Empathy, or social sensitivity, is the degree to which people manage to develop accurate impressions, or real understanding, of others. Since social perception is not always rational or conscious, it may seem to someone that empathy only 'occurs' while for others it develops with training and experience.
Consideration of social perception
Social perception is the formation of people's opinions, whether favorable or unfavorable, that influence our social behavior. We all do indeed like or dislike of varying intensity, even if we are not always ready to recognize it or even if we are not able to do so.
Social perception is the means by which people form impressions of each other and achieve understanding.
3 basic aspects of social perception
- The perceiver, or the person who looks and tries to understand The perceived The situation, or the total environment of social and non-social forces where the act of social perception is located.
Perceivers and Perceived
They don't have to be people; they can be social groups.
The interactions between the two are not obvious cause-effect relationships, due to the complexity of their personalities.
Personality, in the case of social groups, can be defined as the characteristics of the group, which is not the sum of the personalities of each of the members, but results from the formal and informal traditions of this and their ways. accepted to do things.
Perception patterns
4 types or relationships:
- Type A (individual-individual) Type B (individual-group) Type C (group-individual) Type D (group-group)
In each of the types, there are innumerable distortions (communication interruptions) that prevent the perceiver from having a faithful image.
The degree to which one correctly notices someone's reactions to oneself constitutes a 'perception of a perception'. Thus there is a possible infinite chain of social perceptions, which begins with:
- Perceptions of 1st. order: as the perceiver sees the perceived. 2nd Perceptions. order: as the perceiver thinks that the perceived sees it Perceptions of 3rd. order: as the perceiver who sees the perceived thinks the perception that the perceiver has of the perceived.
Various empathies
There are multiple empathies, since the understanding of social groups, rather than individuals, involves unique problems and may require different capacities of perception from those necessary to understand individuals.
It is not surprising that there are several empathies, given the large number of suggestions we have to understand others.
Suggestions: raw material of perceiving
They are usually direct: transmitted directly by the perceived to the perceiver through words, gestures, facial expressions, etc., consciously or unconsciously. On other occasions, the recipient receives them indirectly through comments, gossip, recommendations, etc.
Some gestures are more obvious in terms of apparent meaning, while others are ambiguous and difficult to interpret.
Removing the sensor:
You must understand others with two sets of interrelated characteristics:
- Demographic characteristics: those general sociological aspects that do not belong to the personality, such as age, sex, nationality, religion, occupation, economic level, etc. These influence the perception capacity of the individual. Personality characteristics: there is a close relationship between emotional adjustment and empathy. Emotional adjustment revolves around self-concept and provides a base of operations that affects relationships with other people and groups. There are attitudes (public and private) and subconscious aspects, which undoubtedly affect the way of understanding others.
Obstacles and aids for empathy
Aids:
A healthy personality. The individual who has solved most of his inner conflicts is in a better position to understand others. He has managed to accept his fundamental self at all levels (from the public to the unconscious).
Obstacles:
Pressure or anxiety hinder the correct perception of the motives and actions of those around us.
Excess tension reduces empathy, but absence of tension induces a state of apathy, not an always correct social perception. In the absence of tension there is no reason to want to understand something or someone. There would be little social perception.
Self-perception
In order to achieve a successful Interpretation of the suggestions that come to us externally, we must be aware of the distortions that may result from our own perception capacity. The only tool we use to understand others is our own personality.
Self-perception is not easily accomplished. One of the factors that go
Against it is our system of psychological defenses, the set of ways in which we systematically and unconsciously protect ourselves from facing real or imagined threats to our personal safety. These protective distortions help us make reality more acceptable, but unfortunately we are moving away from it, which affects empathy.
Importance of attitude
A very authoritarian person, in general, has the problem of rigidity in his perception and a clear intolerance for ambiguity. You need to see the world in defined sectors: it is white or it is black, without the possibility of nuances or gradations. Good or bad. For or against us. Friend or enemy.
On the other hand, a person on the other end, non-authoritarian, also sees
their ability to understand others is affected.
Stereotypes: are they always disadvantageous or harmful?
No. If a realistic and flexible typification of a group of individuals is developed, the possibilities of success in our perception of others can be increased. It must be taken into account that we must be very cautious in the use of these simplifications, always being open to new information that can help us alter our perceptions in light of the changes. Perceptions should not be irrationally hardened.
The links between Perceiver and Perceived
Communication is the fundamental raw material of the process, sending and receiving messages that involve content and feelings.
The perceiver must seek to obtain from the perceived suggestions that do everything possible to reveal the relevant aspects of the perceived, their thoughts and their possible behavior. The ability to achieve this depends on:
- the ability of the recipient to facilitate the sending of information the ability of the recipient to collect and interpret that information appropriately.
Dangers of dexterity
The intellect does not guarantee empathy; it can even become a danger of over-interpreting the suggestions, attributing intentions that do not exist.
Advantages of empathy
- It provides a map that adequately defines the social world that the perceiver faces. This must be accompanied by behavioral flexibility to provoke the reactions that will more effectively reach the goals that have been proposed. (Seeing too much, without the social capacity to function in reality is a serious obstacle.) Social effectiveness depends on the knowledge being successfully applied through action. The executive must master two tasks: learning to see correctly the human and non-human factors of the situation and acquiring the capacity for action, which, although based on perception, requires behaviors that lead to finally achieving success.
Through the following video-tutorial (3 videos, 13 minutes), from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, you will be able to learn what empathy is, what are its benefits and phases.
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