What is the difference between sympathy and empathy

Sympathy is the older of the two terms. Nowadays, sympathy is largely used to convey commiseration, pity, or feelings of sorrow for someone else who is experiencing misfortune. Empathy entered English a few centuries after sympathy —in the late s—with a somewhat technical and now obsolete meaning from the field of psychology. Unlike sympathy , empathy has come to be used in a broader way than it was when it was first introduced; the term is now most often used to refer to the capacity or ability to imagine oneself in the situation of another, experiencing the emotions, ideas, or opinions of that person.

Empathy Sentences The sentences below correctly use the word empathy. Stella told the teacher that she did not like the troubled main characters in the book because she did not have empathy for them. Surprisingly, her parents showed empathy and calmly listened to her side of the story.

The police officers showed great empathy toward those involved in the crash. Jury service is not easy; I definitely did not have empathy for the criminals in this case. The killer could not offer any empathy for his victims or their families.

Since I became a mother, I have developed a great deal of empathy for those who have lost children. As I had lost my job last year, I had empathy for my friend when she was fired. She has empathy for those struggling with addiction since she is a recovering addict. Sympathy Test Questions Check your understanding of the difference between sympathy and empathy with these practice exercises. Choose the Correct Word Complete each of the sentences below with the word sympathy or empathy, making the correct choice based on what each word means.

She knew exactly what she was doing when she cheated on her exam. Answer Key Check your answers using the answer key below. A major difference between sympathy and empathy is how long each has been around.

Compared to sympathy , which first appeared in English in the 16th century, empathy is a relatively new coinage, one originating from a relatively young science: psychology. By empathy , one organism is aware at once that another organism is aware of an object. An animal reacting to his reaction would come under this definition. Yet altogether the definition marks off a class of mental events that are normally human, and it serves for the human being to differentiate the conscious from the unconscious.

Boring, The Psychological Review , Vol. Empathy can be contrasted with sympathy in terms of a kind of remove, or emotional distance:. The act or capacity of entering into or sharing the feelings of another is known as sympathy.

Empathy , on the other hand, not only is an identification of sorts but also connotes an awareness of one's separateness from the observed. One of the most difficult tasks put upon man is reflective commitment to another's problem while maintaining his own identity. Many writers, likely aware of the thinness of the distinction, take pains to emphasize or explain what makes their choice of sympathy or empathy the proper one:.

A fuller account would clearly require empathy as well as sympathy —a leap of imagination into Leadbelly's racial conflicts that would almost certainly have been facilitated by more candid interviews with surviving African-American witnesses as well as the personal experience of racial bias.

Empathy has become a fad word for sympathy , though it was adopted expressly to mean something different from sympathy : 'intellectual insight into another's emotional state without sharing in it. Dirckx, The Language of Medicine 2nd Ed. Criticism, like fiction, was an act of empathy for Ray, putting yourself in the other guy's shoes.

It creates a sense of pity over the plight of the person. This helps a person to feel heard, understood and validated. Sympathy focuses on the surface meaning of statements, while empathy is sensitive to non-verbal cues. Lastly, sympathy tends to suppress your own and others emotions. Emotions get pushed aside and avoided until it culminates in an intense fit of pain.

Empathy acknowledged your own and others emotions. By self-checking your own empathy to others pain, we can slowly start to rebuild the connections that we have lost with others, and make current connections even stronger.

Being supportive, understanding and compassionate are the building blocks to preventative care of all individuals, both young and older.