Empathy Training

Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from
within or other persons frame of reference.
Empathy is defined as the perception of the internal frame of reference of another with
accuracy and with the emotional components and meanings which pertain there to as if
one were the person, but without ever losing the as if condition.(Carl Rogers)
2 major components of Empathy

1. Affective Empathy (Emotional Empathy): The capacity to respond with an appropriate

emotion to another persons mental state.
2. Cognitive Empathy: The capacity to understand another persons perspective or mental state.

Empathy Training
Feschbach&Feschbach first demonstrated the effectiveness of empathy training program in
promoting prosocial behavior and reducing aggression.
Feshbacks 3 components Model of Empathy training involves
1.Discrimination of affect: For a child or adult to react empathetically to another individuals
sadness or joy or any other emotional state ,the person must be able to identify the relevant
affective cues that discriminate these emotional states fro each other and from neutral affective
state.
Exercises: Using photographs with different facial expressions including microexpressions, Tape
recordings of affect laden conversation, videos of emotional situations.
2. Perspective Taking: The ability to assume the perspective and role of another person. It is as
though the observer can view the situation determining the emotion in a similar way as the
individual who is actually experiencing the event.
Exercises: Listening to stories and identifying each characters position, feelings
Role playing-playing one role and then switching on to another role
3. Ability to respond affectively: Being able to respond with the appropriate affect
Exercises: Role play, Story listening
References
Aggression in children and Youth-Kaplan

The Prepare Curriculum: Teaching prosocial competencies-Goldstein

Prepared by
-Krishna