共情与同情:词源、概念和测量

Empathy and Sympathy or Compassion: Source, Conception and Measurement

作为人际交往的润滑剂,共情一直是社会认知研究中的重要课题之一。然而,随着研究的深入,研究者们对共情原本的概念和内涵的认识逐渐变得模糊,具体表现为共情与同情术语的混用。事实上,与共情不同,同情的历史更加悠久,例如孟子提出的恻隐之心和休谟提出的同情说。为了辨析共情与同情的概念和内涵,以及阐述现有研究过程中存在的相关问题,本文从词源、概念和测量三方面对相关文献进行了梳理。期望进一步规范相关术语的使用,进而为该领域的实证研究和理论探讨提供一些建议。

As a social glue, empathy has always been considered as one of the most important research projects in social cognitive neuroscience. However, with the deepening of research, the original concept and connotation of empathy have gradually become vague, which is embodied in the mixture of empathy, sympathy, and compassion in research. In fact, unlike empathy, sympathy and compassion have a long history. For example, the notion of ＇ceyinzhixin＇, which was raised by Mencius, and Hume＇s sympathy theory. In order to distinguish the concept and connotation of empathy, sympathy, and compassion, and to elaborate the related problems in present research, the current study reviews the references from word sources, concepts and measurements, as to standardize the use of these terms and provide some suggestions for empirical research and theoretical discussion in this field.