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Culture of Empathy Builder:  Dorothy Della Noce
http://j.mp/1fvMiwD

 

 

 Dorothy J. Della Noce, J.D., Ph.D., is an award-winning adult educator known for her dynamic delivery of classroom teaching, online teaching, and workplace training programs. She has taught at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels for more than 15 years. She is also experienced with curriculum design and training design. Dorothy is currently on the faculty of the School of Business at Jones International University, where she also serves as a content expert and course designer.

 

Research Interests
Dr. Della Noce’s research interests focus on the relationship of theory, practice and policy in ADR, and she has a preference for applied communication research projects. She has conducted qualitative program evaluation research on mediation programs for the State of Florida and the United States Postal Service; developed empirically based coding schemes for the United States Postal Service Mediator Assessment Project; and was co-coordinator of the Practice Enrichment Initiative, a grant-funded project to support mediation education and training programs throughout the United States and abroad.
 
 
 

New Insights on Empathy in Intergroup Conflict
March 20, 2015 by Dorothy J. Della Noce

"After spending most of my professional life in the conflict resolution field, I have to admit to experiencing a growing frustration with the state of the field in recent years. There have been times when I have felt that various parts of the field were stuck in their own ideologies, with the result that some interventions seemed to be based on little more than assumptions, research on efficacy of interventions was slow to accumulate, and mythology was revered while research results were ignored.

 

Meanwhile, I looked around me and asked what real change has come from years of experimentation with conflict resolution strategies. I have sometimes been discouraged by my conclusions, especially as I watched intergroup conflicts continue to unfold both locally and internationally that could only be described as tribal – whether the tribes in question were ethnic, racial, socio-economic, religious or political. All this, coupled with my own experiences as a user of various conflict management processes, led to a scholar-practitioner’s existential crisis, prompting such questions as “How do we know what we think we know?” “What if we are wrong?” and “”What if we are doing more harm than good?”"

 

 

 

Transformative Mediation By Brad Spangler

"In their 2004 publication, The Promise of Mediation, Robert A. Baruch Bush and Joseph Folger explicitly outlined a framework for the practice of transformative mediation. Although practitioners had already touched on the possibilities of mediation in this realm, Baruch Bush and Folger's work defined transformative mediation, in contrast to the dominant orientation of problem-solving mediation. Problem-solving mediation is aimed at resolving specific disputes between parties and coming up with a mutually acceptable solution to the immediate, short-term problem. In problem-solving mediation, the mediator normally plays a very active role in guiding the process."

 

February 2009 - Communication Insight - Empathy, Apology and Forgiveness
"Takaku’s research offers important insights on how apologies “work.” Mutual empathy is key. While the offer of an apology may be the result of, and an expression of, the offender’s empathy with the offended party, forgiveness requires empathy from the offended to the offender. Empathy must be experienced by, and communicated by, both parties to the conflict, not simply one or the other. In other words, to be effective in resolving conflict, apology and forgiveness are best viewed as interactive processes, not simply one-sided speech events.

Takaku’s research demonstrates that an offended party has the power to shift the nature of a conflict interaction by reflecting on his or her own “imperfect nature,” developing empathy for the offender, and thus being open to the process of apology and forgiveness. Some people can undertake such reflection on their own; others might need to be prompted toward reflection. However, Takaku also urged caution: care must be taken regarding who prompts the offended party to reflect on his or her own imperfections. For example, if the offending party makes the prompt, it would likely generate resistance on the part of the offended party and actually escalate the conflict. "

 

 July 1999 - Seeing Theory in Practice: An Analysis of Empathy in Mediation - beyondintractability.org
 "Della Noce asks whether and how ideology affects mediator practice. She describes the individualist ideology that supports problem-solving approaches to mediation, and the relational ideology that informs transformative approaches. She then examines how these different ideologies shape mediators understandings of the nature and role of empathy. Case studies indicate that these different understandings yield differences in mediator practice...
 

In problem-solving, empathy is seen as an instrument, valuable in so far as it helps the parties satisfy their (personal, pre-existing) interests. "Bargainers need only understand enough about the other's interests to get to a satisfactory deal."(p. 283) Empathy is also treated as a commodity for exchange, offered on the condition that the other party does the same. The author argues that "The mediator who privileges Individualist assumptions by adopting interest-based bargaining will filter the parties' communication through a transactional lens, which, in turn, will color what the mediator recognizes as an opportunity for empathy and deems a competent response."(p. 283) Empathy is used to uncover interests, and competent empathic responses are those which clarify interests.

In transformative mediation, empathy is valued in itself. "With the focus on interaction rather than individual psychology, the communicative process of developing empathy is valuable in its own right, whatever the outcome, because empathy itself expresses the enrichment of interaction and personal awareness that embodies the 'good' in Relational ideology."(p. 285) Della Noce examines different mediators' responses to the same conflict simulation, and finds that "the mediators heard very different things from the parties as they interacted with each other, highlighted different aspects of the interaction as salient to mediation, and responded in different ways."(p. 294) These differences in mediator practice correspond with differences in their preferred mediation approaches, and underlying ideology."
 

