Empathic Experience Research Articles

ШЛЯХИ ФОРМУВАННЯ НАЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ САМОСВІДОМОСТІ ПІДРОСТАЮЧОГО ПОКОЛІННЯ ЗАСОБАМИ УКРАЇНСЬКОГО МУЗИЧНОГО МИСТЕЦТВА

The article considers the historical aspect of educating the national identity of the Ukrainian people. The views of scholars on the concept of «national identity», its features, significance in the socio-cultural and pedagogical context. The importance of Ukrainian folk art, its huge potential for educating the national identity of the younger generation is substantiated. The role of national song folklore in patriotic education of students, features of musical language (coded codes), which formed the «national musical genotype» as a set of hereditary musical structures and means passed down through the generations, forming its unique mentality and national character. It is determined that the song, influencing the emotional – sensory sphere of man, causes empathic experience of his artistic image. At the same time, there is a process of «inner intonation», ie reflexive, unconscious singing of the listener with the sounding work. Therefore, during individual classes of students in classes on «choral conducting», «voice» «future music teachers got acquainted with the peculiarities of Ukrainian folk culture», folk vocal music, educational influence of song folklore on the spiritual development of students, namely the education of patriots of our state. During the «Folk Singing Workshop» students had to record 5-10 songs of their region, learn about the peculiarities of the singing style of different regions of Ukraine, decipher their melodic coded codes and analyze the figurative content of the musical work. While studying the normative discipline «Theory and Methods of Music Education» students got acquainted with the features of musical folklore – the treasury of age-old traditions of the Ukrainian people, with types of folklore activities: folk epics (proverbs and sayings, fairy tales, legends, historical songs, etc.). At the same time, it is necessary to study folk songs, to continue the search for coded codes in the musical language of song folklore, which reported on the mentality, the characteristics of the national idea of the Ukrainian people. At the same time, it is necessary to study the peculiarities of the phenomenon of «national consciousness» and the ways of its development.

Caring as the Default of Empathic Direct Perception

The phenomenological understanding of empathy as the direct experiencing of the mental states (feelings, intentions, moods) of others eschews the identification of empathy with caring. At the same time, it leaves open the possibility of sadistic pleasure, indifference, or malice as consequences of empathic experience. In this paper, I intend to defend the place of caring as an inseparable part of the empathic experience, specifically when understood as direct perception. My defense relies on (a) conceiving of attentive concern as a perceptual predisposition, and (b) understanding the caring responsiveness of the empathizer as embedded in her direct perception of the empathee's mental states. My claim proceeds by three steps. Firstly, I will present the need to include caring within empathy through the problem that arises from excluding it. Secondly, I will argue for the presence of active responsiveness, inherent in the phenomenological concept of perception and expressed more explicitly in its Gibsonian understanding. Thirdly, I will propose my understanding of attentive concern as a predisposition, which together with the intentionality attributed to the other (itself also a disposition) forms the pre-perceptual basis for identifying empathy with caring.

Game design guidelines to foster empathic behaviours in school-age children

Empathy supports social development and fosters deep social connections among people. It refers to affective expressions that enable people to understand others and share experiences with them. Childhood is a crucial stage for developing empathy, in which play activities are significant opportunities to exercise empathic behaviour. This research aimed to understand how the design of games can stimulate empathic experiences in school-age children. We used action research to develop guidelines for the design of games to foster empathic behaviour. A group of specialists (designers and psychologists) elaborated design guidelines. They were applied in the development of a game called ‘Me too!’. The game was tested with 28 children from the third year of elementary school. Content Analysis allowed the classification of empathic behaviours into three theoretical categories (affective response, cognitive process and empathic attitudes), indicating the design guidelines' relevance.

Comprehending Dance through Empathy: A Spectator’s Total Body-Mind Experience of Watching Wind of May (Moon, 2020)

This article advances a hermeneutico-phenomenological enquiry into the lived experience of watching the recently created ballet, Wind of May (Moon, 2020), to examine the role of empathy in comprehending this dance performance. Drawing on Edith Stein’s work, it shows how dance spectatorship entails dynamic interactions between the core processes of empathy formation, namely, direct multimodal perception, emotional engagement, and cognitive thinking. It further employs Dee Reynolds’s concept of ‘affect’ to highlight how empathic experience can be physically embodied yet non-emotional. In doing so, it argues that empathy involves a total mind-body experience that can be valuable to dance interpretation.

Queering Transgender and Translation

Queering Transgender and Translation

Challenging Empathic Deficit Models of Autism Through Responses to Serious Literature.

