The Effects Of Sleep Deprivation On Empathy

Empathy is a key helping value and has many definitions. According to Egan and Schroeder, empathy is a personality trait that allows a person to feel what others feel and have the ability to understand other people from the inside. It is also a state of feeling for others that is situation specific and can be a, “Feeling for and understand of another’s persons experiences” (Egan and Schroeder, 2009). Empathy is a “Basic value that informs and drive all helping behavior”, a communication skill and has three phases, empathic resonance, expressed empathy and received empathy (Egan and Schroeder, 2009).

What is empathy? Are you an empathic person? Skillsyouneed.com defines empathy, at its simplest, awareness of the feelings and emotions of other people. It is a key element of emotional intelligence, the link between self and others because it is how we, as individuals, understand what others are experiencing as if we were feeling it ourselves. This powerful force imbedded inside human being can be very meaningful to people of all ages, genders, and races. Empathy is very important in the healthcare because it promotes understanding others, caring for others, and feeling a sense of achievement.

Empathy and caring is an essential part of human health. We love because we can empathize (Szalavitz & Perry, 2010). Empathy underlies everything that makes society work; such as altruism, collaboration, love and charity. Failures to empathize are a key part of social problems, such as crime, violence, war, racism, child abuse and inequity. Although we are genetically predisposed to care for others, the development of empathy requires a lifelong process of relational interaction (Szalavitz & Perry, 2010). More importantly, the first relationship humans experience, the

Empathy, the ability to recognize and share feelings of others, has been in our brains since the beginning of time. It was discovered by the Greeks which they called it, “Empatheia” meaning, “In feeling.” Then a German psychologist Vischer in 1837 and he called it

Lack of sleep affects children's relationships with others as sleep makes a difference to behaviours and control of emotions.

Empathy refers to the ability to recognize how others are feeling emotionally, whether it be happy, sorrowful, or any other mental state. From To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch, the main character’s father, contextually describes empathy as “understand[ing] a person [when one] consider[s] things from [another’s] point of view” (30). Atticus’s implementation of this empathic principle foreshadows his own need to apply empathy in his dealings with the defendant of a court case, Tom Robinson. By doing so, Atticus creates a bond with Tom, constructing a stronger drive to advance through the trial, in addition to presenting a tangible significance to readers of understanding others. This essential quality of empathy is unique to humans, creating both ease and conflict in how humans as a whole execute a pursuit of justice.

According to Gerdes and Segal (2001), empathy is the ability to perceive, understand, experience, and respond to the emotional state of another person. They advocate that therapists should be able to pay attention to clients’ “behavior, facial expression, the tone of voice, choice of words, and so on, should be able to keep objectivity and regulate emotion (Gerdes and Segal, 2001). In Thelma’s case, Yalom shows highly empathy to Thelma. During the sessions, Yalom kept paying attention to Thelma’s tone of voice, behavior, and choice of words. For example, Yalom (1989) wrote that “Thelma’s tone of voice contained no invitation to come closer,” “Thelma turned away and looked out the window…she was speaking more deliberately, in a bitter, forlorn

Empathy involves seeing the world through the client’s eyes, thinking about things as the client thinks about them, feeling things as the client feels them, sharing in the client’s experiences. This approach provides the basis for clients to be heard and understood, and in turn, clients are more likely to honestly share their experiences in depth. The process of expressing

Sleep deprivation is a serious concern among college students, who are "among the most sleep-deprived age group in the United States," (Central Michigan University, 2008). It is important to study the causes of sleep deprivation, or sleep disorders, among college students. According to Park (2009), "dozens of studies have linked an increase in nightly sleep to better cognition and alertness." A study by Central Michigan University (2008) found that sleep deprivation can lead to poor academic performance, impaired driving, depression, and behavioral problems. There are several variables that may affect sleeping patterns among college students. One is genetics or biological issues. It is highly

People in our society from all around the world have a wonderful gift of being able to understand each other’s feelings at a personal level. Empathy can be described in many different ways, but is hard to put into words what it all entails. Understanding how a person feels is just the surface of empathy. Empathy varies from person to person, and each person may describe it differently. Without a doubt, empathy is a vital part of society and it is important for people to be educated and truly understand and practice acting in empathetic ways. It takes personal experiences, research studies, and spiritual beliefs for empathy to be properly described.

• Empathy: Empathy is someone who is able to feel what others feel and see things in other people’s point of view.

Sleep is essential for optimal human function. In fact, a lack of sleep can actually affect important cognitive functions, like memory. A 2007 study added to the already substantial evidence that even acute total sleep deprivation impairs attentiveness, working memory, and reaction time in various tasks (Alhola, Polo-Kantola). One such way to further this investigation of the effects of sleep deprivation on memory is through the Memory Interference Test, or MIT. MIT is a program designed by Gaston Pfluegl, Ph.D., and Enrique Lopez, Psy. D., at UCLA to test the memory of students. Along with a memory test, the MIT also anonymously collected the physical states, mental states, and demographics of each student test subject, providing a substantial database through which students can test hypotheses, such as the connection between sleep deprivation and memory. Since the MIT requires short-term memory recall, the hours of sleep a student had before taking the test could have a noticeable effect on his or her performance. An unprecedented study this year found that sleep deprivation may actually even induce false memories, which would certainly impact a student taking the MIT because the test requires the subject to recognize images that have been previously presented to them (Frenda, et al). The hypothesis is that students who slept 8 hours before the test will perform better on the MIT than students who only slept 4 hours. The null hypothesis is that students who had adequate

information about the description of empathy, as well as to discover how empathy has been

In the first chapter of our book, Batson introduces the seeming complexity of empathy as he lays out eight different uses of the word empathy (Decety & Ickes, 2009). However, later in the book, Rogers expresses the simplicity of empathy in his observation of the healing power from just the intense presence of a therapist (Decety & Ickes, 2009). It seems easy to get lost in the terms and definitions of empathy. We read terms such as “grasp”, “sort through”, & “resonance” and can become overwhelmed about the

Most definitions of empathy are based on the same core idea - empathy is the ability to understand and identify someone else’s thoughts and feelings, as if they were one’s own (wordreference online dictionary, 2016). Although it’s been said “there are probably nearly as many definitions of empathy as people working on the topic.” (de Vignemont & Singer, 2006, p.435) suggesting that there is no singular way to even define empathy, let alone explain its impact on our behaviour. Due to the sheer depth and complexity of empathy it’s understandable that each discipline within psychology presents it’s own explanation for why we experience it, and how it can affect our interaction with the world around us. Psychologists have been exploring empathy for decades, in hope of gaining a complete grasp of what it means and how it can vary between each person, therefore its important we look at different psychological perspectives to try to understand it’s many dimensions.