A Reconsideration of the Developmental Study of Empathy

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Abstract
A conception of empathy based on an ordinary language analysis is presented. Within this conception, the nature of the processes and skills involved in any specific case of empathy are shown to depend upon particular dimensions of the situational context, the nature of the emotions involved in the empathee’s feeling-state, and the manner in which those feelings are expressed. It is argued that providing a comprehensive view of these dimensions and their developmental components is theoretically preferable to other approaches (such as the decentration view of empathy) which do not attend to the varying role of cognitive, affective, and social factors in different types of empathetic situations.

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