Dominant theoretical models of autism and resultant research enquiries have long centered upon an assumed autism-specific empathy deficit. Associated empirical research has largely relied upon cognitive tests that lack ecological validity and associate empathic skill with heuristic-based judgments from limited snapshots of social information. This artificial separation of thought and feeling fails to replicate the complexity of real-world empathy, and places socially tentative individuals at a relative disadvantage. The present study aimed to qualitatively explore how serious literary fiction, through its ability to simulate real-world empathic response, could therefore enable more ecologically valid insights into the comparative empathic experiences of autistic and non-autistic individuals. Eight autistic and seven non-autistic participants read Of Mice and Men for six days while completing a semi-structured reflective diary. On finishing the book, participants were asked to engage in three creative writing tasks that encouraged reflective thinking across the novel. Thematic and literary analysis of the diary reflections and writing tasks revealed three main themes (1) Distance from the Novel; (2) Mobility of Response; (3) Re-Creating Literature. Findings demonstrated the usefulness of serious literature as a research tool for comparing the empathic experiences of autistic and non-autistic individuals. Specifically, autistic individuals often showed enhanced socio-empathic understandings of the literature with no empathy deficits when compared to non-autistic participants.

ETHICAL CONVERSATION AS A MEANS OF DEVELOPING EMPATHY AND EMPATHIC EXPERIENCES IN CHILDREN OF THE PREPARATORY GROUP FOR SCHOOL

The article discusses the concept of «ethical conversation» in the perspective of the work of a teacher with children of a preparatory school group on a fairy tale in a preschool educational organization. The author comes to the conclu- sion that ethical conversation is an effective means of developing empathy and «empathic experiences» (empathy, empathy, assistance) in preschool children.

The Pleasure and Pain of Passing as (Dis)abled: Rudi Dutschke’s Exile in the United Kingdom (1968–1971) and the Ableism of the West German Student Movement

The Pleasure and Pain of Passing as (Dis)abled: Rudi Dutschke’s Exile in the United Kingdom (1968–1971) and the Ableism of the West German Student Movement

Empathy is the ability of a medical worker affecting the level of patient satisfaction with medical care

The aim of the study is to determine the role of empathy of medical workers in medical and surgical departments in patient satisfaction with medical care. Results. Therapists are characterized by emotional empathy and the ability to identify with the patient; surgeons are characterized by a rational component of empathic experience. Conclusion. Patient satisfaction with the provision of medical care reveals a dependence on the level of empathy of medical professionals with a therapeutic profile, but does not depend on the ability to empathize with medical professionals of a surgical profile.

Expanding Empathic and Perceptive Awareness: The experience of attunement in Contact Improvisation and Body Weather

Dance as a complex human activity is a rich test case for exploring perception in action. In this article, we explore a 4E approach to perception/action in dance, focussing on the intersubjective and ecological aspects of kinaesthetic attunement and their capacity to expand empathic and perceptive experience. We examine the question: what are the ways in which the performance ecology co-created in different dance practices influences empathic and perceptive experience? We adopt an enactive ethnographic and phenomenological approach to explore two distinct dance forms: Contact Improvisation [CI], a duet-system based practice aimed at fostering interkinaesthetic awareness and challenging habits of movement; and Body Weather [BW], an anti-hierarchical movement practice sensitive to the surrounding environment. We argue that through intersubjective kinaesthetic attunement, CI scaffolds the development of perceptive awareness of subtle shifts within ourselves and others, allowing the cultivation of a capacity for flexibly traversing between conscious initiation of action, attuned responding, and the intersection between them. Similarly, we investigate the expansion of perceptive experience through kinaesthetic attunement in BW. We suggest that the capacity for empathy is enhanced in BW through drawing attention to, and perception of, the fullness of a place in a way that we do not typically experience. By focussing on the variations in which embodied perceptual skills are enacted in specific dance forms and the expansion of perceptive experience through kinaesthetic attunement, we stress the potential of the performing arts to cultivate and create new ways of empathic engagement with the world in which we find ourselves.

