empathy in social work essay

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The Role of Empathy in Health and Social Care Professionals

Maria moudatsou.

1 Department of Social Work, Hellenic Mediterranean University, 71410 Heraklion, Greece; rg.oohay@muostaduom

2 Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Approaches for the Enhancement of Quality of Life (Quality of Life Lab), Hellenic Mediterranean University, 71410 Heraklion, Greece; moc.liamg@uoluoporvatsitera

3 Centre of Mental Health, 71201 Heraklion, Greece

Areti Stavropoulou

4 Nursing Department, University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece

Anastas Philalithis

5 Department of Social Medicine, Medical School, University of Crete, 70013 Heraklion, Greece; rg.cou@lalihp

Sofia Koukouli

The current article is an integrative and analytical literature review on the concept and meaning of empathy in health and social care professionals. Empathy, i.e., the ability to understand the personal experience of the patient without bonding with them, constitutes an important communication skill for a health professional, one that includes three dimensions: the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral. It has been proven that health professionals with high levels of empathy operate more efficiently as to the fulfillment of their role in eliciting therapeutic change. The empathetic professional comprehends the needs of the health care users, as the latter feel safe to express the thoughts and problems that concern them. Although the importance of empathy is undeniable, a significantly high percentage of health professionals seem to find it difficult to adopt a model of empathetic communication in their everyday practice. Some of the factors that negatively influence the development of empathy are the high number of patients that professionals have to manage, the lack of adequate time, the focus on therapy within the existing academic culture, but also the lack of education in empathy. Developing empathetic skills should not only be the underlying objective in the teaching process of health and social care undergraduate students, but also the subject of the lifelong and continuous education of professionals.

1. Introduction

Communication skills have been described as the most important ability for a health professional. Efficient communication depends upon the therapist feeling certain that they have really heard and recorded the health care user’s needs so as to provide personalized care [ 1 ]. It is important for health professionals to understand people’s feelings, opinions and experiences in order to assess their real needs and act accordingly, offering tailor-made services. Reaching that goal makes the development of empathetic skills necessary [ 2 ].

The concept of empathy is a common denominator for many health professionals such as nurses, doctors, psychologists, and social workers [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. The person-centered approach for the unconditional acceptance of the health care user and empathy have for years been the fundamental values in the education and implementation of clinical social practice [ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 ].

2. Material and Methods

The aim of the present paper was to analyze the concept of empathy and emphasize its importance to the health professions. The research questions under consideration have been the following: 1. What does empathy mean and which are its dimensions; 2. What are the role and meaning of empathy in health and social care professions for the therapeutic journey of the health care user; 3. How can we assess the levels of empathy in professionals (assessment tools); 4. Which factors influence empathy?

A literature search was conducted by searching PubMed and Scopus databases, to identify studies of the last fifteen years published in English and Greek language. The key-words used were ‘empathy’ and ‘health professionals’. Out of the search, 78 studies were identified that better answer the aim and purposes of the present paper. These studies were discussed and evaluated by the authoring team in order to reach consensus on the eligibility of each one with the proposed research questions. After agreement was reached, re-examination and analysis of the studies’ findings lead to the formulation of four thematic categories, namely, a) Concept definition and dimensions, b) The role of empathy in health and social care professionals, c) Assessing empathy, and d) Factors that influence empathy.

3.1. Concept Definition and Dimensions

Empathy is the ability to understand and share other people’s feelings [ 10 ]. It is a core concept as, according to the psychodynamic, behavioral and person-centered approaches, it facilitates the development of a therapeutic relationship with the health care user, providing the basis for therapeutic change [ 11 ].

Empathy was first mentioned in a psychotherapeutic context in the 1950s [ 7 ]. The person-centered approach defined it as the temporary condition that a health professional experiences in his/her effort to understand a health care user’s life without bonding with them [ 3 , 12 ].

The contemporary concept of empathy is multidimensional and consists of affective, cognitive, and behavioral aspects [ 6 , 11 , 13 ]. Throughout history, the development and integration of this concept evolved along three different time periods. Until the end of the 1950s, the cognitive dimension was mostly prevalent. From 1960 onwards, emphasis was given to the affective dimension, whereas since 1970, empathy has been defined in all its multi-dimensionality; that is, the behavioral aspect has been added to the everyday practice of the health care professionals [ 14 ].

The affective dimension consists of the concepts of caring and that of the sincere, unconditional acceptance of the health care user (congruence) [ 8 , 15 , 16 ]. Caring refers to the assistance and support as byproducts of an emotional interaction. The concept of the full and sincere unconditional acceptance refers to the approval of the ‘other’ and a consensus between people, without preconceptions or stereotypes.

The cognitive dimension pertains to the interpersonal sensitivity and the ability to understand the position the other person is in (perspective taking) [ 17 , 18 ]. Interpersonal sensitivity means objectively understanding the other person’s situation. It is a deep process of getting to know someone, based in both verbal and non-verbal cues. The ability to understand the other person’s situation refers to the flexibility and the objective understanding of the point of view of the other person (walk in their shoes, comprehending the way they perform cognitively, emotionally, and mentally) [ 17 , 18 ].

Altruism and the therapeutic relationship both belong to the behavioral dimension which develops empathy into practice [ 19 , 20 ]. Altruism is a socially directed behavior aimed at relieving difficulties, problems, and the pain associated with them [ 11 ].

Sympathy, empathy, and compassion are closely related terms that are often used interchangeably. Sympathy has been defined as an emotional reaction of pity toward the misfortune of another, especially those who are perceived as suffering unfairly [ 21 ]. Empathy is understood as a more complex interpersonal construct that involves awareness and intuition, while compassion is a ‘complementary social emotion, elicited by witnessing the suffering of others’ and is related with the feelings of concern, warmth associated to motivating of support [ 22 ]. Empathetic listening might result in compassion fatigue because of prolonged exposure to stress and all it evokes [ 23 ]. Self-care practice, well-being, and self-awareness are fundamental in enhancing empathy and reducing compassion fatigue [ 23 , 24 ].

3.2. The Role of Empathy in Health and Social Care Professionals

In a qualitative research study, nurse students, who were asked their opinion on empathy, emphasized the three dimensions of the concept [ 3 ]. Participants described it as the nurse’s ability to understand and experience other people’s feelings, thoughts, and wishes, as well as the nurse’s capacity to comprehend the emotional and cognitive state of the person they work with. To sum up, empathy is perceived as a combination of the emotional, cognitive and practical skills involved when caring for a patient [ 3 ].

Empathy is one of the fundamental tools of the therapeutic relationship between the carers and their patients and it has been proven that its contribution is vital to better health outcomes [ 8 , 25 , 26 ]. As it allows the health care providers to detect and recognize the users’ experiences, worries, and perspectives [ 27 ], it strengthens the development and improvement of the therapeutic relationship between the two parts [ 28 ]. It is widely acknowledged that the health professional’s empathetic ability leads to better therapeutic results [ 29 ].

The empathetic relationship of the health professionals with their health care users reinforces their cooperation towards designing a therapeutic plan and a tailor-made intervention, increasing thus the patient’s satisfaction from the therapeutic process. This way, quality of care is enhanced, errors are eliminated, and an increased percentage of health care recipients positively experience therapy [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. Furthermore, it has been noted that the empathetic relationship developed during the process of care reinforces the therapeutic results, as the users better comply with the therapeutic course of action [ 34 ].

Studies performed in various groups of patients with different health problems generated positive results regarding the progress of their health. Specifically, studies of patients with diabetes showed that there is an association between empathy and the positive therapeutic course of disease [ 31 , 35 ]. Moreover, patients with cancer demonstrate less stress, depression, and aggressiveness when receiving empathetic nursing care [ 36 ]. The empathetic relationship between a midwife and a future mother increases the latter’s satisfaction and lessens the stress, the agony, and the pain of the forthcoming labor as the mother feels security, trust, and encouragement [ 37 ].

Understanding based on empathy is critical to the relationship between the health professional and the recipient of care. When that happens, health care users feel secure and trust the professional’s abilities. Therefore, the distance between the expert and the patient shortens and both of them come closer, enjoying mutual benefits [ 12 ]. Moreover, a relationship based on empathy helps the therapists lessen their stress and burnout in the workplace and adds to their quality of life [ 37 , 38 ]. It has been shown that physicians who have higher levels of empathy experience less burnout or depression [ 39 , 40 ].

Empathy is especially important to the social care professions. It has been noted that the ability of the social worker for empathy and understanding of the users’ experiences and feelings plays a crucial role in social care as empathy is one of the most important skills that these professionals may employ to develop a therapeutic relationship [ 5 , 41 ].

Health care users who experience empathy during their treatment exhibit better results and a higher possibility for a potential improvement [ 42 ]. Moreover, social workers with higher levels of empathy work more efficiently and productively as to the fulfillment of their role in creating social change [ 13 ]. This happens because empathy helps the social worker understand and feel compassion towards their health care users so as the latter can feel secure to express their thoughts and problems. This way, a basis for trust is created, one that leads to therapeutic change and the improvement of the care recipient’s overall social functionality [ 13 ]. Social functionality levels are assessed by the social worker and refer to the ability of a person to accomplish their everyday activities (preparing and keeping meals, seeking accommodation, taking care of their selves, commuting) as well as their ability to fulfill social roles (parent, employee, member of a community) according to the requirements of their cultural environment [ 43 ].

Empathy contributes to the precise assessment of the situation the health care user is in. It offers the therapists the chance to make good use of non-verbal cues (behavior modeling, body movements, tone of voice, etc.) and helps them manage the user’s emotions. What is more, empathy enhances the user’s ability to comprehend reality and improve the quality of their life [ 13 ].

3.3. Assessing Empathy

Although both health care users and health professionals consider empathy as very important for the development of the therapeutic relationship and a necessary skill for a therapist, studies show a reduction of empathy in professional relationships. Often, health care users believe that health professionals do not understand the situation that health care users are in, whereas research findings showed that health professionals and health care users have different views on the communication abilities of the former, as if they come from different worlds [ 44 , 45 ]. It is especially important that—according to research findings deriving from medical student samples—empathy seems to increase in the first year of studies, but starts decreasing around the third year and remains low up to graduation [ 46 , 47 ].

As mentioned before, there are different dimensions, but also levels of empathy. Accordingly, there are different assessment scales for professionals and patient-users [ 48 ].

One of the most important tools for the quantitative assessment of empathy is the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) which was originally used to evaluate empathy in medical students [ 27 , 49 ]. Subsequently, its use was extended to other professional groups also, for example physicians, health professionals in general and students of other health professions [ 27 , 49 , 50 , 51 ]. The Jefferson scale has been used in many countries, such as the USA, Poland, Korea, Italy, Japan and has been standardized for its validity and reliability [ 12 , 49 , 50 , 52 , 53 ]. It is self-administered and completed by physicians and other health professionals who provide care to patients in clinical settings. Moreover, students of medical, nursing, and other health care sciences may also complete it. The scale includes 20 questions and the overall score ranges from twenty to one hundred and forty; higher scores indicate a better empathic relationship in the medical and therapeutic care [ 26 , 49 , 53 , 54 ].

