Empathy and Caring as Conceptualized Inside and Outside of Engineering: Extensive Literature Review and Faculty Focus Group Analyses

Hess, Justin L.; Sprowl, Jessica; Pan, Rui; Dyehouse, Melissa; Morris, Carrie A. Wachter

doi:10.18260/1-2--21278

Cited by 13 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The new research on empathy as a major part of emotional intelligence in the late 20th century, however, made it a central concept in some significant psychological and psychotherapist research studies. Recently an increasing number of studies have been conducted on the role of empathy in engineering education [24][25][26][27] and practice [21,[28][29][30][31].…”

Section: Empathy: Definition and Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathic Design in Engineering Education and Practice: An Approach for Achieving Inclusive and Effective Community Resilience

et al. 2021

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In this paper, we argue that an inclusive and effective community resilience approach requires empathy as a missing component in the current engineering education and practice. An inclusive and effective community resilience approach needs to be human-centric, individual- and communal-sensitive, justice-oriented, and values-based consistent. In this paper, we argue that three kinds of empathy, namely cognitive, affective, and conative, play a central role in creating and sustaining an inclusive and effective approach to community resilience. Finally, we discuss empathetic education through learning theories and analytics skills to cultivate empathy in engineering education. Cultivating empathy in engineering education could help advance the impact and contribution of engineering to well-being.

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Section: Empathy: Definition and Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathic Design in Engineering Education and Practice: An Approach for Achieving Inclusive and Effective Community Resilience

et al. 2021

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“…It is undeniable that these skills are core and important. However, the target attributes for future engineering graduates, such as featured in the National Academy of Engineering's (NAE) 'Engineer of 2020', include specific character qualities and affective dispositions as well, wherein promoting traits such as empathy and care is sometimes referenced as holistic engineering education" [20].…”

Section: Empathic In Deedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While terms like "user needs" have become a regular part of the engineering vocabulary, Hess et al noted that empathy is rarely used as an independent concept in engineering. They expressed surprise at "the lack of research on the connection between engineering (along with other technical/scientific fields) and empathy/care," in particular because "empathetic design is considered the most comprehensive form of human-centered design and empathic communication skills are postulated to lead to more personal connection to stakeholders" [20]. Indeed, despite the amount of attention paid to harnessing empathy as an engineering tool, few engineering educators have explicitly explored the relation between empathy and engineering.…”

Section: From Empathic Design To Empathic Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

From 'Empathic Design' to 'Empathic Engineering': Toward a Genealogy of Empathy in Engineering Education

Tang¹

2018 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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In philosophy and psychology literature, empathy in general refers to 1) the ability to understand another person's ideas and feelings; and 2) the inclination to feel emotionally responsive to, and act to alleviate, another person's distressful experience. Until recently, however, discourses on "empathy" in engineering education are inspired primarily by "empathic design," a concept that originated from market research and first gained popularity in the business world. This paper argues that the discourse of "empathic design" inadvertently advances an instrumentalist interpretation of empathy, one that ignores the depth and breadth of philosophical and psychological insights into empathy. The adoption of this instrumentalist, product-oriented conception of empathy exacerbates some persistent problems confronting engineering education, including a tendency to objectify the users of engineering products.Seeking to reconstruct empathy on the ground of philosophy and psychology literature, in this paper I begin to develop a genealogy of empathy in engineering education. The paper does this by tracing the discursive history of empathy in engineering education and in its discipline-based sub-communities (e.g., design and entrepreneurship). This genealogical survey also examines recent scholars' efforts toward redefining empathy as an engineering competency, which lays the groundwork for envisioning "empathic engineering." Champions of empathic engineering, taking advantage of knowledge developed in psychology and social work, link empathy to engineering students' moral development and communication skills. Ultimately, empathic engineering aims at advancing objectives related to community needs, sustainability, and social justice. I assess the implications of the discursive migration from "empathic design" to "empathic engineering" for the identity formation of the engineering profession. Furthermore, I argue that the movement toward "empathic engineering" suggests the potential for overcoming a narrowly-defined, instrumentalist, and product-oriented conception of empathy. As an example, I suggest two alternative conceptions of empathy in engineering: 1) empathy as a commitment to communicating and understanding across different cultural and epistemic communities; and 2) empathy as a professional excellence for engineers.

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“…Koen [18] argued that, "To be human is to be an engineer." As we broaden our conceptualization of engineering, we open the door to various ways of doing engineering (i.e., ethno-engineering, see [19]). Second, where do the "needs" or "problems" that engineers must address come from?…”

Section: What Counts As Engineering Knowledge and Skills? What Does It Mean To Be An Engineer?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethics in Engineering or Engineering in Ethics?

Fore

Hess

Katz

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

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As a SEIRI staff member, Grant is involved in research development, qualitative and mixed methods research, and programmatic assessment and evaluation. His research interests include ethics and equity in STEM education, the intersubjective experience of the instructor/student encounter, secondary STEM teacher professional development, and issues of power in STEM education discourse. He is also an Anthropology doctoral candidate at the University of Cape Town, where he was previously awarded a Master's degree. His dissertation research is focused on exploring the ethical becoming of architecture students within courses utilizing community-engaged pedagogies.

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Empathy and Caring as Conceptualized Inside and Outside of Engineering: Extensive Literature Review and Faculty Focus Group Analyses

Cited by 13 publications

References 32 publications

Empathic Design in Engineering Education and Practice: An Approach for Achieving Inclusive and Effective Community Resilience

Empathic Design in Engineering Education and Practice: An Approach for Achieving Inclusive and Effective Community Resilience

From 'Empathic Design' to 'Empathic Engineering': Toward a Genealogy of Empathy in Engineering Education

Ethics in Engineering or Engineering in Ethics?

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