Music therapists’ empathic experiences of shared and differing orientations to religion and spirituality in the client-therapist relationship

This paper reports on the findings of a study with 14 music therapists, exploring how they experienced (a) the interface/overlap between their own religious and/or spiritual beliefs and those of their clients; (b) the navigation of this interface/overlap within music therapy practice; and (c) whether/how they used empathy when engaging in this navigation. Four main findings were identified through thematic analysis of in-depth interviews. Firstly, according to these music therapists, spirituality and/or religion frequently play an important role within music therapy sessions. Secondly, these music therapists described cognitive and affective empathic experiences with clients as well as experiences of spiritually resonant empathy and transpersonal empathy. Thirdly, they identified relationships between their own religious and spiritual journeys, their experiences of identifying and/or not identifying with their clients, and their experiences of empathy. Fourthly, the intersections between what they felt they “should” do as music therapists and what they felt they “should” do in light of their religious/spiritual orientations informed their styles of practice and elicited challenges in the therapeutic process which they used particular strategies to navigate.

The effect of 5 nights of sleep restriction on empathic propensity

Literature supports the existence of a significant relationship between sleep quality/quantity and empathy. However, empathic ability and empathic propensity are distinct constructs. Expression of empathic propensity depends on the subjective cognitive costs attributed to the empathic experience. Studies on the effects of the experimental reduction in sleep duration on empathic behaviour are still lacking. Therefore, we investigated the consequences of 5 consecutive nights of sleep restriction on empathic propensity. A total of 42 university students (mean [SEM] age 24.09[0.65]years; 22 females) underwent a cross-over design consisting of 5 consecutive nights of regular sleep and 5 consecutive nights of sleep restriction with a maximum of 5hr sleep/night. After each condition, all participants were evaluated using the Empathy Selection Task, a new test assessing the motivated avoidance of empathy for its associated cognitive costs. The results showed different effects of sleep restriction depending on the habitual way of responding in the empathic context. Participants with baseline high levels of empathic propensity reduced their empathic propensity after prolonged sleep restriction. Differently, participants who tended to avoid empathising already in the habitual sleep condition maintained their empathic behaviour unchanged after sleep curtailment. In conclusion, inter-individual variability should be taken into account when evaluating the effects of sleep restriction on empathic propensity. People with habitual higher tendency to empathise could choose to avoid empathic experience following several consecutive nights of inadequate sleep.

Beyond Sharing Unpleasant Affect-Evidence for Pain-Specific Opioidergic Modulation of Empathy for Pain.

It is not known how specific the neural mechanisms underpinning empathy for different domains are. In the present study, we set out to test whether shared neural representations between first-hand pain and empathy for pain are pain-specific or extend to empathy for unpleasant affective touch as well. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and psychopharmacological experiments, we investigated if placebo analgesia reduces first-hand and empathic experiences of affective touch, and compared them with the effects on pain. Placebo analgesia also affected the first-hand and empathic experience of unpleasant touch, implicating domain-general effects. However, and in contrast to pain and pain empathy, administering an opioid antagonist did not block these effects. Moreover, placebo analgesia reduced neural activity related to both modalities in the bilateral insular cortex, while it specifically modulated activity in the anterior midcingulate cortex for pain and pain empathy. These findings provide causal evidence that one of the major neurochemical systems for pain regulation is involved in pain empathy, and crucially substantiates the role of shared representations in empathy.

A Triangle Design Framework for Functional Footwear for Chinese Older Adults

Well-designed functional footwear can reduce health hazards in various environments. Considering the particular needs of older adults, the design of footwear must address multifunctional demands, which requires the use of the latest technology and extensive research. Focusing on Chinese older adults, this paper proposed a triangle design framework to single out critical research functions of design. It contributes to user-centered design literature by mapping out a logical, comprehensive design flow that integrates a service platform in the framework, in addition to the foci on designers and older users. The main functions of the service platform included surveying and analyzing demand, creating an empathic experience for the designers, capturing the perceptual cognition of older adults, and evaluating the product. The users’ requirements are classified according to the physiological function of older adults as well as usage scenarios. The suggested design flow is user-centered and demand-oriented, and the empathy concept is incorporated into all aspects of design. Both physical and mental health are expected to be improved to promote active aging for older adults as a result of implementing this design framework.

Novels about the “erased”: The social-critical discourse in Slovenian prose of the 2010s

The increasing attention that writers pay to the consequences of cardinal political and sociocultural changes in the life of Slovenia is one of the trends observed in the national prose in the first decades of the 21st century, indicating that the socio-critical discourse has been gradually returning to literature. At this time one of the most pressing problems of independent Slovenia comes to the attention of novelists’ field of vision — that is, the fate of the so-called “erased”, persons with Yugoslav passports, who at the time of the proclamation of sovereignty were living and working in Slovenia and for political and bureaucratic reasons were excluded from the register of its permanent residents. In 1992, the newly proclaimed democratic state deprived them of their citizenship status, that resulted in ethnic cleansing of over 25 thousands of such people. The truth about this “inconvenient” episode has been hushed up or falsified for years. The writers M. Mazzini, P. Glavan and D. Bauck in their novels “Izbrisana” (2014), “Kakorkoli” (2014) and “Konec. Znova” (2015) seek to use the ethical potential of the artistic word to convey the practice of empathic experience. Despite the difference in genre varieties (thriller, social novel, novel with elements of surrealism), all three texts are united by the mimetic method proposed by the authors to overcome the collective trauma and collective guilt through artistic expression. Drawing the readers’ attention to the actual social conflict, writers, each in their own way, seek to destroy the stereotypes of its perception existing in the society.

