The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language defines empathy as the feeling of identification with someone or the ability to identify with someone and share their feelings. This is one of the requirements of emotional intelligence, it is related to understanding, support and active listening.
In this article we want to delve into the relevance, scope, and repercussions of empathy in personal growth. We will briefly treat empathy in childhood, here You have articles to delve into the subject, and empathy in teaching, as well as some general questions.
Empathy and development of people
From developmental psychology, the concept of empathy as a multidimensional construction, in which the cognitive component is taken into account. This includes recognizing and understanding the emotions of others. and an emotional component, which consists of sharing the affection or the indirect response.
FOR interrelate with our peers we must do it without causing conflicts, from the respect for rights, to the feelings of others, their emotions, ideas, and knowing how to listen carefully. That is why empathy is so important because it affects social behaviors, such as family relationships, partners, friendship, aggression, altruistic behaviors, attitude towards strangers.
One of the functions that empathy fulfills is motivation, as it amplifies or intensifies the motivation to alleviate the need for another person. Empathy also makes it easier for us to get to know others, and discover their reasons for anger, joy or discouragement. Undoubtedly this ability, as well as feeling, develops in us the ability to motivate and channel ourselves, ourselves and others.
How empathy arises in childhood
Hoffman is the leading theorist on developing empathy in childhood. This author acknowledges two dimensions to study in children's empathy:
- the recognition of the internal states of others and
- the indirect affective response.
Hoffman explains that the way in which empathy begins and develops in children is through affect and cognition and goes beyond an approach to the information process. Therefore, it develops parallel to the stages of social cognitive development. Empathy occurs from the moment of birth. What happens is that until the first year, the baby still does not perceive others as different from himself. So the pain you perceive in others is confused with your own unpleasant feelings.
In the more advanced stages, already in the final period of childhood, the child recognizes others as physical entities other than self, with internal states independent of the subject itself. At a mature level of empathy, the child will be more influenced by the vital condition of the other than by the immediate situation. The child distinguishes between transitory and chronic states, this ability will be essential for the development of a full future life.
Importance of a spatic school
If we talk about empathy in teaching, it is because of its importance in the daily lives of our children, and of families. In addition, different studies confirm at school offers great benefits in the intellectual and academic development of students, female students.
Empathetic teachers, with the ability to see beyond grades, are capable of read to children and adolescents, understand them and understand how they feel in situations. These types of teachers are essential for quality training, because they are determinants of student success.
Empathic teachers are essential to protect the little ones, help them in their inclusion with their peers and understand their needs. In addition to boost them to motivation, and improve their academic skills. In the case of adolescents, empathy is manifested by watching and listening, with a more apparently passive attitude. It is time to pay attention to what each young person does, and to be open to their concerns.