More specifically, for social work, the Empathy Scale for Social Workers (ESSW) is a questionnaire designed for the quantitative assessment of empathy in social care professionals and students. It can be very useful in practice settings to support decision making processes, assist career choice decisions, continuing education, and supervision needs in the field of social care. Its usefulness is also underscored for potential social work supervisors, as it helps identifying the types of empathy needed while supervising clinicians and staff. The scale is a screening and self-evaluation tool completed by social work students and practitioners [ 13 ]. It consists of 41 questions and every question is marked on a five point scale and higher scores indicate higher levels of empathy [ 13 ].

3.4. Factors that Influence Empathy

As mentioned before, although research has showed the value of empathy, there are still many difficulties in regards to its implementation in the clinical practice [ 32 ]. A relatively high percentage of health professionals, about 70%, find it difficult to develop empathy with their health care users [ 32 ].

Age, self-reflection, appraisal, and emotions’ expressions were associated with women’s social workers empathy. Social workers had a higher score of empathy whenever they had previous work experience [ 55 ]. Additionally, there are studies that support that being female is associated with higher levels of empathy [ 56 , 57 ].

Research outcomes suggest that protective factors of social workers’ empathy are prosocial behavior toward work and positive personal and environmental resources [ 58 ]. Self-esteem, work engagement, and emotional regulation are also positively associated with empathy [ 58 , 59 ]. On the other hand, empathy is limited due to daily stress, that is a risk factor for burnout and compassion fatigue [ 59 , 60 ].

Empathy is positively correlated with reflective ability and emotional intelligence both in professional social workers and social work students [ 55 , 61 ]. According to a study in social work students in India, empathy and emotional intelligence were extracted as predictors of resilience through regression analysis. The authors underlined the need to enhance these attributes in social work students through the provision of appropriate curricular experiences [ 62 ].

The lack of empathy—or the low empathy levels—depends on several reasons. The most important are the large number of health care users that professionals have to deal with, the lack of adequate time, the focus on therapy, the predominant culture in medical schools, and the lack of training in empathy [ 30 ].

Further reasons include presumptions, a sense of superiority from the health professionals, and a fear of boundary violation. Time pressure, anxiety, a lack of self-awareness, and a lack of appropriate training, as well as the different socio-economic status, all the above do not favor empathy either [ 13 ].

According to scientific views from the Medicine field, empathy can be learned and Medical schools should educate their students in this respect [ 63 , 64 ]. Many studies have pointed out the necessity for future professionals to receive training in order to enhance their empathetic skills [ 64 , 65 ].

Although empathy is a core, quality principle for the health care professions, there are studies that show that health professionals cannot adequately express it and implement it [ 66 , 67 ]. According to studies in undergraduate nursing students, empirical education through learning processes can positively influence empathy [ 4 , 68 ]. Education is considered, both by students and professionals, as especially important for the reinforcement of empathetic skills [ 4 , 69 , 70 ].

Nevertheless, research data on the effectiveness of education in empathy are limited [ 71 , 72 , 73 ]. In a research study, conducted in the USA regarding the effect that empathy education has on health professionals, it was found that education contributes a great deal to the improvement of the therapeutic relationship [ 32 ]. In the same study, trained professionals are more likely to detect the emotion and progress of their health care users and therefore further explore and meet their needs. Education can be offered through hands-on work, multimedia use, role play, and experiential learning [ 32 ].

In a qualitative study, health professionals made suggestions regarding the enhancement of empathy. These suggestions included more holistic, educational interventions in behaviors that are central to the patient’s needs, with an emphasis on personal development, professional training, and supervision programs, rather than education in behavioral and communication skills [ 74 ].

‘Diversity Dolls’ is a hands-on educational method for the reinforcement of empathy that is used among social care students in a Greek university, so that students can instill empathetic skills in socially vulnerable populations [ 75 ]. It is believed that the use of such based-on-art methods helps social care students to feel safe, to explore, and give meaning to the real circumstances people live in, through pleasant, participatory, interactive activities [ 76 ].

Globally, creative educational methods such as journaling, art, role-play, and simulation games globally are becoming more popular in the health and social care fields helping students to increase their knowledge and skills in relation to empathy [ 75 , 76 ].

Teaching techniques and classroom methodologies familiarize social workers to empathetic skills [ 55 ]. In a study, among social work students, the results suggest that empathetic modeling from professors and field supervisors enhance social work students’ empathy. Social work educators should not focus on traditional teaching but they ought to concentrate on interactive and creative education that enhances the empathetic modeling and relationship between educators and students [ 77 ]. Apart from teaching social work students with mental flexibility, regulation of emotional and perspective taking, social workers should be taught empathy throughout the phenomenological psychological approach (seminars that utilize transcribed audio recordings of interactions) [ 78 , 79 ]. Additionally, regular supervision has a key role in enabling social workers to process their own feelings and to deal with empathy [ 80 ].

4. Conclusions

Empathy among health care users and professionals significantly contributes to how both groups behave as well as to their therapy and overall well-being. The development of empathetic skills constitutes an important priority in the education of health and social care students and should be encouraged. Educational programs should primarily be performed in a hands-on way that will strengthen the students’ personal and social skills and allow them to effectively communicate with their patients.

Moreover, health care professionals should be supported through continuous and personal development education programs as well as through supervision sessions that will allow them to develop empathetic skills. Political will is a prerequisite for the financing and encouragement of further actions.

Author Contributions

All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This research received no external funding.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Understanding others’ feelings: what is empathy and why do we need it?

Senior Lecturer in Social Neuroscience, Monash University

Disclosure statement

Pascal Molenberghs receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award: DE130100120) and Heart Foundation (Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship: 1000458).

Monash University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

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This is the introductory essay in our series on understanding others’ feelings. In it we will examine empathy, including what it is, whether our doctors need more of it, and when too much may not be a good thing.

Empathy is the ability to share and understand the emotions of others. It is a construct of multiple components, each of which is associated with its own brain network . There are three ways of looking at empathy.

First there is affective empathy. This is the ability to share the emotions of others. People who score high on affective empathy are those who, for example, show a strong visceral reaction when watching a scary movie.

They feel scared or feel others’ pain strongly within themselves when seeing others scared or in pain.

Cognitive empathy, on the other hand, is the ability to understand the emotions of others. A good example is the psychologist who understands the emotions of the client in a rational way, but does not necessarily share the emotions of the client in a visceral sense.

Finally, there’s emotional regulation. This refers to the ability to regulate one’s emotions. For example, surgeons need to control their emotions when operating on a patient.

Another way to understand empathy is to distinguish it from other related constructs. For example, empathy involves self-awareness , as well as distinction between the self and the other. In that sense it is different from mimicry, or imitation.

Many animals might show signs of mimicry or emotional contagion to another animal in pain. But without some level of self-awareness, and distinction between the self and the other, it is not empathy in a strict sense. Empathy is also different from sympathy, which involves feeling concern for the suffering of another person and a desire to help.

That said, empathy is not a unique human experience. It has been observed in many non-human primates and even rats .

People often say psychopaths lack empathy but this is not always the case. In fact, psychopathy is enabled by good cognitive empathic abilities - you need to understand what your victim is feeling when you are torturing them. What psychopaths typically lack is sympathy. They know the other person is suffering but they just don’t care.

Research has also shown those with psychopathic traits are often very good at regulating their emotions .

Why do we need it?

Empathy is important because it helps us understand how others are feeling so we can respond appropriately to the situation. It is typically associated with social behaviour and there is lots of research showing that greater empathy leads to more helping behaviour.

However, this is not always the case. Empathy can also inhibit social actions, or even lead to amoral behaviour . For example, someone who sees a car accident and is overwhelmed by emotions witnessing the victim in severe pain might be less likely to help that person.

Similarly, strong empathetic feelings for members of our own family or our own social or racial group might lead to hate or aggression towards those we perceive as a threat. Think about a mother or father protecting their baby or a nationalist protecting their country.

People who are good at reading others’ emotions, such as manipulators, fortune-tellers or psychics, might also use their excellent empathetic skills for their own benefit by deceiving others.

Interestingly, people with higher psychopathic traits typically show more utilitarian responses in moral dilemmas such as the footbridge problem. In this thought experiment, people have to decide whether to push a person off a bridge to stop a train about to kill five others laying on the track.

The psychopath would more often than not choose to push the person off the bridge. This is following the utilitarian philosophy that holds saving the life of five people by killing one person is a good thing. So one could argue those with psychopathic tendencies are more moral than normal people – who probably wouldn’t push the person off the bridge – as they are less influenced by emotions when making moral decisions.

How is empathy measured?

Empathy is often measured with self-report questionnaires such as the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) or Questionnaire for Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE).

These typically ask people to indicate how much they agree with statements that measure different types of empathy.

The QCAE, for instance, has statements such as, “It affects me very much when one of my friends is upset”, which is a measure of affective empathy.

Cognitive empathy is determined by the QCAE by putting value on a statement such as, “I try to look at everybody’s side of a disagreement before I make a decision.”

Using the QCAE, we recently found people who score higher on affective empathy have more grey matter, which is a collection of different types of nerve cells, in an area of the brain called the anterior insula.

This area is often involved in regulating positive and negative emotions by integrating environmental stimulants – such as seeing a car accident - with visceral and automatic bodily sensations.

We also found people who score higher on cognitive empathy had more grey matter in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.

This area is typically activated during more cognitive processes, such as Theory of Mind, which is the ability to attribute mental beliefs to yourself and another person. It also involves understanding that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives different from one’s own.

Can empathy be selective?

Research shows we typically feel more empathy for members of our own group , such as those from our ethnic group. For example, one study scanned the brains of Chinese and Caucasian participants while they watched videos of members of their own ethnic group in pain. They also observed people from a different ethnic group in pain.

The researchers found that a brain area called the anterior cingulate cortex, which is often active when we see others in pain, was less active when participants saw members of ethnic groups different from their own in pain.

Other studies have found brain areas involved in empathy are less active when watching people in pain who act unfairly . We even see activation in brain areas involved in subjective pleasure , such as the ventral striatum, when watching a rival sport team fail.

Yet, we do not always feel less empathy for those who aren’t members of our own group. In our recent study , students had to give monetary rewards or painful electrical shocks to students from the same or a different university. We scanned their brain responses when this happened.

Brain areas involved in rewarding others were more active when people rewarded members of their own group, but areas involved in harming others were equally active for both groups.

These results correspond to observations in daily life. We generally feel happier if our own group members win something, but we’re unlikely to harm others just because they belong to a different group, culture or race. In general, ingroup bias is more about ingroup love rather than outgroup hate.

Yet in some situations, it could be helpful to feel less empathy for a particular group of people. For example, in war it might be beneficial to feel less empathy for people you are trying to kill, especially if they are also trying to harm you.

To investigate, we conducted another brain imaging study . We asked people to watch videos from a violent video game in which a person was shooting innocent civilians (unjustified violence) or enemy soldiers (justified violence).

While watching the videos, people had to pretend they were killing real people. We found the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, typically active when people harm others, was active when people shot innocent civilians. The more guilt participants felt about shooting civilians, the greater the response in this region.

However, the same area was not activated when people shot the soldier that was trying to kill them.

The results provide insight into how people regulate their emotions. They also show the brain mechanisms typically implicated when harming others become less active when the violence against a particular group is seen as justified.

This might provide future insights into how people become desensitised to violence or why some people feel more or less guilty about harming others.

Our empathetic brain has evolved to be highly adaptive to different types of situations. Having empathy is very useful as it often helps to understand others so we can help or deceive them, but sometimes we need to be able to switch off our empathetic feelings to protect our own lives, and those of others.