Detached empathic experience of others’ pain in remitted states of depression – An fMRI study

BackgroundMajor depressive disorder is strongly associated with impairments and difficulties in social interactions. Deficits in empathy, a vital skill for social interactions, have been identified as a risk factor for relapse. However, research on empathy in remitted states of depression is scarce. We chose a social neuroscience approach to investigate potentially altered neural processes involved in sub-components of empathy in remitted states of depression. We expected aberrations in cognitive components of empathy, based on previous reports regarding their role as risk factors for relapse. MethodsEmploying functional magnetic resonance imaging and a pain empathy task (video clips of painful medical treatments), we compared behavioral and neural empathic responses of unmedicated remitted depressive patients (N = 32) to those of untreated acutely depressed patients (N = 29) and healthy controls (N = 35). Self-report ratings of pain evaluation and affect-sharing were obtained. ResultsCompared to controls and acutely depressed patients, remitted depressive patients reported higher pain evaluation and showed increased activity in the right temporo-parietal junction. This region, which is central to self-other distinction and which has been linked to adopting a detached perspective, also exhibited reduced connectivity to the anterior insula. Furthermore, we observed reduced activity in regions involved in emotion processing (amygdala) and perception of affective facial expressions (fusiform face area, posterior superior temporal sulcus). ConclusionsRemitted states of depression are associated with a detached empathic style in response to others’ pain, characterized by increased self-other distinction, lowered affective processing, and reduced connectivity between empathy-related brain regions. Although this may prevent emotional harm in specific situations, it may reduce opportunities for positive experiences in social interactions in the long run.

Graded Empathy: A Neuro-Phenomenological Hypothesis.

The neuroscience of empathy has enormously expanded in the past two decades, thereby making instrumental progress for the understanding of neural substrates involved in affective and cognitive aspects of empathy. Yet, these conclusions have relied on ultrasimplified tasks resulting in the affective/cognitive dichotomy that was often modeled and overemphasized in pathological, developmental, and genetic studies of empathy. As such, the affective/cognitive model of empathy could not straightforwardly accommodate and explain the recent surge of neuroscientific data obtained from studies employing naturalistic approaches and intergroup conditions. Inspired by phenomenological philosophy, this article paves the way for a new scientific perspective on empathy that breaks thorough the affective/cognitive dichotomy. This neuro-phenomenological account leans on phenomenological analyses and can straightforwardly explain recent neuroscience data. It emphasizes the dynamic, subjective, and piecemeal features of empathic experiences and unpicks the graded nature of empathy. The graded empathy hypothesis postulates that attending to others' expressions always facilitates empathy, but the parametric modulation in the levels of the empathic experience varies as a function of one's social interest (e.g., via intergroup or inter-personal cues) in the observed other. Drawing on multiple resources that integrate neuroscience with phenomenology, we describe the potential of this graded framework in an era of real-life experimentation. By wearing lenses of neuro-phenomenology, this original perspective can change the way empathy is considered.

