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Research Paper on Empathy

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Research Paper on Empathy
Psy 150 FONO6
03/24/2012
Professor Ritchie

Research Paper on Empathy

By: Imari Watkins

Thesis: The purpose of this essay is to define empathy and discuss its use

I. Introduction II. Definition a. Origin b. Who made it up? III. What causes people to feel that way? IV. Scientific View Point V. Mental Disorders/Emotion VI. Example Statements VII. Conclusion

The purpose of this essay is to define empathy and discuss its use on how it is used on a daily basis and what makes people feel empathy for others. Empathy is being able to feel and understand what another person is going through or what they have experienced. Typically, it would be a happiness, sadness or anger that would immediately affect how we feel, we would generally feel the same emotion as the person we are in contact with, where as sympathy we would be in agreement on the emotion, really just respecting one another. Empathy is used as a noun, the dictionary meaning for empathy is the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. The second dictionary meaning of empathy is, the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself. Empathy is became apart of the English language in 1909 by E.B. Titchener, while try to translate the German word Einfühlungsvermögen. Later near the end of the 19th century it was changed to empathie and is now being used as that in Germany. The German meaning of empathy is, physical affection, passion, partiality and also passion" or "suffering. The word was founded by Hermann Lotze and Robert Vischer to be added to the German language as Einfühlung which means (feeling into) while later Edward B. Titchener translated to the English term Empathy. Empathy, in the 1900-05, was also used from the Greek word empátheia which in turns means affection. Empathy is used in so many forms and has so



References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/empathy?s=t http://healing.about.com/cs/empathic/a/uc_empathtraits.htm

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