Tomorrow’s article will look at whether art can cultivate empathy.

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Understanding others' feelings

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Empathy and active listening in the humanistic social work

2020, Research Terminals in the Social Sciences (eds. Dan Valeriu Voinea and Alexandru Strungă), SITECH Publishing House, Craiova

The present paper deals with the role of empathy and active listening in social work, focusing mainly on the humanistic theoretical models, according to which active listening is a form of operationalization of empathy. Empathy is the human specific ability to psychologically transpose the self into the psychology of the other, through a phenomenon of resonance and emotional communication. Listening plays an important role in this process and generally in communication between people. Especially the active listening maintains the communication relations and contributes to mitigating conflicts in different social contexts. Moreover, empathy makes us more understanding, because placing ourselves in the position of the interlocutor limits our tendency to judge their behaviour without nuance. Active listening means that the receiver of communication actively assumes this role, by expressly following the understanding of the transmitted message, manifestly showing their mindfulness, and immediately and explicitly offering the according feedback. In activities where communication and comprehension are essential, as is the case with social work, active listening is the most desirable form of response in the interaction between interlocutors. Besides outlining these aspects regarding empathy and active listening, especially from a humanistic perspective, in the paper the features and the main techniques of active listening used in social work are also delineated, explained and exemplified.

Related Papers

Annals of the University of Craiova for Journalism, Communication and Management

Simona Rodat

In communication between people, listening plays an important role. Active listening, which implies giving the full attention to the speaker and showing interest to the communication by using a variety of verbal and non-verbal signs, maintains the communication relations and contributes to mitigating conflicts in different social contexts. Moreover, active listening is the most desirable form of response in the interaction between interlocutors, in activities where communication and comprehension are essential, as is the case with social work. Starting with the delineation of the place of listening in the verbal communication and the outlining of the characteristics of the active listening, this paper deals further with the ways in which the importance and the roles of listening and active listening are highlighted in the theoretical and methodological models of intervention developed in social work.

Marcelo Rivero

Archana Shrivastava

Volume of the consumer conversation is expanding day by day. Many leading companies worldwide are recognising the importance of listening to the costumers and feel that it is not the same thing as it was five years ago. Listening in the present context involves many other criterions such as granularity of individual opinions, leading indicators, unfiltered sentiments, etc. This increasing speed and volume of conversations and its rapid development as a market force have made listening as one of the biggest challenges faced by the present corporate world. One type of listening which is being highlighted these days is Active Empathic Listening (AEL). AEL is a cognitive process involving the steps such as sensing, processing and responding. The study adopts the items from the recently developed Active Empathic Scale to test whether there is a significant correlation between the three elements of listening empathetically. The study also tries to find out if empathy in listening can make a person a better communicator. The study further provides the evidences to prove that trainings with the focus upon empathic listening can improve the overall listening abilities and justifies the emerging need of proper training and guidance to help the employees/ prospective employees to understand the role of empathy in the process of listening.

Sofia Koukouli

Seminare. Poszukiwania naukowe

Monika Podkowińska

The article presents the selected principles of interpersonal communication in social work, paying attention to communication rules referring to active listening, choosing the right questions, or adapting the language to the interlocutor. The authors devoted a special place to communication awareness and the look at interpersonal communication as a meeting with an individual, a unique an exceptional person. In addition to the selected communication principles, the authors has also presented the selected dilemmas and communication difficulties that determine the quality of the conversation, its course and effects.

FITISPOS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, VOL 8, 1

Carmen Valero-Garcés

The influence of emotions is very significant in PSIT, since these professionals usually find themselves interpreting in communicative situations in which the people that they provide a service to suffer some kind of emotional distress. This can be particularly challenging for interpreters, since many codes of conduct on the ethics of the profession highlight neutrality as one of the main features that they must respect. In the case of empathy, a value expected to be offered by public workers, many studies have highlighted the importance it has to improve interactions. However, this topic has not been developed in depth in many research studies up to date. Therefore, the aim of this article is to conduct a systematic review of the studies published in the field of PSIT with relation to empathy and how it affects the profession. We will limit the review to studies published from 2000 to 2020. In the conclusions we will reflect on the importance of conducting this kind of studies to review current research needs and establish future directions.

Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association

anna aragno

This article considers the need for ‘new relational modes’ as means to produce a durably less destructive global society. Three unorthodox ‘listening practices’ (all from the field of psychotherapy) are selected for consideration: two from (different versions of) psychoanalysis, and a verbal method called ‘rooted talking’ from Biodynamic Body Psychotherapy. The practices are compared and contrasted, their conflict on the topic of ‘empathy’ identified, and a strategic truce proposed. The article establishes that the three practices are allied in their eschewal of ‘meaning’ and ‘understanding’ and in their critiques of meaning-centred communication. These critiques are then linked to Leo Bersani’s critique of identity (personal, national, gendered etc.) as intrinsically destructive. The author argues that a culture of communication practices centred exclusively on meaning is dangerous, since our inherited field of meaning defines us in hierarchical binaries (e.g. white/black, man/woman) that divide, oppose and so embattle us. The author proposes that frequent practice of speaking and listening modes not centred on meaning would keep us mindful of the arbitrariness of all categories, while providing us with pleasures beyond the identitarian. Propagation of such practices beyond the institution of psychotherapy, therefore – as modes of everyday intercourse – may be of significant social value.

British Journal of Medical Psychology

Godfrey Barrett-Lennard

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Why Empathy is Important in Social Work

Updated: Jan 19

The job of a social worker is dynamic- their days are a balance of uncertainty, strenuous efforts and beautiful moments of human resilience and growth. Social workers are faced with making critical decisions at nearly every minute of every day and in some cases, very precarious settings. On the other side of the fence, they are face to face with families undergoing varying degrees of hardship, conflict, or might be at other parts of their journey. Some have negative experiences with social workers, and might look at the profession as a biased, low-level policing role, who’s job is to turn the family’s life upside down and tear families apart. When adhering to best practices, social workers are really there to help guide families and help navigate any roadblocks to a more healthy environment that’s rooted in safety for the most vulnerable in the community.

The biggest thing that can aid a social worker in their job is to always start with empathy. Like anyone, when you meet someone for the first time, you don’t have a lot of information about the person, their history, their short-comings, strengths, hardships, triumphs or otherwise. Sure, social workers are part of a larger system designed to extrapolate the bad apples from the good seeds and this equips many of them with a stack of information that has yet to be thoroughly vetted. The problem is, this might inadvertently cause social workers to put up an immediate guard (for their own safety and those around them). For those families who are going through a challenging time are left to face the biases of the system rather than sitting down with someone who can truly empathize with them in one of their greater moments of need. These families are hurting and are now entangled into a system they don’t fully understand but villainizes them, leaving them wondering if they are working with a social worker who will see them as a human being or a case.

A social worker can start on their road to empathy first by approaching the humans they serve (commonly dehumanized and called “cases”) in a warm, open and inviting manner. They can make arrangements to meet with their prospective clients in a setting they are comfortable in, one that doesn’t make them feel as if they are being trapped into a ruse. Social workers need to be able to articulate in a clear and concise manner their role in the individual's life and the ways in which they can be supportive. But, most of all, social workers need to listen first.

They need to listen openly without bias or judgement. We are all privy to the biases in which the system operates under and continuously perpetuates. Particular races are labeled as primitive, aggressive, docile, abusive and they all either need to be saved or those around them need to be protected. Working within the system can be difficult but as social workers it is important to find ways and colleagues to help push against this bias and create a more empathetic view on a person by person basis. Not allowing stereotypes to determine how someone will be treated or the types of services they will receive is necessary part of a supportive practitioner.

Again, social workers are a rare breed due to the depth and breadth of challenges they stand face-to-face with, in communities, every day. The high stress environment requires, at times, for social workers to make fast, difficult and ethically complex decisions. . For example, if children are involved, a social worker is trained to assess every detail, and to often include judgement, bias and lack of healing centered care when doing so. All that being said, using empathy even in a role as challenging as a social worker will yield generous results and help to build lasting bonds and relationships rather than crossing off another case number on an ambiguous list.

Article Contents

Introduction, background context, human rights, social justice and social work, racism, whiteness and decolonisation, the role of empathy in professional helping, activism for social justice in social work, study context and method, acknowledgements.

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Pondering the Colour of Empathy: Social Work Students’ Reasoning on Activism, Empathy and Racism

Article contents
Figures & tables
Supplementary Data

Susan Gair, Pondering the Colour of Empathy: Social Work Students’ Reasoning on Activism, Empathy and Racism, The British Journal of Social Work , Volume 47, Issue 1, January 2017, Pages 162–180, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcw007

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Australia is a multicultural society. However, its history of British colonisation has contributed to enduring overt and covert discrimination, racism and black/white racial divisions. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the recipients of ongoing racial discrimination, they are the most disadvantage groups in Australia and they are significantly overrepresented as social work clients. An anti-racist stance is core to social work practice, and some literature has suggested that cultivating empathy can help reduce racism and provoke activism for social justice. In 2014, a classroom-based inquiry exploring barriers to activism extended previous student-centred research exploring empathy and racism. The findings suggest that some students hesitant to commit to action for social justice for reasons including a lack of confidence, and a lack of time and information. Facilitating social work students’ confidence, increased understanding of everyday acts of activism and skill development including critical empathy may bolster their confidence and their action for social justice.

Commitment to activism for social justice … is … unlikely to be free from ambivalence. Rather, doubts and dilemmas may continue along with, and in spite of, commitment ( Gil, 1998 , p. 133).

Until Mununga [white people] take … responsibility for owning up, to and working against the pressures of racialised social conditioning, only tiny dents will be made in the armoury of racism ( Kessaris, 2006 , p. 358).

Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, Australia’s Indigenous peoples, have experienced enormous structural, social and educational legacies arising from colonisation that continue to impact on their health and well-being ( Australian Human Rights Commission, 2012 ). While unique cultural differences exist between Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, much of the available literature combines these groups, making reference to separate experiences difficult. Bottoms (2013) confirmed a hidden history of violent black/white frontier violence, forced removals, massacres and land theft by British colonisers. Since colonisation, Australia’s Indigenous peoples have faced ongoing discrimination and everyday racisms that impact on their health. Significant disparities continue to exist between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians’ health and well-being outcomes ( Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee for Indigenous Health Equality, 2015 ). White Australians can be blind to the causes of these disparities, and they can deny racism even in the most violent cases, such as the case of Kumantaye Ryder, an Aboriginal man in Alice Springs who died at the hands of five young, white men in 2010. According to Perera and Pugliese (2011 , p. 70), paramount in that case appeared to be empathy for the material conditions of the accused young white men and their potential lost futures, pointing to racialised constructions concerning social empathy for ‘black deaths (and) white lives’.

Sarra (2011 , p. 50) noted that evidence in early British records reflected a colonial mindset of the intellectual superiority of whites and the ‘scarcely human’ inferiority of Aboriginal Australians. Sarra (2011) argued that such perceptions of superiority/inferiority remain to the present day. Regarding enduring disparities in health, mental health and well-being outcomes, Hunter (2007 , p. 91) argued that increased awareness about the persistence of racism is vital, as is recognition of the demonstrated strengths of Indigenous peoples to rise above the ‘uncompromising social landscape’ of racial discrimination.

