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Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
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Empathy as an Interpersonal Phenomenon

Jakob Håkansson

Henry Montgomery

Stockholm University

The purpose of this study was to find the constituents of empathizers' and targets' experiences of empathy. We analyzed 28 empathizers' and 28 targets' narrative accounts of situations when they had experienced empathy. From both perspectives, the constituents of empathy included that (1) the empathizer understands the target's situation and emotions, (2) the target experiences one or more emotions, (3) the empathizer perceives a similarity between what the target is experiencing and something the empathizer has experienced previously, and (4) the empathizer is concerned for the target's well-being. The data suggested that actions associated with the fourth constituent - concern - make empathy an interpersonal phenomenon.

Key Words: concern • empathy • interpersonal concern • narratives

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Vol. 20, No. 3, 267-284 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/0265407503020003001
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[Abstract] [PDF]