whats the difference between empathy and sympathy?

Answer 1

Both empathy and sympathy are feelings concerning other people. Sympathy is literally 'feeling with' - compassion for or commiseration with another person. Empathy, by contrast, is literally 'feeling into' - the ability to project one's personality into another person and more fully understand that person. Sympathy derives from Latin and Greek words meaning 'having a fellow feeling'. The term empathy originated in psychology (translation of a German term, c. 1903) and has now come to mean the ability to imagine or project oneself into another person's position and experience all the sensations involved in that position. You feel empathy when you've "been there", and sympathy when you haven't. Examples: We felt sympathy for the team members who tried hard but were not appreciated. / We felt empathy for children with asthma because their parents won't remove pets from the household.

Answer 2

Sympathy is feeling sorry for someone, seeing them as deserving pity, somtimes seeing them as a victim or suffering.
Empathy comes from a native american saying about walking a mile in another mans moccassins. In other words, empathy is the ability to imagine why someone is feeling the way they are.
Ultimately in some situations sympathy can be demeaning and disempowering for the person it's directed at, empathy on the other hand is much more empowering and brings an equality with it.

Answer 3

Empathy means that you have experienced the same feelings or thoughts, but not necessarily due to the actual event that caused the feelings. You are capable of feeling someone else's emotions because you can put yourself in their shoes and envision how the same incident would make you feel. When you start tearing and getting goose bumps when someone tells you what they are experiencing, then you have empathy. Sympathy means that you feel bad or sorry for someone because they lost their job, a family member, their first love or even their home. You can sympathize with their sadness, but you can't relate.

Answer 4

Empathy means you understand how another person feels Sympathy means you agree with a person or a groups ideals but not to the extent in which you'd carry out that person or groups wishes

Answer 5

Empathy is being able to relate to what someone is saying or a way they are feeling. Sympathy deals with emotions.

Answer 6

To have empathy with someone means that you understand and share their feelings, which feelings may be good or bad. That requires a degree of understanding of how that other person thinks and feels. To sympathise with someone is to feel sorry ,or express sorrow, for unhappiness that another person is feeling - because they have lost a loved one, had an accident etc. You need not share the hurt, or even understand it.

Answer 7

sympathy is a feeling or expression of feeling sorry for someones misfortune empathy is knowing how someone feels and feeling the same

Answer 8

Lets put this in a more simplistic form: Sympathy is where you feel sorry for someone in there time of sorrow, you could possibly understand how they feel.
Empathy is where you have had the same experience and you completely know what they are going through.
Hope this helps. :o) x

Answer 9

Empathy is where you share something, you may have had similar experiences.
Sympathy is where you can understand what the person is going through but you feel slightly distant.

Answer 10

Sympathy is when you recognise what someone is feeling and you feel sorry for them.
Empathy is when you actually feel similar to how the person feels because you have gone through the same / similar thing. You can relate to how they are feeling.