The importance of demonstrating empathic regard is evident in helping literature. Ongoing exploration and theorising regarding possible links between empathy, racism and activism for social justice seems less common. The purpose of this article is to note findings from two previous classroom-based studies by this author, before focusing on a recent classroom-based inquiry exploring students’ perception of barriers for themselves, and their perceptions of barriers for other social work students and graduates, in taking up an activist stance for social justice in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Some findings have been published elsewhere. Here the focus is on illuminating the Australian context, and critically reflecting on students’ identification of barriers for themselves and others in becoming social work activists for social justice.

In a previous project exploring empathy with second-year social work students, their responses revealed least empathy for a vignette featuring an Aboriginal elder’s narrative of injustice ( Gair, 2013a ). A second classroom-based inquiry, using the same methodology but a different set of vignettes, again revealed least empathy for the vignette where cultural elements featured. Considered together, an ‘empathy gap’ seemed evident between students’ definitions and understandings of empathy, and their empathic responses ( Gair, 2013b ). Continuing a focus on racism, empathy and facilitating students’ critical awareness of the need for social justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians prompted a further classroom-based inquiry in 2014.

I acknowledge that, as a white Australian, I am not an observer located separately from social injustices against Indigenous Australians. However, I am committed to informed social work education and practice. Equally acknowledged here is that learning about racism and social injustice can be unsettling for white students (and educators) who may need to work against the grain of their own socialisation ( Monaghan, 2010 ). Small numbers of Indigenous students were enrolled in subjects where the projects were undertaken, and admittedly content would be very unsettling for them; however, the focus here is on pondering non-Indigenous students’ reasoning on barriers to everyday activism in social work.

Australia’s history includes significant human rights violations against Aboriginal Australians, including murder, theft of land, and removal of children and whole communities ( Atkinson, 2002 ; Bottoms, 2013 ). With similarities to other colonised peoples, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians continue to face enormous social, educational, economic and health legacies impacting on their well-being ( Australian Human Rights Commission, 2012 ). The Close the Gap Progress and Priorities Report (2015) welcomed gains made, but confirms the need to close the health disparities gaps, including the eradication of systemic racism. Indigenous Australians might prefer services delivered by Indigenous social workers. However, graduate numbers remain low, possibly explained by a distrust of a profession implicated in the past (and present) removal of children, and eurocentric social work education ( Bennett, 2015 ; Dominelli, 2008 ).

Bender, Negi and Fowler (2010) identified that the major responsibility for graduate preparation for culturally responsive practice lies with educators. In recent decades, social work educators in Australia, Britain, the USA and many countries worldwide actively have promoted anti-oppressive, anti-racist and culturally competent approaches ( Dominelli, 2008 ; Mlcek, 2014 ; Thompson, 1997 ), although Pon (2009) argued that a culturally competent approach could hinder cultural self-awareness. In Australia, national social work standards now require curriculum that includes racism and anti-racist practice, whiteness, social justice, effective cross-cultural communication and the unique histories of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples ( Australian Association of Social Workers, 2012 ). The anticipated outcome is that Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians will work together for social justice.

Reichert (2007 , p. ix) argued that social justice is at the core of social work’s heritage and mission. Similarly, Ife (2008) identified that social work has an inherent responsibility to challenge privilege, advocate for human rights and uphold social justice, although Ife (2007) gave the example of the forced removal of Indigenous children to caution against imposed advocacy that can lead to further injustice.

Racial discrimination is prohibited under Australian law, which includes the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act 1975, and state-based civil and criminal laws prohibiting racial vilification. Yet, public blindness to, and denial of, racism and discrimination continues ( Australian Human Rights Commission, 2012 ). While racism is not confined to black/white relations, it is highly relevant in colonised countries such as Australia. Nelson (2015 , p. 488, citing the work of Valentine and Sadgrove, 2012) reflects on how racialised behaviours are brought into a public arena after being learned and performed in private spaces, and there is evidence that professionals are not exempt from such behaviour. For example, Durey (2010) argued that health and social services have perpetuated Aboriginal health disparities through racist practices and attitudes.

Whiteness literature has helped illuminate hidden racisms ( Anderson, 2002 ; Moreton-Robinson, 2000 ). Whiteness studies became prominent during the 1990s (see e.g. Anderson, 2002 ; Frankenberg, 1993 ; Bonnett, 1996 ; Moreton-Robinson, 2000 ; Morrison, 1993 ), building on earlier work from the 1960s (see Baldwin, 1998 ; McIntosh, 1988 ). According to some authors, an uncritical understanding of white identity can hold the observer hostage to unconscious racist ideologies ( Doosje et al. , 1998 ; Nunn, 1993 ). Such literature appeals to non-Indigenous people, including social workers, to interrogate their own racialised conditioning in the fight against racism ( Abrams and Moio, 2009 ; Ladson-Billings, 1998 ; Walter and Butler, 2013 ). In particular, whiteness literature appeals to non-Indigenous people to critically reflect on the racial power and unquestioned ‘social logic’ of white privilege ( Perera and Pugliese, 2011 , p. 65). Some literature further reveals the complexities and situated dynamics inherent in understanding superiority/inferiority, (in)visibility of whiteness, and racialised self and ‘others’ ( Jeyasingham, 2012 ), while a number of authors have suggested that development of awareness to recognise racism in the behaviour of others might not lead to self-awareness and changed behaviours ( Condor et al. , 2006 ; Gil, 1998 ; Schick, 2000 ).

Some authors identify stages of uncertainty and discomfort on the road to transformed racial awareness. For example, Helms’s (1990) six-stage process included three early stages/levels of movement away from racism and three later levels of transformation towards a non-racist white identity. Only partial empathy was noted in early levels, while, in later levels, awareness of racism and injustices was evident ( Carter, 1996 ). More recently, Muller (2014) , in discussing stages of colonisation and decolonisation, specifically identified that, for healing and progression to commitment and action, both the colonised and the colonisers need to shed imposed colonialist doctrine.

Empathy is understood to be an indispensable ingredient in helping others ( Alma and Smaling, 2006 ; Batson et al. , 2002 ; Duan and Hill, 1996 ; Hojat, 2007 ; Howe, 2008 ). Much of the empathy research links empathy with positive therapeutic outcomes and, although some authors have linked too much empathy with compassion fatigue and burnout ( Figley, 2002 ), others present a contrary argument ( Nilsson, 2014 ). Many authors have deliberated over key differences between empathy and sympathy (see e.g. Boulton, 1987 ; Trevithick, 2005 ), while others argue they are more closely related ( Eckermann et al. , 2006 ; Krznaric, 2014 ). Recent experimental research on brain mirror neurons by Gutsell and Inzlicht (2010) found that empathy was constrained by prejudice felt by white people towards people outside their cultural circle.

Theorising about empathy is well established in the literature, although theorists are not united in their understandings. Simulation theorists promote the Rogerian, humanist imagining ‘as if’ the experience of another was one’s own ( Rogers, 1956/1992 , p. 832) or centring self in order to enact empathy, while ‘theory of mind’ theorists argue for intellectual rather than emotional understanding of another’s mind state ( Englander, 2014 , p. 6; Zahavi, 2010 ). Early empathy theorist Edith Stein (1917 , translated 1989) proposed a three-stage process of perceptive, empathic engagement through our common humanity and not a common experience. More recently, such phenomenological theories of empathy have been revisited ( Zahavi, 2010 ). Some authors speculate that cultivating empathy can reduce students’ prejudice and racism ( Bruna Seu, 2011 ; Pedersen and Barlow, 2008 ; Segal et al. , 2012 ). Of interest, Boler (1999) differentiated between passive and active empathy, identifying that passive empathy may not lead to upholding an obligation to confront racism. Similarly, Krznaric (2014) called for empathy beyond a humanist tradition and maintaining the status quo, towards political empathy for social justice and human rights. Pondering a more active, critical empathy and its links to antiracism and action for social justice appears to be less explored in social work literature ( Gair, 2008 ; Bender et al. , 2010 ; Mlcek, 2014 ).

Nearly twenty years ago, Gil (1998) asked whether social workers, while dealing with diverse social problems, also act as change agents working to overcome oppression and injustices. While admitting there were no easy answers and identifying a ‘conventional tendency of social work to help people adjust to the status quo’, Gil (1998) argued that a radical orientation ‘could be incorporated into everyday practice’ (p. 101), but that becoming an agent of change required a critical consciousness. Most recently, Greenslade et al. (2015) discuss actions to challenge injustice, as required in codes of ethics of member countries of the International Federation of Social Workers including Britain, the USA, Canada, Sweden, Israel and Australia. They argue that past research mostly has focused on activism as a macro practice, and also acknowledge the seemingly marginalised status of activism in contemporary social work practice, noting the impact of conservative, neo-liberal ideologies. However, they reveal, as have others, new, hidden micro resistance displayed by social workers battling professional value conflicts and organisational change ( Bayat, 2000 ; Chatterton and Pickerill, 2010 ; Greenslade et al. , 2015 ).

In undertaking activism, Baskin (2011) argued that non-Indigenous social workers ‘can learn a great deal from Indigenous people’ (p. 41) and that ‘Indigenous teachings’ can assist social workers to translate anti-oppressive theory into practice (p. 43). Importantly, Gil (1998) identified that it is crucial to produce competent social workers who understand and can address causes of oppression and injustice, while Bruna Seu (2011) concluded that raising awareness about racism and human rights violations involved cultivating empathy, in turn helping to provoke activism.

The small, exploratory classroom-based inquiry described here was undertaken at a regional Australian university. Higher rates than the national average of Indigenous peoples live in the region, and frontier conflict during colonisation was more violent here than elsewhere in Australia ( Bottoms, 2013 ). The majority of our social work students are mature-aged, non-Indigenous females, with small numbers of male students and Indigenous students, and fewer international students. This profile may be less diverse than other social work programmes.

Over several years, I undertook classroom-based research, where second-year students were asked to define empathy, and explore and identify, through the use of vignettes, when empathy might or might not be enacted ( Gair, 2009 , 2013b ). Those findings, together with my observations and critical reflections as an educator ( Gair, 2011 ), and available literature have informed the conceptualisation of the inquiry reported here, including the survey questions.

The setting was a compulsory second-year subject. This subject is co-taught with an Aboriginal elder from the region, and the focus is on cultivating skills and knowledge for competent, respectful social work practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Indigenous guest lecturers present almost all lectures. Topics covered include historical and contemporary human rights violations, with specific examples from this region, first-hand accounts from members of the Stolen Generation, and narratives of discrimination within health, education and justice systems. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ history, worldviews, stories, frameworks and ways of working are emphasised, as is the importance of understanding white privilege, decolonisation and the need for core communication skills including empathy and relationship building. The last topic in the lecture series is activism.

The final Aboriginal presenter consolidates previous content and rouses students to help dismantle racism through her testimony of extensive activism over injustices, and her call to students to become activists for social justice in their day-to-day work as social workers, thereby contributing to the future health and well-being of Indigenous Australians. Assessment requirements include critical autobiographic journals, and a reflective statement of practice based on a case study of the death of Aboriginal man Kumantaye Ryder in Alice Springs in 2010, mentioned earlier in this article.

