psychology
There are 3 types of empathy – how many are you?
© Pafnuti / Shutterstock
Not all empathy is the same. You can find out here which three types of psychologists usually differentiate.
Empathy is an essential pillar of our social interaction. Without them we would probably misunderstand each other all the time, show little consideration for one another and have enormous difficulty in forgiving something.
In everyday parlance we sometimes use the term synonymously, i.e. synonymously, with compassion, but in psychology empathy denotes something else or more. In the 1980s, the US psychologist Mark H. Davis proposed a multidimensional approach to empathy, which is still cited in science today and used – in a slightly different form. In his article Measuring Individual Differences in Empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional Approach Mark Davis originally distinguished four types of empathy. The following three are considered to be particularly important and are still used to describe the psychological phenomenon of empathy.
Psychologists distinguish three types of empathy – how many are you?
1. Cognitive
Cognitive Empathy Types, called by Mark Davis Perspective Taking above all mentally put themselves in the position of their fellow human beings. Emotionally, they remain relatively distant and rather to themselves. They understand and imagine what others are going through without this having any effect on their own emotional world.
2. Affective
Affective empathy types, which is the Mark Davis equivalent Personal distress, empathize with other people and reflect their emotions as soon as they establish an empathic connection with them and put themselves in their shoes. They experience joy, sadness, pain, or anger because of what others are going through, regardless of what is going on in their own life and emotions.
3. Social
Psychologist Ronald E. Riggio attributes social empathy types psychologytoday, are what we usually mean in everyday usage when we say of someone that they are empathetic. They understand the situation in which other people find themselves and can empathize with them. They also know and feel what their counterpart is feeling in this situation and share their emotions to a certain extent. In contrast to affective empathy types, however, social empathy types can set themselves apart; their own emotional world is not completely absorbed by that of the other. Mark Davis calls this form of empathy Empathic concern.
Which empathy type is best?
According to psychologists, and Mark Davis and Ronald E. Riggio share this view, empathy is an essentially human quality. That means we all have some level of empathy, unless we have an exceptional trait such as autism or a psychopathic personality. In such cases, the ability to empathize can be affected and deviate from this characteristic.
As a rule, all three of the forms described are also inherent in us. With some people the affective type is more pronounced, with others the social or cognitive type, and mostly the situation determines how empathically we react. For example, the closer we are to the person in question, the more empathic many of us will be. And the more intense their feelings are. If we have already experienced a similar situation ourselves, this can lead to either reacting particularly emotionally and empathically, because the memories strengthen our empathy, or particularly cognitively empathically, because we intuitively protect ourselves from reliving something from the past.
Every form of empathy has its justification and fulfills a function in our social interaction. With affective empathy, for example, we signal a lot of closeness to our counterpart, the social enables us to offer sensitive, individual advice or support, and thanks to cognitive empathy we can assess others well. Certainly we’re all sometimes over and sometimes under, that is, sometimes we exaggerate our empathy and sometimes it should be a little more. The balancing act between taking care of oneself and being there for others hardly ever succeeds immediately with ease. But observing us and using Mark Davis’ three-empathy-type model, for example, to recognize how we (have) behaved in which situation, usually helps to practice this balancing act and to achieve it more often and more relaxed at some point. Until then, you have to live, try out, trust your own feelings – and hope for the empathy of others.
Sources used: psychologytoday.com, Measuring Individual Differences in Empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional Approach, karrierebibel.de