 

1999-July - Seeing Theory in Practice: An Analysis of Empathy in Mediation

"Bush and Folger (1994) in The Promise of Mediation articulated distinctions between Individualist and Relational ideology, and linked them to specific theoretical orientations to mediation practice, problem-solving and transformative, respectively. Yet, a question persists as to whether these distinctions produce any material differences in practice. This question is approached here through an examination of a single construct in the mediation literature, empathy. The author proposes that the Individualist and Relational ideological frameworks have material implications for the concept and the practice of fostering empathy between the parties to a mediation: The problem-solving framework fosters a social interaction which can be understood as transactional empathy while the transformative framework fosters an interaction described as relational empathy."

 

Transactional Empathy versus Relational Transformative Empathy

Problem-solving versus transformative (theoretical frameworks)

  • Mediators are seen as being neutral, but they really are not since they come from different ideologies.

    • (The mediators ideologies will inform the mediation outcome)

    • (ideologies are based on different assumptions but may be pointing to different human capacities? what are those capacities? Physical mirroring versus being closed off)
       

  • Transactional Empathy (what are individualist based assumptions?)

    • (mediation is seen as finding self interest or self needs)

    • finding 'the problems and the solutions to it"

    • "conflict is a problem in needs-satisfaction' (empathy is our greatest need)

    • "problem solving mediation - individual self interest are satisfied thorough problem-solving and agreement-production"

    • "empathy is employed strategically by the negotiator for the better understanding of the wants and needs of the opponent, in order to use that understanding to maximize the negotiator's own  self-interest, to uncover where there is room to maneuver, to help tailor arguments, to change the opponent's mind, and to enhance the ability to influence the opponent to do what the negotiator wants it to do. As a commodity of exchange, empathy is extended on the condition that the other will do he same when the time comes."

    • "Empathy is neither a goal in itself nor an independently vales effect of the bargaining process. "
       

  • Relational Empathy (Relational Ideology, transformative Practice and Relational Empathy)  

    • "deliberation and reflection are encouraged as ways to know both self and others and to create meaning, difference is appreciated, 'invisible work' such as the creation of a supportive socio-emotional climate, is attended to and is emotionality embraced rather than curtailed."  Bush and Folger call for this shift to the transformative orientation.

    • "In the transformative orientation, conflict is viewed as a crisis in human interaction, which provides an opportunity for interactional transformation and individual moral growth in both strength of self (empowerment) and concern for the other (recognition)."

    • "affective and cognitive - perspective taking empathy"

    • "Relational ideology represents a paradigm shift 'from the individual to the interactional field' as the focus of the attention. "

    • "Empathy is an ongoing interpersonal process, a way of knowing' others....a tensional event between people. With the focus on the interacting rather than individual psychology, the communicative process of developing empathy is valuable in it's own right, whatever the outcome, because empathy in itself expresses the enrichment of interaction and personal awareness that embodies the 'good' in relational ideology. "

    • (creates shared meaning? what does meaning mean?)

  


2002-01-12  - Clarifying the Theoretical Underpinnings of Mediation: Implications for Practice and Policy
Dorothy J. Della Noce
Robert A. Baruch Bush
Joseph P. Folger

 

 

July 20, 2013 - Empathy, Story Telling, and Race
"By sharing his story, President Obama opened an opportunity for us to think about the mundane, banal, everyday behaviors that make up racism.  He also opened up an opportunity for building empathy.  As Dean Obeidallah has pointed out, we have a stunning lack of empathy in our society about racial matters. Calling each other names based on our conclusions about who is or is not a racist does not build empathy; it just builds the attack-and-defend cycle. Empathy is built when we can share, listen to, and learn from other people’s stories. It is through sharing stories that we learn what it is to live in someone else’s skin.  Empathy is our only way through racially based pain and conflict; denial and defensiveness are not getting us there. We need the stories."

 

 

 April 5, 2013 A Profound Lack of Empathy

I am always interested when the topic of empathy enters politics. This week, Time published a Viewpoint piece by Eric Liu, entitled “Only Empathy Can Transform the GOP.” He examines the push for self-reflection taking place as the party tries to regroup from the loss in November. He notes that much of the discussion treats the significant loss among minority group voters as if it was merely a marketing problem. That is, the GOP message is fine, only the packaging need be changed. Instead, he suggests the problem is in the product, namely, an ideology that reflects “a profound lack of empathy.”
 

 
January 1, 2013 - Empathy in Fiction
 "I have just finished reading The Best American Short Stories, 2012 edition, edited by Tom Perrotta. At the end of the book are the Contributor’s Notes. This Note, by Jess Walter, author of “Anything Helps”, captures beautifully how our own assumptions and judgments get in the way of empathy:"
 

 

April 30, 2012 - The Limits of Empathy

"For intriguing thoughts on the role — and limits — of empathy in politics, see the blog post by Thomas B. Edsall in today’s New York Times entitled Finding the Limits of Empathy. The research on which he relies suggests that empathy means different things, and has different beneficiaries, for liberals and conservatives"

 

 

December 4, 2011 -  Empathy and Evil
 "For those who are interested in exploring the importance of empathy in human interactions, the program “How Evil Are You?” on the Discovery Channel is well worth watching.  Eli Roth looks at the question from both social and physiological perspectives. From the social perspective, he recreates portions of the infamous Milgram experiments to examine whether people can (still) be influenced by authority to inflict pain on another person. From the physiological perspective, he undergoes brain and DNA tests for physiological markers of empathy, aggression, and selfishness in order to identify his own propensity for evil."