The purpose of the exploratory study described here was to continue to explore issues of racism, social justice and empathy with students, with a focus on barriers to activism, given the limited available literature linking these concepts. The research comprised a small classroom-based survey and therefore claims of generalisability are not made. However, Liamputtong (2009) and others have suggested that questions of rigour can include: whether the research is genuine and credible; if the researcher’s interest, purpose and method are explained; if the researcher’s relationship with participants is transparent; if it is based on an assumption of no single reality or explanation; if participants are selected for their specific knowledge and have opportunities to express it; and if data are represented in an honest, adequate way ( Sandelowski, 1986 ). The study purpose was explained openly and clearly to students and information was sought from students who could comment on the study focus. Here the researcher’s motivations underpinning the study are transparently presented and speculations are made on a range of possible explanations for the outlined findings.

Equally, Dadds (2008) argued that empathic validity and critical reflection could constitute considerations for rigour. Dadds (2008) differentiated between internal (emotional engagement) and external (transparently fostering new knowledge and change) validity, while also identifying, as do others, that ongoing critical reflection is essential in social work education and practice ( Fook, 2012 ). Engaging in critical reflection and fostering new knowledge for improved teaching and learning were intentional aspects of this research. The primary aim was to explore students’ perceptions of barriers to becoming activists for social justice. The specific research question guiding this project was ‘What are the barriers to social work students and graduates becoming activists for social justice regarding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians?’. All students who had completed the second-year course described above in 2014 were eligible to participate. University ethics approval was granted for this project. All students signed Informed Consent forms prior to participation.

The sample consisted of forty second-year on-campus and distance education (DE) students. The survey purpose and content was explained clearly to students. The survey provided students with multiple options of possible barriers, and they could nominate one or as many responses as they perceived were applicable. A category of ‘Other’ was available in several questions. Questions required students to perceive of barriers to being activist for social justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, as related to self and as related to other social work students and graduates . Additional questions asked students to reflect on what might help overcome perceived barriers. Space was provided for students’ additional qualitative comments. Students willing to participate submitted their answers with a signed consent form to a colleague who was not party to the research.

To enable DE students to participate (these students had covered the same content including participating in on-campus workshops, but had returned home), the questions, information and consent forms were placed in a folder on the course website. All responses were collated by a nominated colleague, and then forwarded to this researcher. Students’ responses were tallied, and a thematic analysis was undertaken on the qualitative comments to identify themes and issues. For anonymity, no identifying information was requested of participants. Indigenous student numbers enrolled in the subject were small comparative to non-Indigenous students, as were male student numbers; therefore, requesting Indigenous/non-Indigenous or gender status may have identified some students.

Limitations

Limitations of the study include that it was an exploratory, classroom-based survey. Demographic information was not requested from students and this lack of information may have limited data analysis and interpretation. Further, while the subject within which the survey was presented is core to our programme, participation in this survey was voluntary and therefore the sample and the findings cannot be seen to reflect the profile or the views of the broader social work student body. Finally, it is acknowledged that researcher prior interest in links between empathy, racism and action for social justice may have influenced the data analysis and interpretation, although this interest is made transparent.

Tallied responses

Tallies of answers: frequency of response in relation to others

Tallies of answers: frequency of response in relation to self

Qualitative comments

I feel I need to learn a lot more to fully understand.

Probably just a lack of confidence, feeling like I’m not equipped with the right information.

If I had the support of a group ….

Don’t have any experience (need) more information ….

Need knowledge on how to work with Aboriginal people.

Not sure where to start.

While fear of losing friends/family was one available tick option, somewhat surprisingly, participants nominated many fears in their qualitative comments for self and for others as barriers to action for social justice. Perceived fears for others included: ‘fear of losing their job’, ‘fear of repercussions’, ‘fear of causing arguments’ and ‘fear of getting hurt’. Equally, perceived fears for self included: ‘fear of being racially attacked’, ‘fear of offending’ and ‘scared of losing job and being branded a trouble maker’. Other fears for self included ‘might be seen as weird and different’ and ‘being white and young I don’t want to be seen as a know-it-all’.

Nominated workplace barriers for others included ‘government changes, changing policies’, ‘too many other commitments’ or ‘it’s too hard’. This student’s comment captures the comments of several others: ‘peer pressure and management pressure to not rock the boat’. Another student identified this barrier to activism for social justice: ‘in the workplace it is not seen as relevant’.

For self , qualitative comments were not about workplace, which may be understandable. Rather, a lack of time was noted as a barrier to action for social justice, with these three participants similarly commenting:

I am very interested in this field but I have no time.

Time is limited, too limited to dedicate to pursuing this cause.

I always feel so busy with my own life I barely have time for anything else these days. Even after my degree I will be concentrating on my career, my new job and staring a family.

The findings suggest that, for a majority of participants, in relation to themselves , barriers preventing them taking action for social justice for Indigenous Australians did not include racism, limited empathy, a lack of recognition of the issues or a perception that activism for social justice was not core to social work, although participants did perceive that these barriers would exist for other social work students and graduates.

A prominent finding was that many students nominated lack of confidence or not sure what to do as barriers. As noted, almost all content in the completed subject provided weekly testimony to breached human rights and a lack of social justice, and highlighted the need to develop critical and political consciousness, and take up respectful, empathic ways of working, including building relationships for the common cause of empathic practice and social justice. Therefore, the findings of lack of confidence/not sure what to do was somewhat surprising. Looking to the literature offered some guidance. For example, Hamilton and Fauri (2001) asserted that is it not enough to exhort students’ increased political participation. Rather, they recommend practical opportunities are provided for students to exercise their political voices, arguing that such curriculum activities and related assessment are likely to increase students’ self-confidence in undertaking political action. These practical strategies can be incorporated easily into the curriculum.

The final lecture, by an Aboriginal activist, appealed to students to engage in everyday ways as activists in upholding social justice. Yet, students’ responses indicate they missed the message that activism for social justice need not be about time committed to public social protest; rather, it is core to everyday social work. Of interest, according to Greenslade et al. (2015) , some social workers may be fearful to openly resist their employers’ requests even when they pose professional value conflicts; rather, they utilise covert resistance strategies to deliver on their professional obligation of activism. This latest literature partially helps explain why some students expressed multiple fears in relation to taking an activist stance in the workplace. Again, these findings provide valuable feedback to advance students’ conceptualisation of everyday activism in practice, and provide a focus for future research. An increased emphasis on quieter, micro, everyday resistance and small, accessible acts of ‘doing activism’ rather than ‘being [an] activist’ seems relevant to these findings and future social work education and practice ( Chatterton and Pickerill, 2010 , p. 487; Bayat, 2000 ).

Students’ perceptions regarding ‘lack of information’ as a barrier for others (other social work students and graduates , twenty-seven responses) was another interesting finding. It might be partially explained, given that participants could not be confident of the exact content provided to others, although they would have some ideas based on their own programme. Yet the fact that fifteen students perceived ‘lack of information’ as a barrier for self at the end of a very comprehensive course seemed less understandable. Information provided to students in many forms had offered extensive testimony to Australia’s hidden violent histories and current legacies, and the necessity of specific skills and knowledge for effective practice (in presentations, tutorials with a local elder, readings, recorded lecture vodcasts and streaming DVD documentaries). In seeking to explain the findings, it might be the case that students may have revealed their difficulty in grappling with and fully understanding discomforting content, and findings could represent students demonstrating increased critical reflection in their recognition that they cannot fully comprehend Indigenous people’s experiences of racism.

Given the interest in the topics of empathy and racism identified earlier, the findings relating to these concepts are of particular interest. For example, there is a stark difference between limited empathy and racism as perceived as a barrier for others , and as perceived for self . No student identified limited empathy as a barrier for self , and only two participants identified racism—a combined tally of three responses from a possible forty students. This can be compared to a combined thirty-one responses identifying that racism and limited empathy may be barriers for other social work students/graduates . These students, who had completed a comprehensive course on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, knowledge and skills for social work practice, perhaps understandably perceived that limited empathy, racism and lack of awareness of the issues were not barriers for them. Yet, in considering other tallies and qualitative comments, something more nuanced or complex may be evident, and further speculation on the findings seemed useful. For example, thirty-one students reasoned that a barrier for others (other social work students and graduates) might be that they ‘did not know or could not see the issues’, yet only three students responded similarly in relation to self . This finding possibly could be interpreted as a signal of students’ confidence in ‘knowing the issues’, yet lack of confidence was the highest perceived barrier for self in the tallied responses, although qualitative comments did not illuminate specifics in relation to ‘lack of confidence’.

Another finding worthy of reflection is the finding that fifteen out of a possible forty students identified a lack of time as a perceived barrier for self , supported by qualitative comments. This is of interest because no student ticked that, for self , activism was not core to social work; or, expressed differently, all students considered that being activist for social justice was core to social work practice.

After pondering previous study findings and current findings, other explanations of students’ responses seemed worthy of further speculation. In looking to the literature, Schick’s (2000) work appeared to offer some parallels. Schick found that, on the one hand, students ‘intend to make a difference’ (p. 84) yet, on the other hand, they demonstrated a resistance to uncovering racism, and an active maintenance of white identities without critical awareness of the implications for their chosen profession. Students saw themselves as ‘innocent’ learners and ‘good students’ who also projected a ‘not me’ stance on racism ( Schick, 2000 , pp. 85–6). Schick (2000) concluded that students seek ways to escape uncomfortable identification with racism, and that what might be evident was the invisible effects of whiteness.

As noted, many participants identified lack of confidence, fears, lack of information and lack of time in themselves and others as barriers to action for social justice. Equally, students recognised in their peers but not in themselves that barriers included racism and limited empathy. Of interest, Condor et al. (2006) found that denial of racism in relation to self could signal the opposite possibly might be true. These researchers suggested that individuals often are motivated to emphasise their capacity for tolerance compared with others in order to avoid being seen as racist. Similarly, Schick (2000) noted that students could gain capacities to judge another’s awareness of racism and discern the failings of their peers, but not discern their own. Considering the above literature, it is suggested here that social work students’ responses and reasoning might reflect similar complexities to those identified by Schick (2000) and Condor et al . (2006) and more research appears needed.

It may be the case that, for these students, limited empathy, racism and lack of awareness of relevant issues are not barriers, as they identified, although their perceptions that these barriers exist for other social work students and graduates is useful. The most frequently identified barriers were lack of confidence, lack of information, lack of time and a range of fears. However, these findings might point to inadequate critical awareness, and could signal that limited empathy and racism may be unacknowledged barriers. It even seems possible that some students might have nominated barriers such as fears and lack of information, confidence and time because they perceived it could be more acceptable than nominating barriers such as lack of empathy or racism, and therefore some students might not understand the trappings of whiteness.

It is only speculation, but seems worthy of reflection that unless whiteness, racism and empathy are sufficiently illuminated and interrogated during social work education, including the relationships between these concepts, then students could be blind to, or remain hostage to, whiteness discourse, this in turn weakening their response to the call for activism for social justice. Finn and Jacobson (2003) identified that social workers may be more likely to embrace the language than the practice of empowerment. Equally, what might be evident here is an embracing of the language of empathy, antiracism and activism for social justice, but hesitancy, even with an existing commitment, regarding the practice of it—a situation noted in the opening quote.

