Lidewij Niezink hosts the Empathy and Charter for
Compassion groups on Linkedin. Her Ph.D was in empathy and altruism. She
is a strategic advisor, trainer and innovator, and helps organizations,
groups and individuals to implement different aspects of empathic concern
into their professional as well as private lives.
How to build a culture of empathy? Stop looking for the qualities of
empathy and compassion outside of ourselves. We ALL possess these
qualities already (as research is showing us). Develop and make use of the
methods offered to cultivate empathy and compassion within ourselves
according to what speaks to our individual minds and hearts...
Practicing Empathy in
Business for Better Results with Dr Lidewij Niezink
Dr. Lidewij Niezink is an independent scholar and practitioner who
focuses on the development of empathy theory and education. She
dedicates her professional life to the integration of fundamental and
applied research from science in psychology, philosophy, social
neuroscience, arts, and anthropology, with practice-based experiential
methods.
- Empathy Circles: a Blended Empathy Practice "As of 2012, I have been working with Edwin Rutsch of
the Center for Building a Culture of Empathy to build a hands on,
walking the talk, empathy practice. We designed the Empathy Circles as
one way of practising empathy. The circles are based in science from
many different disciplines such as psychology, neuroscience, biology,
philosophy and arts (i.e. dance and literature)."
November 24, 2015
- Empathy Prologue: Setting your Intention
"The universal intention of the Empathy Circles is to build a Culture of
Empathy. The noun culture stems directly from Latin 'cultura' which
means 'growing, cultivation'. So in building a culture of empathy we
want to empathically grow, cultivate and transform society. We foster
empathy within ourselves, the circle, our family and friends, our
communities and finally, within the world at large."
Dec 1, 2015 - Phase One: Arriving with Self-Empathy
"After setting our intention (as I have described in my previous post),
we turn our attention towards ourselves first. The first step in
practising empathy is becoming aware of our own inner state:
self-empathy. The primary function of self-empathy is an
insight-enhancing function."
I’ve researched the effects of empathy and perspective
taking on helping behavior and altruism. Perspective taking is an
important human capacity and the cognitive part of empathic concern.
When we try to imagine what others are thinking, feeling or
experiencing, we tend to ask ourselves: “how would I think/feel if I
were in the shoes of that other person?” In social psychology, this is
what we call an imagine-self perspective.
How can we make sure that the research on empathy and compassion
contributes to this changing world? By turning it into practice: Empathy
Circles combine research from different scientific disciplines into one
instrument which helps us to walk the talk.
1. Stop looking for/longing for/ (dis-)believing in the qualities of
empathy and compassion outside of ourselves. We ALL possess these
qualities already (as research is showing us). They are part of our
cognitive and emotional repertoire. There is nothing to expect out there,
it is inhere.
2. Develop and make use of the methods offered to cultivate empathy and
compassion within ourselves according to what speaks to our
individual minds and hearts.
3. Stop reading and writing and believing in only half of the human
make-up. Balance ego-focus and other-focus. Fearlessly Love others as
well as ourselves. As Loreal puts it: because we are worth it! ;-)
Considering Others in Need: On Altruism, Empathy
and Perspective Taking PhD Thesis
-
@Academia.edu
"In the social psychological literature, empathy is seen
as an emotional response which evokes the altruistic motivation to help
others. One cognitive tool to increase the experience of empathy is
perspective taking. The current dissertation investigates how different
perspectives on the suffering of others, in combination with individual
differences and situational variations, lead to empathy and the
willingness to help those others. It also explores how empathy has been
measured within psychology in the past five decades.
On the basis of new data, a more optimal measurement of
the construct is proposed, by dividing the original measure into two new
scales: a sympathy and a tenderheartedness scale. These concepts are
subsequently distinguished from related concepts such as emotional
contagion, personal distress and compassion. Finally, a new model is
proposed in which altruistic behaviour is a consequence of several
choices one can make while perceiving the suffering of others."
Contents
Chapter 1 General Introduction
Egoistic Motivation
Empathy and Altruistic Motivation
Cognitive mechanism: Perspective Taking
Perspective Taking and Social Comparison
Different Perspectives for Friends and Family
Reconsidering the Concept of Empathy
Overview of the present dissertation
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter5
Chapter 2 When Your Suffering Becomes Mine: The
Influence of Social Comparison Orientation on Affect
Resulting in a Willingness to Help Others
Study 2.1
Study 2.2
General Discussion
Chapter 3 Psychological Motivators of Altruism Among
Kin and Friends
Study 3.1: University Student Sample
Study 3.2: Community Sample
General Discussion
Chapter 4 What Happened to Pandora’s Box:
Reconsidering the Measurement of State Empathy
Defining Empathy within Psychology
Review Factor Analysis
Nine Factor Analyses based on new data
The Discriminatory Power of the newly appeared scales
of Sympathy and Tenderheartedness
Conclusion
Chapter 5 Summary and Discussion
Summary
Relations with other Research
Altruism, from inclination to choice
Limitations and Ruminations
Conclusion
Reference
Notes:
why are academics always so concerned about suffering (person in need) and
the alleviation of suffering? They don't look much at the nature of
empathy and how it applies to the wider variety of human experiences.
