|  | Mental Health | Stress Management

Levels of Empathy

The word empathy refers to a person's ability to be sensitive to another person. Some people are naturally more empathetic, while others may need to work at developing this integral interpersonal communication skill. To a psychologist, empathy refers to a person's ability to see things through someone else's perspective. Empathy can be difficult to measure, so an "empathy scale" is often used by psychologists to characterize degrees of empathy during our verbal exchanges with others.

  1. Level 1: Tuned Out

    • Dr. Stephen Covey, author of the bestseller "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," maintains that a person's ability to listen to what others are saying is crucial to demonstrating empathy. Covey writes that too many people are more interested in talking than listening. Level one on the empathy scale refers to poor listening skills, the refusal or inability to understand what others are saying and consequently empathize with their situation.

    Level 2: Repitition or Pretend Listening

    • Level two on the empathy scale also demonstrates a low degree of understanding of another 's perspective. This level is often characterized by "pretend listening" or merely parroting what a person is saying. This typically involves a person nodding in agreement and providing stock responses that do not convey feeling.

    Level Three: Connection

    • The third level of empathy makes a connection with another person. It is the level that acknowledges what another person is feeling in everyday interactions and in disagreements. Psychologists and social scientists believe this is the minimum level of empathy necessary to forge beneficial relationships between people, and to avoid and resolve conflict.

    Advanced Levels

    • Level four reflects an advanced level of empathy. Some scales also include a higher level designated as a level five. Both levels do more than just connect with another being. They utilize your relationship with the person or knowledge of his situation to delve deeper into how a person is feeling. These levels offer insight, understanding and possible resolutions. A level-five response is the top level of empathy that is so tuned into a person's perspective that it may result in insights the person does not realize about himself or his situation. These responses typically happen between people who have a long-term relationship or extensive knowledge of each other.

Stress Management - Related Articles