INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL HARMONY THROUGH EMPATHY

Abstract

Empathy, a concept that involves an interpersonal experience is found in all aspects of the social universe, especially in prosocial behavior, morality and regulation of aggression. In the context of the major medical and social crisis caused by the pandemic, the need to develop empathic social skills becomes a pressing need. Anxiety generated by the threat of disease and death has led to the emergence of paradoxical individual or social behaviors. Thus, by disturbing the cognitive harmony of the individual - irrational thoughts in relation to contamination and illness or on the contrary the denial of the disease was destructured emotional harmony (anxiety, depression, psychosomatic manifestations) with adverse consequences at the individual and subsequent social level. The objective manifestation of disharmonious cognitions and emotions materialized in the manifestation of maladaptive behaviors. The present paper is an analysis of the two theories on empathy - Simulation Theory and Mind Theory in order to improve prosocial behavior in a pandemic context. Studies show the significant influences of social and cultural factors on the empathic capacity of the individual. In this sense, it is important to emphasize that empathic skills can be learned and developed in relation to the environment and the social context. Understanding the concept of social empathy is important by being able to provide a model of thinking and action that opens new ways of contextual approach to the current situation that could ultimately lead to alleviating the crisis and improving social conditions by adopting an adaptive behavior in according to the limits imposed by the new epidemiological situation.