validation of a Factor-Analytic Solution to Multiple Empathy Measures

To formulate a parsimonious tool to assess empathy, we used factor analysis on a combination of self-report measures to examine consensus and developed a brief self-report measure of this common factor. The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) represents empathy as a primarily emotional process. In 3 studies, the TEQ demonstrated strong convergent validity, correlating positively with behavioral measures of social decoding, self-report measures of empathy, and negatively with a measure of Autism symptomatology. Moreover, it exhibited good internal consistency and high test–retest reliability. The TEQ is a brief, reliable, and valid instrument for the assessment of empathy.     

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....     

儿童移情与道德发展关系研究综述

移情是人际交往中情感的相互作用,是对他人情绪的觉察而导致自己情绪唤起的一种情感体验。培养儿童的移情对儿童的道德发展具有重要作用。本文从移情的概念入手,介绍和探讨儿童移情与道德发展的关系研究状况,并对儿童的移情培养提出建议。