The experience of empathy in everyday relationships: Cognitive and affective elements

In the psychological literature, empathy has been regarded as either a cogn itive, an affective, or a multidimensional phenomenon and there has been mu ch controversy about its nature. This phenomenological study focuses on how the theoretical discussion of the cognitive-affective nature of empathy fi nds expression in the experiential realm. Findings in this study point to t he conclusion that empathy has different meanings for different people, eit her when they are empathizing with another or when being empathized with. I n examining the way people experience empathy in their everyday lives, in t he context of real, meaningful, present relationships, it seems that both c ognitive and affective aspects of this experience play a significant role a nd may appear either together or separately. While it is rare for empathy t o exist without any cognitive understanding, we also found that the experie nces of empathy that contain emotional components reflect a fuller and more meaningful relational experience. As for the meaning of the affective and the cognitive aspects, the experience of these elements is more complex and divergent than the way it is usually portrayed in the literature. Implicat ions for future research are discussed.