The Functions of Empathy (Decentering) in Human Relations

Abstract

Empathy, in its broadest usage, is considered a fundamental dimension of interpersonal and communication competence. Empathy enhances a person's understanding of others, and the ability to make predictions about others. Understanding and prediction make empathy a possible tool for persuasion, compliance gaining, relational development, and counseling. Empathy affects decision making about others and attribution. Empathy acts to reflect what has been perceived and creates a supportive/confirming atmosphere. Each function of empathy generally reflects a different conceptualization of empathy. The term “decentering” is offered as the more appropriate alternative term to represent the overall phenomenon with empathy as a subconstruct.

A dyadic approach to the impact of differences in organizational culture on relationship performance

“…It is more likely that joint problem solving arrangements will be put in place and employed. Empathy is also found to have a positive impact on the sharing of information and provides the ability to understand another more completely and accurately (Redmond, 1989), thus, increasing the likelihood of exchanging information appropriate to the context and the partner. Hence, differences in organizational cultures may negatively affect the empathy levels and have negative consequences for the perceived relationship performance.…”

On the Role of Empathy in Customer-Employee Interactions

“…First, empathy strengthens the ability to competently interact with others and to display behaviors appropriate for a given situation or person (Redmond 1989). By fostering a more complete and accurate understanding of the interaction partner, empathy elevates the ability to predict or anticipate the actions or reactions of others (Hakansson and Montgomery 2003).…”

Untitled

“…It is about a person's ability to understand and to immerse one's feelings or emotions that helps guide the progression of thoughts in the form of highly salient sensory information directing the consciousness to act favorably (Epstein, 2004;Mehrabian and Epstein, 1972). Empathy is a universal and effective phenomenon (Mehrabian and Epstein, 1972) as a fundamental dimension of interpersonal and communication competence that follows the Confucian golden rule focusing on human heartedness (Dossey, 2007;Redmond, 1989). This principle of human heartedness is parallel to what Kouassi (2008) emphasized that in conflict mediation, empathy is evident in a form of diplomacy and negotiations requiring special effort on the part of human beings to go beyond raw emotions and minimize the risk of conflict escalation as well as its duration.…”