Clinician’s Subjective Experience in the Cross-Cultural Psychiatric Encounter

Introduction: The clinical encounter is still at the core of the psychiatric evaluation. Since the diagnostic process remains basically clinical in nature, several authors have addressed the complexity of the clinical reasoning process and highlighted the role played by intersubjective phenomena and clinician’s feelings. Some recent studies have supported the view of a significant link between the clinician’s subjective experience during the assessment and the diagnosis made. In a globalized world, this issue requires a careful reflection, since cultural differences may affect the intersubjective atmosphere of the encounter, which may indirectly influence the clinician’s thinking. Methods: We used a previously validated instrument, named Assessment of Clinician’s Subjective Experience (ACSE), to compare the clinician’s subjective experience during the evaluation of Italian patients with the subjective experience of the same clinician during the assessment of foreign patients. The 2 patient groups (n = 42 each) were individually matched for known potential confounders (age, sex, categorical diagnosis, and clinical severity). Results: We found no significant differences in mean scores on all ACSE dimensions (tension, difficulty in attune­ment, engagement, disconfirmation, and impotence), which suggests that cultural diversity did not substantially affect the clinician’s subjective experience. However, the lack of information about the native country and linguistic proficiency of about a quarter of foreign patients may have limited the possibility to detect subtle or specific differences, especially with regard to the clinician’s empathic attunement. Conclusions: Although further investigation is needed, our preliminary findings may have significant implications for the reflection upon the clinician’s empathic experience as well as pragmatic consequences for the act of psychiatric diagnosis in the cross-cultural encounter.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ПЕРЕЖИВАННЯ ПОЧУТТЯ ЩАСТЯ МОЛОДДЮ І ДОРОСЛИМИ В УМОВАХ ЗАХОДІВ ПРОТИДІЇ COVID-19

У статті розглянуто актуальність проблеми особливостей переживання почуття щастя в умовах самоізоляції, соціального дистанціювання, обмеження активності й карантинних заходів, пов’язаних із COVID-19. Розкрито особливості переживання почуттів різної модальності, зокрема, почуття щастя. Проаналізовано чинники та детермінанти впливу на емоційну сферу особистості. Визначено, що соціальні зв’язки є першочерговими для переживання почуття щастя. Такі соціальні контакти мають характеризуватись глибиною, якістю та частотою. Описано особливості почуття щастя залежно від його спрямованості: на стан «тут-і-тепер» і на спрямованість у майбутнє, а також наголошено на афективному, когнітивному та евдемоністичному компонентах щастя. Розроблено широку авторську форму-опитувальник, яка містить пакет різноспрямованих методів: опитувальник, елементи проективних методів (незакінчені речення), асоціативний метод, самоаналіз і самоспостереження, психодіагностична рефлексія. За допомогою зазначених вище методів емпірично встановлено, що почуття щастя молоді й дорослих характеризується ієрархією станів від більш до менш значущого: стан фізичного, психологічного, духовного благополуччя близьких, комфорту, безпеки і спокою, стан щастя як трансцендентне переживання, стан почуттєвої орієнтації на майбутнє. Існують відмінності в об’єктивному сприйнятті щастя та його суб’єктивному переживанні: здоров’я рідних і близьких поєднується з прагненням знаходитись у колі родини та найближчого оточення. Почуття щастя у респондентів загалом спродуковане здоров’ям, присутністю близьких, самоздійсненням, самоствердженням і досягненням цілей. Встановлено статистично значущий зв’язок між усвідомленням почуття власного щастя і наявністю стійких стосунків (родинних, сімейних, подружніх, романтичних, дружніх) (0,323); між усвідомленням щастя та частотою й рівнем соціальної активності, у які були включені досліджувані в докарантинний період (0,221). Визначено, що щастя є чинником подолання негативних переживань в умовах сучасних кризових трансформаційних суспільних процесів.

Dialog w Sonacie na dwoje skrzypiec op. 10 Henryka Mikołaja Góreckiego z perspektywy wykonawcy

The article aims at defining the specificity of dialogue in Sonata for two violins Op. 10 by Hen- ryk Mikolaj Gorecki from the point of view of the performer. This piece, though created in the early period of the composer’s career, belongs to important examples of this genre in 20th century Euro- pean music. With regard to the declared aim, various versions of the dialogue in this sonata were examined. The issue of dialogue in the discussed piece is presented in the context of the individual composer’s style. In order to address the core matter, the analysis of all three movements of the sonata cycle was carried out in terms of different forms of dialogue between the two violins. Gorecki’s Sonata represents very interesting types of dialogic communication, conveying various emotional contents: from rivalry to harmony, from expression – sometimes utterly harsh – to joint reflection, from grotesque to contemplation. This piece features a rich sound coloring, which the Master achieves through sonoristic effects and extensive use of dissonant consonances and dynamic contrasts. The piece shows also an excellent sense of the sound space in which the soloists perform. Spatial changes effects are achieved by means of, among other things, rapid shifts from the lowest registers to the highest ones. The „instrumental drama” is accompanied by colorful „dec- orations”, with a wide range of feelings typical of Gorecki. The parts of two violins carry out a polyphonic narration. The voices of each „protagonist” receive a different reaction in their vis-a-vis, and in the last part they unite in an expressive, unrestrained dance movement. It is precisely this variety of musical material and the dialogues of the soloists in different categories of perspectives that provide this piece with an intensity of empathic experiences, evoked both in listeners and in performers.