EMPATHY RESEARCH

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Excellent EMPATHY articles  by GWEN DEWAR PH. D. with her RESEARCH links:

Empathy and the Brain
© 2008-2014, Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved Human empathy depends on the ability to share the emotions of others, to feel what other people feel. It is regarded by many people as the foundation of moral behavior. But to some, the concept seems rather airy-fairy. What does it mean to say "I feel your pain"? Isn’t that just a fanciful flight of the imagination?

Teaching empathy
​Evidence
based tips for fostering empathy in children © 2009 - 2014 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved Teaching empathy? This might sound strange if you think of empathy as a talent--something we either have or lack. But research also suggests that empathy is a complex phenomenon involving several component skills: • A sense of self-awareness and the ability to distinguish one’s own feelings from the feelings of others.

The case for teaching empathy
​Why we shouldn’t expect empathy to “just emerge" © 2009 -2013 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved Teaching empathy? A skeptic might wonder if it makes any difference. Can’t we assume that empathy will emerge automatically, as part of the developmental process?
 After all, even babies show signs of empathy.
For instance, experiments confirm that newborn babies are more likely to cry if they hear recordings of other infants in distress. And normally-developing infants begin to show empathic concern for their family members between the age of 12 and 24 months (Zahn-Wexler et al 1992). -