What is known is that action for social justice is central to social work ( IFSW, 2014 ). It is clear that graduate social workers need active empathy, an antiracism stance and critical reflection skills in order to identify how discrimination and racism damage lives, and how the invisible subtleties of whiteness can limit practice potential ( Dominelli, 1997 , 2008 ; Gordon, 2004 ; Moreton-Robinson, 2000 ). A critical stance is highly relevant for colonised spaces such as Australia, but may be true of other countries and groups where ongoing discrimination impacts on the health, mental health and well-being of disadvantaged groups. It seems worthy of consideration that introducing students to literature such as Boler’s (1999) notion of active empathy and Krznaric’s (2014) conceptualisation of political empathy for work beyond the status quo can assist students to develop a critical empathy and increased understanding of links between empathy, racism and everyday activism. This awareness can encompass a necessary political understanding of the damage of personal and structural racism, and help social work students and graduates embrace action for social justice. Clearly, there is more work to do in providing these students with skills, resources and confidence to be everyday activists for social justice. Possible explanations pondered here may provide food for thought for other social work educators and practitioners, and direction for future research.

Racism and discrimination are features of Australian society. Empathic social workers prepared to enact their professional code of ethics by standing up for social justice can contribute to reducing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians’ well-being outcomes. However, some learners might lack confidence, and they might misconceive where activism fits. This may result in students being hesitant to uphold action for social justice in their practice. It also seems possible that some students might inaccurately perceive their own levels of racism, and they may remain hostage to the subtleties of whiteness ideology and passive empathy, this again inhibiting their actions for social justice. These findings may offer guidance for social work education. Further research also seems warranted exploring interrelationships between empathy, racism and activism for social justice in social work, in order that social work education can graduate critically empathic practitioners ready for lifelong social justice practice.

I gratefully acknowledge the contribution of undergraduate social work students in advancing the research activity and theorising detailed in this publication.

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Empathy: Understanding and Sharing the Feelings of Others

This essay is about empathy and its significance in understanding and sharing the feelings of others. It explains the two main forms: cognitive empathy, which involves understanding another’s thoughts and emotions intellectually, and emotional empathy, which is feeling another’s emotions on a deeper, more intuitive level. The essay discusses how empathy fosters better communication and conflict resolution, improves leadership and healthcare practices, and strengthens relationships. It also highlights potential challenges, like compassion fatigue or manipulation, and emphasizes the importance of balancing support for others with self-care. Ultimately, the essay underscores empathy as a vital quality that helps us connect, find common ground, and create a more compassionate world.

How it works

Empathy is a concept that’s often thrown around in discussions about interpersonal relationships, but what does it really mean, and why is it important? At its heart, empathy is about understanding and sharing the feelings of others. It helps us connect more deeply with those around us by allowing us to step outside of our own experiences and see the world from another person’s perspective. In a world that’s increasingly polarized, empathy can serve as a bridge, helping us find common ground and understand each other better.

There are two main ways empathy tends to manifest. First, there’s cognitive empathy, which is more about understanding someone else’s thoughts, beliefs, and emotions on an intellectual level. This isn’t necessarily about sharing in their feelings, but rather about recognizing what they’re experiencing and acknowledging it. This form of empathy is crucial when it comes to effective communication and conflict resolution. If you can understand where another person is coming from, even if you don’t agree with them, it becomes easier to navigate disagreements and work towards a solution that everyone can accept. Think of cognitive empathy as a mental exercise in perspective-taking.

Then there’s emotional empathy, which is more intuitive and visceral. This is when you feel what another person is feeling, almost as if their emotions are your own. When you see someone upset and you feel a pang of sadness or compassion, that’s emotional empathy in action. It’s what allows us to connect with others on a deeper level and drives us to help when we see someone in need. Researchers believe that emotional empathy is closely tied to mirror neurons, special brain cells that fire both when we perform an action and when we observe someone else doing the same. It’s a bit like an emotional reflection, helping us resonate with other people’s experiences.

Empathy is a skill that can be cultivated and strengthened over time. It starts with listening—really listening—to what people are saying without interrupting or judging. It’s easy to fall into the trap of planning our response while the other person is talking, but genuine empathy requires us to set aside our own thoughts and focus fully on the speaker. By actively listening and being present, we can better understand their perspective and respond in a way that acknowledges their feelings.

Another crucial aspect of empathy is maintaining an open mind. We all have biases that color our perceptions, but empathy asks us to suspend those biases and approach others with curiosity and a desire to understand. This doesn’t mean we have to agree with everyone, but it does mean being willing to see things from another point of view.

In addition to being beneficial on an individual level, empathy can have a profound impact on broader societal issues. Leaders who practice empathetic communication are often more effective at inspiring their teams and creating a collaborative environment. Teachers who understand their students’ struggles can better tailor their teaching methods to support individual learning needs. In healthcare, empathetic practitioners can provide more holistic care by acknowledging the emotional aspects of illness.

However, empathy isn’t without its challenges. Emotional empathy, in particular, can sometimes lead to compassion fatigue. This happens when we’re so attuned to others’ suffering that we begin to feel overwhelmed and exhausted ourselves. In these cases, it’s important to find a balance between offering support and taking care of our own emotional health. On the flip side, cognitive empathy can be misused by those who seek to manipulate others. Understanding someone’s emotions can be a powerful tool, and not everyone uses it for good.

Ultimately, empathy is about making a conscious effort to understand others and treat them with kindness and compassion. It’s not always easy, and it doesn’t mean we’ll never disagree or feel frustrated, but it does mean we’ll approach each other with a willingness to listen and a recognition that we all have our own struggles. In a world that’s often divided, empathy is a tool that can help bring us closer together, fostering stronger relationships and encouraging a culture of understanding.

At the end of the day, empathy isn’t just a feel-good buzzword; it’s a fundamental aspect of what makes us human. It allows us to connect more deeply with each other, to build stronger communities, and to create a more compassionate world. Whether it’s a small act of kindness or a major step towards understanding someone different from ourselves, empathy is a powerful force that can lead to meaningful change.

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Empathy In Social Work

“Teaching Social Workers Empathy” Jamie Raabe Northern Kentucky University Holly Riffe- 594 Aim/ Purpose “Our society is externally oriented; we do not normally or easily see things from another person’s point of view. We are too preoccupied with our own frame of reference. ” (Patterson, 1985 pg. 53) Being empathetic should be a cherished characteristic of a person. In the profession of social work, empathy is a skill that can assist the worker understanding client’s situation.

Atticus Finch, a character in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, tried to explain empathy to his daughter- “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

” (Lee, 1960 pg. 30) Teaching empathy to social workers may be an easy task, but social workers face many obstacles that work against them in their career. Burnout is a major issue facing social workers. Social workers who have burned out, get tired of situation, and heartache of clients they see day in and day out.

DESIGN “Good communication is at the heart of best practice in social work. ” (Forrester 2008 pg. 42) Empathy is a form of communication whereas the listener becomes the person experiencing an emotion. To Be Empathetic: “Empathy involves at least three aspects or stages. Assuming that the client is willing to allow the counselor to enter his or her private world and attempts to communicate perceptions and feelings to the counselor, the counselor must be receptive to the communication. Second, counselors must understand the communication of the client.

Proficient in: Behavior

“ Thank you so much for accepting my assignment the night before it was due. I look forward to working with you moving forward ”

To do this they must be able to put themselves in the place of the client, to take the role of the client. Third, the counselor must be able to communicate his or her understanding to the client. ” (Patterson 1985 pg. 53) 1. “Social workers, therefore, must engage with service users as individuals, in order to understand their problems and needs. ” In particular, social workers should also demonstrate active listening (nodding, smiling, positive remarks etc. ). (Forrester, 2008 pg. 42) a.

How To Show Empathy In Social Work

Motivational Interviewing= “an empirically supported, client- centered, directive counseling approach designed to promote client motivation and reduce motivational conflicts and barriers to change… focuses on issues such as: clients’ sense of the importance potential changes, their confidence that change can be successful, and their readiness to make changes. ” ( Wagner, 2004 pg. 152) By practicing this type of interviewing, a client will feel the counselor/ social worker is more empathetic to his or her needs. 2.

To understand communication of the client, it is important to utilize open- ended questions in the initial interview. Trevithick (2000) suggests that ‘open-ended questions should form a major part of an initial interview or encounter’. The initial interview is of great importance, using open- ended questions let clients speak and elaborate on their needs. 3. Reflecting is an important part interviewing, and communicating with clients. “A reflection is a hypothesis about what the client means or feels expressed as a statement.

They are central to the expression of accurate empathy; they encourage deeper exploration of emotional content; and they allow the worker or counselor sensitively to manage the interview. It has also been suggested that reflections are important in reducing resistance and increasing engagement in interviews. Miller and Rollnick summarize counseling research that suggested that reflections should outnumber questions by a proportion of three to 1” (Forrester, 2008 pg. 44) Evaluation Plan 1.

Pre- test: Social workers interview clients, before empathy education. 2. Social worker/ counselors are educated on empathetic techniques (motivational interviewing, active listening, open- ended questions vs. closed- ended questioning, and reflecting). 3. Post- test: Clients are to be interviewed and then rated using Carkhuff’s five levels of empathy. a. Level 1= Obstructing= “the social worker communicates little or no awareness or understanding of even the most conspicuous of the client’s feelings; responses are irrelevant.

Operating from a personal frame of reference, the social worker changes the subject, argues, gives advice prematurely etc. ” (Hepworth 2010, pg. 95-96) b. Level 2= Not listening= “the social worker responds to the surface message of the client but erroneously omits feeling or factual aspects of the messages. (Inaccurately interpret feelings, or inappropriately qualify feelings)” (Hepworth 2010 pg. 97) c. Level 3= Minimal Listening= “The social worker’s verbal and nonverbal responses convey understanding and are essentially interchangeable with the client’s obvious expressions”. Hepworth 2010 pg. 97) d. Level 4= Empathetic Listening= “Responses are somewhat additive, accurately identifying the client’s implicit underlying feelings and/ or aspects of the problem… enables the clients to get in touch with somewhat deeper feelings. ” (Hepworth 2010 pg. 98) e. Level 5= Fully Empathic and Skilled Listening= “Reflecting each emotional nuance, and using voice and intensity of expressions finely attuned to the client’s moment- by- moment experiencing”. (Hepworth 2010 pg. 8) “There is a sense in which communication skills are often taken for granted within social work: like the air we breathe, they provide an invisible but essential context for everything that we do. ” (Forrester 2008 p. 50)

References 1. Forrester, D. , Kershaw, S. , Moss, H. , & Hughes, L. (2008). Communication skills in child protection: how do social workers talk to parents?. Child & Family Social Work, 13(1), 41-51. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. 2. Harper, L. (1960). To Kill a Mockingbird. New York. J. B Lippincott. 3. Hepworth, D. H. (2010). Direct Social Work Practice- Theory and Skills (eighth ed. . Belmont, Calif. : Brooks/ Cole. 4. Patterson, C. H. (1985). Empathetic Understanding. In The Therapeutic Relationship (pp. 52-59). Monterey, Calif. : Brooks/ Cole. 5. Richards, Sally, Rush, G. , Trevithick, P. Communication Skills Training for Practice: the Ethical Dilemma for Social Work Education. (2005). Social Work Education, 24(4), 409-422. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. 6. Wagner, Christopher, C. McMahon, B. , Motivational Interviewing and Rehabilitation Counseling Practice. (2004). Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 47(3), 152-161. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

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Assessing virtual reality’s value as an ‘empathy machine’.

Lisa Messeri

Virtual reality can transport people, through headsets and joysticks, into immersive, imaginary worlds where they can explore alien planets, battle zombies, or even play minigolf.

