Elizabeth A. Segal is a social
policy analyst with a background in professional social work. She
currently holds the position of Professor in the School of Social Work
at Arizona State University. Dr. Segal's current research is on social
empathy, the application of empathic insights into creating better
social welfare policies and programs. She has begun work on creating a
compendium of methods to teach social empathy and an instrument to
measure people's inclination towards social empathy.
Our ability to understand others and help others
understand us is essential to our individual and collective well-being.
Yet there are many barriers that keep us from walking in the shoes of
others: fear, skepticism, and power structures that separate us from
those outside our narrow groups.
To progress in a multicultural world and
ensure our common good, we need to overcome these obstacles. Our best
hope can be found
in the skill of empathy.
(Google Preview)
In Social Empathy, Elizabeth A. Segal explains how we can develop our
ability to understand one another and have compassion toward different
social groups. ... Our ability to understand others and help others
understand us is essential to our individual and collective well-being.
Preface
1. What Is Empathy?
2. Why Do We Need Empathy?
3. If It's So Important, Why Is Empathy So Hard?
4. Are Power and Politics Barriers to Empathy?
5. What If Stress, Depression, and Other Health Factors Block Empathy?
6. Where Is Religion in Empathy?
7. Can We Have Empathy with Technology?
8. Social Empathy - Making the World a Better Place
Epilogue: Teaching Social Empathy
Notes
Index
In Assessing Empathy, Elizabeth A. Segal and colleagues marshal years of
research to present a comprehensive definition of empathy, one that
links neuroscientific evidence to human service practice. The book
begins with a discussion of our current understanding of empathy in
neurological, biological, and behavioral terms. The authors explain why
empathy is important on both the individual and societal levels. They
then introduce the concepts of interpersonal empathy and social empathy,
and how these processes can interrelate or operate separately. Finally,
they examine the weaknesses of extant empathy assessments before
introducing three new, validated measures: the Empathy Assessment Index,
the Social Empathy Index, and the Interpersonal and Social Empathy
Index."
1. What Is Empathy?
2. The Building Blocks of Empathy
3. Why Is Empathy Important?
4. Why Is Empathy So Difficult to Achieve?
5. Linking Interpersonal and Social Empathy
6. Tools for Measuring and Assessing Empathy
Appendix A. Research and Statistical Analysis of the Relationship
Between Interpersonal Empathy and Social Empathy
Appendix B. Empathy Assessment Index
Appendix C. Social Empathy Index
Appendix D. Interpersonal and Social Empathy Index
Appendix E. Spanish Translation of the Empathy Assessment Index, the
Social Empathy Index, and the Interpersonal and Social Empathy Index, by
David Becerra and Marķa del Rosario Silva Arciniega
References
Index
Blog
'Dr. Segal's current research is on social empathy, the application
of empathic insights into creating better social welfare policies and
programs. She has begun work on creating a compendium of methods to
teach social empathy and an instrument to measure people's inclination
towards social empathy. The goal is to develop the instrument to use it
as a future tool to gauge the effectiveness of the teaching methods.'
Blog on Psychology Today
What We Say Matters
Words express our emotions, what we are thinking and
feeling. Those emotions are read by others, and influence how others
respond to us. Our words matter.
Empathy for Immigrants
Have you ever wondered about your ancestors and what was it like for
them to come to this country? Now use empathy to imagine that they
were coming today.
When We Don't Apologize
Mistakes happen. How do we get past them and repair the
damage? Apologizing is an important way. And empathy plays a big part
in helping us apologize.
On the anniversary of Charlottesville, we are reminded
of how destructive a lack of social empathy can be.
The Building Blocks of Empathy
Human beings share the potential to experience the full
scope of empathy. We can all work to develop the building blocks that
lead to empathy.
If we step into the place of another we might feel
empathy, but not necessarily. Empathy is complex and takes a number of
unconscious and conscious abilities to make it happen.
We propose that a targeted and
structured explication of empathy is a useful, if not essential,
foundation for social work theory and practice. We outline a social
work framework for empathy, one that is rooted in an
interdisciplinary context, emphasizes recent findings in the field
of social cognitive neuroscience, and yet is embedded in a social
work context..., students can learn to use their knowledge, values,
and skills, informed by empathy, to take empathic action
consciously.
Empathy Is More Than "I Hear You"
There is no one place in the brain where empathy happens.
Aug 02, 2018
"My goal in starting this blog is to share knowledge about the
complexity of empathy, to teach about the components that make up
empathy, to show how we can engage in better levels of interpersonal and
social empathy, and to explain why we would want to do that. With
greater levels of interpersonal and social empathy, we can relate better
to one another individually and in groups, and create public policies
that address societal concerns. Although empathy is complex and it takes
effort to fully learn how to be empathic, the reward for doing so is
great, for us and our communities. I look forward to sharing more about
what I have learned over the years."
