ABSTRACT
Most people find it easy to recall situations in which either high levels or low levels of empathy were displayed. This chapter offers an explication of the construct empathy. Several scholars have reviewed the different uses of the term empathy. True empathy is elicited through five modes that develop during infancy and early childhood. The five modes are: classical conditioning, direct association, mimicry, symbolic association, and role taking. Empathy as shared emotion is of a higher quality than shared valence. If a sender is experiencing a blend, complete empathy requires that the receiver share all of the emotions involved in the blend. Sharing one or a proportion of the emotions in the blend reflects lower levels of empathy. Finally, situational cues are acceptable elicitors of empathy provided that the observer of those cues is responding to the sender's situation and not to his or her own.