But Yale anthropologist Lisa Messeri isn’t so much interested in the emerging technology’s ability to create fantastical worlds for gamers as she is in its supposed promise to help us better understand, and thereby improve, our own.

In her latest book, “ In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles ” (Duke University Press), Messeri examines a community of Los Angeles-based storytellers, artists, and tech innovators focused on using virtual reality (VR) to remedy societal ills by generating empathy toward marginalized communities. However, technology alone can’t solve complex social problems, Messeri explains, even as such fantasies nonetheless persist.

Messeri, an associate professor of anthropology in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, recently spoke to Yale News about fractured realities, VR as an “empathy machine,” and whether donning a headset can really help anyone know what it’s like to walk in another’s shoes. The interview has been edited and condensed.

In the book, you discuss fractured realities and the unreal. What do those terms mean?

When I began this project, I got a little nervous because it seemed as though, given the topic of virtual reality , I’d have to say something about the nature of reality, which seemed like a daunting task given millennia of humans pondering this question. I started playing with the term “unreal,” as opposed to the real. The point was to be very clear that the unreal is not reality’s opposite. Rather, what the unreal signals is a moment when reality’s multiplicity demands attention. The reality I experience is different from the reality you experience, which is different from the reality of someone in a war-torn country.

But often people, especially those occupying positions of privilege, embrace the idea that we’re all inhabiting a common reality, a common world. The unreal marks moments when that common reality no longer seems viable or present, when that idea of a common reality is fracturing. In a way, the book is about what it means to accept that fractured realities structure our social world and how VR simultaneously accepts the existence of these fractured realities, but then sets itself up as a tool for knitting them into a common reality by functioning as what its promoters call an “empathy machine.”

What does it mean to use VR as an ‘empathy machine?’

I was observing innovators and storytellers who were interested in using VR to tell impactful stories about the world, often from the perspective of people with identities or from communities that have been historically marginalized, with the goal of inducing a strong, empathetic reaction.

For example, in the introduction I describe experiencing “Carne y Arena (Virtually Present, Physically Invisible),” a VR project written and directed by Oscar-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu that places the viewer among a group of migrants crossing the Mexican border into the United States. That project, which was the first VR experience selected for screening at the Cannes Film Festival, exemplifies the aspirations of many of the people who were the subject of my ethnographic work, who were attempting to use VR to solve — or at least bring attention to — societal problems.

You focus specifically on the VR community in Los Angeles in 2018. Why that time and place?

People in LA were using VR as a documentary, non-fictional storytelling device that could bridge differences and (it was imagined) allow people of privilege to enter the worlds of those with less privilege, which would in turn cultivate empathy, create a better world, etc. As a scholar trained to think critically about science and technology, particularly when social goods are being promised, I was immediately apprehensive and curious about this idea. Los Angeles was where a lot of this kind of work was happening.

My research was also a conversation about how women could lead this re-emerging field of virtual reality. And again, a lot of the women who were being cited as leaders in the field were based in Los Angeles.

But this was also a time when Trumpism was finding its stride and the idea of alternative facts had entered the national discourse. It became very important to me to write about virtual reality at a moment when the alternative realities of Trumpism were part and parcel of American daily life. Los Angeles – and particularly Hollywood – helped make Trump a household name. Being in a place so capable of manufacturing stories and worlds for both benign entertainment and with unintended political consequences struck me as an important location for understanding VR.

You embedded with a start-up called Embodied Labs. How did it approach using VR as an empathy machine?

I worked with a whole bunch of companies and communities, including at the University of Southern California, the Technicolor Experience Center, and with several start-ups and other endeavors. Carrie Shaw invited me into her company, Embodied Labs, which was using virtual reality as a tool for helping caregivers better understand the experiences that their elderly clients were enduring, such as problems that arise with our minds and bodies as we age.

I was interested in Embodied Labs because I had various critiques of VR as an empathy machine. For one, there are its evident racial problematics: in embodying another’s life world, you inevitably erase the agency of the often minoritized perspective that the well-meaning viewer is trying to engage and empathize with. I was curious whether I could find a story about a project that was working within the ethos of the empathy machine, but doing so in a way that I could endorse and that scholars could learn something from.

What distinguished the company’s work from other VR applications focused on generating empathy for others?

In the end, what I felt distinguished Embodied Labs from other start-ups in this space is that it was using VR as a tool to assist or augment the work of people working as caregivers, which has the potential to benefit both parties in an existing social relationship. These were caregivers who are quite familiar with the experiences of their elderly clients. And that’s very different than instances when VR is being used to replace the need to engage with other humans.

What’s your verdict on VR as an empathy machine? Will it make the world a better place?

It’s not inconceivable that VR could be a tool that further helps inform us about things happening in the world. But the idea that it can somehow, on its own, fix societal problems represents a mindset that too often accompanies emerging technologies. In the book, I note that VR is not only an emerging technology, but also a cinematic technology used to tell stories. This distinction allows us to consider the potential for VR as a cinematic technology to be used for telling engaging and impactful stories, but VR in and of itself is not going to fix the world.

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Fall 2025 UGA Essay Questions

david graves may 22nd, 2024 in blog.

For First Year students applying to UGA for Fall 2025, we will keep the same longer personal essay (250-650 words) as before, using the essay prompts from the Common App . The shorter UGA specific essay (200-300 words suggested) topic will also remain the same as last year, with the following essay prompt:

“ The transition from middle to high school is a key time for students as they reach new levels of both academic and personal discovery. Please share a book (novel, non-fiction, etc.) that had a serious impact on you during this time. Please focus more on why this book made an impact on you and less on the plot/theme of the book itself (we are not looking for a book report).”

FYI – We are not restricting you to the exact years of 8th-9th grades, but rather the general timeframe of the middle to high school transition, which can extend somewhat further than one year on each end. Feel free to use your discretion in your choice of the timeline focused on the shift to your high school years.

As always, we also share an essay from an enrolling First-Year student that we believe shows great writing skills:

As a middle-schooler on the brink of entering high school, I was like lost cattle entering a vast social and academic wilderness. In the center, a winding, sun-soaked desert path stretched far into the horizon, beckoning my gaze with its promise of adventure and discovery. Enter The Alchemist and its magnificent idea of the “Personal Legend”– a life goal so lofty that it made locating my locker on the first day of high school appear easy. Forget about the difficulty of making new hobbies or friends; the content from this novel sure played an essential role in determining my ideology related to pursuing my future.

The protagonist enthusiastically praised the significance of believing in one’s dreams, which led my younger self down the correct path. Generating profits after extensive hours of work through my business, navigating changes in learning after COVID-19, and confronting adversity due to my darker skin color all presented difficult periods where persistence and faith were important in progress. Although self-belief was a crucial aspect of pushing through difficult times, it also motivated me to be more confident. Taking risks, from soloing in my 8th-grade jazz band to giving my crush a cringeworthy love letter, changed my belief in embracing adversity.

Furthermore, the book’s emphasis on interacting with people from different backgrounds, cultures, and belief systems mirrors my journey into the real world. Whether developing a dancing board at a Purdue summer camp or a calculus Halloween graph, collaboration enforces the ability to work with others who may share different ideas. Diverse backgrounds boosted my understanding, tolerance, and empathy while increasing my engineering career readiness. Not only was The Alchemist a great book, but it enforced critical systems that I use until this day to succeed in life. The Alchemist played an essential role in instilling new concepts I needed as an adolescent. “And when you want something, all the universe conspires you to achieve it.” Thank you, Paulo Coelho. – Josh W, Collins Hill HS.

This essay gives us insight into the student’s feelings and thoughts, and he shares his ideas through descriptive word choice. This is an excellent essay, but please know that we are not expecting this level of writing from the applicant pool overall. This essay example is meant to show our applicant pool how to express themselves through examples, personal growth and emotion. When we are reviewing essays, we are looking more at the student’s voice coming through and less on technical writing skills.

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Guest Essay

Higher Education Needs More Socrates and Plato

An illustration of a student looking in a book and seeing himself.

By Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Harun Küçük

Dr. Emanuel and Dr. Küçük are on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where Dr. Emanuel is a professor and the vice provost for global initiatives and Dr. Küçük is an associate professor of the history and sociology of science.

The right attacks colleges and universities as leftist and woke. Progressives castigate them as perpetuating patriarchy and white privilege. The burdens of these culture war assaults are compounded by parents worried that the exorbitant costs of higher education aren’t worth it.

No wonder Americans’ faith in universities is at a low. Only 36 percent of Americans have confidence in higher education, according to a survey by Gallup last year, a significant drop from eight years ago. And this was before colleges and universities across the country were swept up in a wave of protests and counter-protests over the war in Gaza.

But the problems facing American higher education are not just the protests and culture war attacks on diversity, course content, speech and speakers. The problem is that higher education is fundamentally misunderstood. In response, colleges and universities must reassert the liberal arts ideals that have made them great but that have been slipping away.

By liberal arts, we mean a broad-based education that aspires to send out into society an educated citizenry prepared to make its way responsibly in an ever-more complex and divided world. We worry that at many schools, students can fulfill all or most of their general education requirements and take any number of electives without having had a single meaningful discussion that is relevant to one’s political life as a citizen.

Over the past century, what made American higher education the best in the world is not its superiority in career training, but educating students for democratic citizenship, cultivating critical thinking and contributing to the personal growth of its students through self-creation. To revive American higher education, we need to reinvigorate these roots.

In Europe and many countries elsewhere, colleges and universities have undergraduates specialize from Day 1, focusing on developing area-specific skills and knowledge. College students are trained to become doctors, lawyers or experts in international relations, English literature or computer science.

In the United States, European-style specialization for medical, legal, business or public policy careers is the purpose of post-collegiate professional schools. Traditionally, the American college has been about imparting a liberal arts education, emphasizing reasoning and problem solving. Those enduring skills are the critical ingredients for flourishing companies and countries.

Historically, students arriving on American college campuses spent a majority of their first two years taking classes outside their projected majors. This exposed them to a common curriculum that had them engage with thoughtful writings of the past to develop the skills and capacity to form sound, independent judgments.

Over the past half century, American colleges and universities have moved away from this ideal , becoming less confident in their ability to educate students for democratic citizenship. This has led to a decline in their commitment to the liberal arts, a trend underscored in the results last year of a survey of chief academic officers at American colleges and universities by Inside Higher Ed. Nearly two-thirds agreed that liberal arts education was in decline, and well over half felt that politicians, college presidents and university boards were increasingly unsympathetic to the liberal arts.

Today, there is almost no emphasis on shared courses among majors that explore and debate big questions about the meaning of equality, justice, patriotism, personal obligations, civic responsibility and the purpose of a human life. Majors that once required only eight or 10 courses now require 14 or more, and students are increasingly double majoring — all of which crowds out a liberal arts education. Ambitious students eager to land a prestigious consulting, finance or tech job will find it too easy to brush aside courses in the arts, humanities and social and natural sciences — the core of a liberal education.

The devaluing of the first two years of a shared liberal arts education has shortchanged our students and our nation. Educating young adults to be citizens is why the first two years of college still matter.

To that end, the so-called Great Books have long been the preferred way to foster citizenship. This approach is not, contrary to critics on the left and right, about sanctifying specific texts for veneration or a mechanism for heritage transmission.

