ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some of the major definitions of empathy which have been advanced over the years, and focuses on those which continue to influence contemporary thinking. It organizes the various definitions of empathy into a tidier taxonomy within a conceptual framework which treats empathy as a multidimensional phenomenon. Although sympathy and empathy are deeply intertwined today, the two concepts initially grew out of separate traditions. The nature of empathy has been and continues to be a matter of some disagreement among those who toil in this vineyard. In particular, there is one central, recurrent, and seemingly intractable problem: the term empathy is routinely used to refer to two distinctly separate phenomena, cognitive role taking and affective reactivity to others. Some processes which lead to empathic outcomes seem to require very little cognitive activity. The construct in an organizational model consists of interpersonal outcomes, defined as behaviors directed toward a target which result from prior exposure to that target.
