Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how people can react to the plight of others with either sympathy or empathy. The paper explains that empathy refers to the ability to perceive the feelings of others, to respond to those feelings and to understand others' inner experience (Thibodeau, Jorgensen & Jonovich, 2008), while a sympathetic response may be based purely in developed communication skills but concern can exist without emotion. The paper shows how being empathetically responsive is quite different from feeling sympathy; empathetic understanding involves emotional and cognitive processes, is a part of moral development, and is essential for motivation related to prosocial and altruistic behavior (Gruhn, Rebucal, Diehl, Lumley & Labouvie-Vief, 2008).

From the Paper:

"People can react to the plight of others with either sympathy or empathy. Empathy refers to the ability to perceive the feelings of others, to respond to those feelings and to understand others' inner experience (Thibodeau, Jorgensen & Jonovich, 2008). A sympathetic response may be based purely in developed communication skills but concern can exist without emotion. Being empathetically responsive is quite different from feeling sympathy; empathetic understanding involves emotional and cognitive processes, is a part of moral development, and is essential for..."

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