Books by Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Kant, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman as well as Wollstonecraft, Austen, Woolf, Baldwin, Hurston and Orwell are worthy of introductory collegiate courses for students of all majors. These writers address the fundamental questions of human life. They explore the ideas of self-determination, friendship, virtue, equality, democracy and religious toleration and race that we have all been shaped by.

As students address those big questions, the Great Books authors provide a road map as they challenge and criticize one another and the conventional wisdom of the past. The Socrates of Plato’s dialogues is the exemplar — asking about beliefs and then subjecting them to respectful but critical analysis and skepticism.

These books are best studied in small seminar discussions, which model and inculcate in students democratic behavior. This discourse is an antidote to the grandstanding in today’s media and social media.

The teacher is less an expert in specific writers and more a role model for intellectual curiosity, asking probing questions, offering critical analyses and seeking deeper understanding. In an idealized Socratic fashion, these discussions require listening at length and speaking briefly and, most important, being willing to go where the argument leads.

Parents who are paying for college might question the value of spending $80,000 a year so that their son or daughter can read Plato, Hobbes and Thoreau instead of studying molecular biology or machine learning. But discussing life’s big value questions in seminars gives students personal engagement with professors that can never be reproduced in large lecture halls. Discussions among students on their deepest thoughts cultivates curiosity and empathy, and forges bonds of friendship important for citizenship and fulfilling lives.

Although we like to set ourselves apart from the past by appeals to modernity, the fundamental questions that we find ourselves asking are not always modern, and the latest answer is not always right. But how would you know how to think beyond the readily presented check boxes if you haven’t done the work of laying things out and putting them back together for yourself?

War was no less a concern for Thucydides, Tacitus and Thoreau than it is today. Discussing Great Books allows students to gain distance from the daily noise and allows their reason to roam free among principles and foundations rather than becoming absorbed in contemporary events. Our biggest problems are often best addressed not by leaning in but by stepping away to reflect on enduring perspectives.

Liberal arts education is not value neutral. That is why it is indispensable today. Freedom of thought, critical reasoning, empathy for others and respectful disagreement are paramount for a flourishing democratic society. Without them, we get the unreasoned condemnations so pervasive in today’s malignant public discourse. With them, we have a hope of furthering the shared governance that is vital to America’s pluralistic society.

Ezekiel Emanuel and Harun Küçük are on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where Dr. Emanuel is a professor and the vice provost for global initiatives and Dr. Küçük is an associate professor of the history and sociology of science.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

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The Role of Empathy in Health and Social Care Professionals
Moreover, social workers with higher levels of empathy work more efficiently and productively as to the fulfillment of their role in creating social change . This happens because empathy helps the social worker understand and feel compassion towards their health care users so as the latter can feel secure to express their thoughts and problems.
Empathy's Importance in Social Work Practices
The individual essays remain the intellectual properties of the contributors. ... The ESSW is a 41-item self-report inventory designed to assess empathy in social work practitioners. The sample (N ...
Importance of Empathy for Social Work Practice: Integrating New Science
Karen E. Gerdes, Elizabeth Segal, Importance of Empathy for Social Work Practice: Integrating New Science, Social Work, Volume 56, Issue 2, April 2011, Pages 141-148, ... Social work practitioners can and should learn about emerging research on empathy and use that information to better serve their client populations. This article ...
Empathy: An Integral Model in Clinical Social Work
The integral empathy model is amenable to research and training across therapeutic contexts in social work and related fields. For decades, empathy has been a defining principle in social work theory and practice ( King, 2011 ). In the clinical social work tradition, empathy is recognized as an essential process for understanding clients and ...
The Power of Empathy: a Social Worker's Perspective on Helping Others
It also underscores the ripple effect of social work interventions, extending beyond individual clients to create positive change on a broader societal level. Overall, the essay emphasizes the central role of empathy and empowerment in facilitating growth and healing in those we seek to assist.
The Science of Empathy
Empathy is a complex capability enabling individuals to understand and feel the emotional states of others, resulting in compassionate behavior. Empathy requires cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and moral capacities to understand and respond to the suffering of others. Compassion is a tender response to the perception of another's suffering.
Understanding others' feelings: what is empathy and why do we need it?
Empathy is the ability to share and understand the emotions of others. It is a construct of multiple components, each of which is associated with its own brain network. There are three ways of ...
Empathy and active listening in the humanistic social work
social work, focusing mainly on the h umanistic theoretical models, according to which active listening is a form of operationalization of. empathy. Empathy is the human specific ability to ...
Compassion and empathy in community social workers: A qualitative study
However, the term 'compassion' generates controversy among social workers, while the term 'empathy' seems to be more universally accepted among these professionals. This qualitative study used a hermeneutic approach and aimed to explore and understand social workers' experiences with empathy and compassion in the community setting.
Cultivating empathy
To develop empathy that actually helps people requires strategy. "If you're trying to develop empathy in yourself or in others, you have to make sure you're developing the right kind," said Sara Konrath, PhD, an associate professor of social psychology at Indiana University who studies empathy and altruism.
Empathy in Social Work
Magnus Englander. A dominant conceptualization of empathy in social work practice and education, provided by Karen Gerdes and Elizabeth Segal, relies heavily on the simulation theory adopted directly from the cognitive neurosciences. The aim was to critically challenge such a view by reporting on some recent empirical findings from the field in ...
Empathy and active listening in the humanistic social work
View PDF. Social Work Empathy Active Listening Listening Techniques Humanistic Social Work. The present paper deals with the role of empathy and active listening in social work, focusing mainly on the humanistic theoretical models, according to which active listening is a form of operationalization of empathy. Empathy is the human specific.
Surviving or thriving? Enhancing the emotional resilience of social
This is a complex situation for social workers. Empathy is a key social work skill; however, over-empathising risks personal distress and under-empathising can give rise to negative emotions such as guilt and poor motivation. Both are likely to undermine resilience. Constant emotion management is required to regulate the experience and ...
Empathy Scale for Social Workers
The Empathy Scale for Social Workers (ESSW; King, Jr. & Holosko, 2012) is a 41-item self-report inventory designed to assess empathy in social work practitioners. Initial items were developed from a review of the literature, items from existing empathy scales, and phraseology related to the concept of empathy. Six or seven items were allotted to each of 3 behavioral dimensions of empathy, each ...
The Experience of Empathy in Everyday Life
Empathy—understanding, sharing, and caring about the emotions of other people—is important for individuals, fundamental to relationships (Kimmes et al., 2014), and critical for large-group living (Decety et al., 2016).Unfortunately, evidence suggests that empathy is on the decline (Konrath et al., 2011).Despite the wealth of experiments on empathy, we lack a descriptive account of how it ...
The Importance of Empathy in Social Work
Empathy is not just a virtue for social workers; it's a powerful tool for change and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. It's what enables social workers to make a real difference in the lives of their clients and communities. So, let empathy guide your path in the rewarding field of social work, and remember, it's not just ...
What does empathy sound like in social work communication? A mixed
Search for more papers by this author. Fiona Newlands, Fiona Newlands. Tilda Goldberg Centre for Social Work and Social Care, University of Bedfordshire, Luton, UK ... This study contributes to the development of understanding of empathy as a social work skill through a mixed-methods analysis of 110 audio recordings of meetings in a child ...
Why Empathy is Important in Social Work
Updated: Jan 19. Why Empathy is Important in Social Work. The job of a social worker is dynamic- their days are a balance of uncertainty, strenuous efforts and beautiful moments of human resilience and growth. Social workers are faced with making critical decisions at nearly every minute of every day and in some cases, very precarious settings.
19 Simple Ways to Show Social Worker Empathy
emotional empathy. compassionate empathy. supportive empathy, and. active listening/validation. Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of another person. Emotional empathy is the ability to respond emotionally in a way that reflects the emotions of another person.
Pondering the Colour of Empathy: Social Work Students' Reasoning on
In a previous project exploring empathy with second-year social work students, their responses revealed least empathy for a vignette featuring an Aboriginal elder's narrative of injustice (Gair, 2013a). A second classroom-based inquiry, using the same methodology but a different set of vignettes, again revealed least empathy for the vignette ...
Empathy: Understanding and Sharing the Feelings of Others
The essay discusses how empathy fosters better communication and conflict resolution, improves leadership and healthcare practices, and strengthens relationships. It also highlights potential challenges, like compassion fatigue or manipulation, and emphasizes the importance of balancing support for others with self-care.
Empathy In Social Work Essay Example
Download. Essay, Pages 4 (932 words) Views. 910. "Teaching Social Workers Empathy" Jamie Raabe Northern Kentucky University Holly Riffe- 594 Aim/ Purpose "Our society is externally oriented; we do not normally or easily see things from another person's point of view. We are too preoccupied with our own frame of reference.
Empathy across three generations: From maternal and peer support in
Third, previous research shows a clear genetic contribution to empathy (Abramson et al., 2020), which was not accounted for in the present study; future work should examine the joint contributions of genetics and the social environment to the development of empathy at different stages of development.
Emotional intelligence as a part of critical reflection in social work
Emotions influence social workers in various ways in their everyday practice. Social workers are continually exposed to the tough conditions of clients' lives, which are often the fallout of oppressive structures in our society (Barlow and Hall, 2007).It can be difficult to distinguish emotions such as empathy, compassion, identification, discomfort, anxiousness, and annoyance/indignance and ...
Assessing virtual reality's value as an 'empathy machine'
In her latest book, Yale anthropologist Lisa Messeri examines the limits of using virtual reality to enhance empathy and address social problems. Virtual reality can transport people, through headsets and joysticks, into immersive, imaginary worlds where they can explore alien planets, battle zombies, or even play minigolf. But Yale ...
Fall 2025 UGA Essay Questions
David Graves May 22nd, 2024 in Blog. For First Year students applying to UGA for Fall 2025, we will keep the same longer personal essay (250-650 words) as before, using the essay prompts from the Common App. The shorter UGA specific essay (200-300 words suggested) topic will also remain the same as last year, with the following essay prompt:
Opinion
Liberal arts education is not value neutral. That is why it is indispensable today. Freedom of thought, critical reasoning, empathy for others and respectful disagreement are paramount for a ...

The Role of Empathy in Health and Social Care Professionals

Areti Stavropoulou

Anastas Philalithis

Sofia Koukouli

1. Introduction

2. Material and Methods

3.1. Concept Definition and Dimensions

3.2. The Role of Empathy in Health and Social Care Professionals

3.3. Assessing Empathy

3.4. Factors that Influence Empathy

4. Conclusions

Author Contributions

Conflicts of Interest

Understanding others’ feelings: what is empathy and why do we need it?

Disclosure statement

Why do we need it?

How is empathy measured?

Can empathy be selective?

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Empathy and active listening in the humanistic social work

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In the book, you discuss fractured realities and the unreal. What do those terms mean?

What does it mean to use VR as an ‘empathy machine?’

You focus specifically on the VR community in Los Angeles in 2018. Why that time and place?

You embedded with a start-up called Embodied Labs. How did it approach using VR as an empathy machine?

What distinguished the company’s work from other VR applications focused on generating empathy for others?

What’s your verdict on VR as an empathy machine? Will it make the world a better place?

Shaping policy: ISPS workshop delves into executive branch dynamics

Meet Yale Internal Medicine: Allison Gaffey

In stroke response, speed is key; Yale study reveals where delays are worst

Fall 2025 UGA Essay Questions

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Higher Education Needs More Socrates and Plato

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