Empathy or not empathy, that’s the question—A pragmatic behavior analytical approach.

Abstract

Empathy is a heavily researched term, albeit mostly outside of a traditional behavior analytic point of view. As a psychological construct, empathy has been researched using many different techniques-animal models, neuroimaging studies and questionnaires. As for research purposes, however, there is still much debate on how to define empathy; the definitions that exist do not necessarily involve an operational analysis of behavior. Hence, in the current paper we propose a new conceptualization of empathy that is based on basic behavior analytical concepts and backed up by previous research from both behavioristic and traditional psychological fields. The concepts put forth in this paper are not a replacement for other theories regarding the role of empathy, what it is and what it is not, but an alternative approach driven by a lack of behavior-environmental contingencies in the traditional definitions of empathy.

Social familiarity and reinforcement value: a behavioral-economic analysis of demand for social interaction with cagemate and non-cagemate female rats

“…The use of the tube restraint grew out of earlier research claiming that social release was due not to social reinforcement, but rather, to an empathic concern for the restrained rat (Ben-Ami Bartal et al, 2011). The weight of evidence now clearly favors a social reinforcement view, not only on socialrelease procedures (Hachiga et al, 2018;Blystad, 2019;Heslin and Brown, 2021;Blystad and Hansen, 2022), but also on social-approach procedures like those used in the present study and by Hackenberg et al (2021). Indeed, it is not even clear what an empathy-based account would have to say about social approach, in which the animals are unrestrained and not in any obvious state of distress that is required by an empathy-based account.…”

Empatiens mange ansikter: fenomenologisk og positivistisk empati

“…En annen positivistisk tilnaerming har sitt utspring i atferdsvitenskap eller laeringspsykologi. Her er empati en respons på omgivelsene, en atferd som kan trenes lik andre former for atferd (Argott et al, 2017;Schrandt et al, 2009), og der utviklingen kan beskrives med grunnleggende laerings-og atferdsprinsipper (Blystad & Hansen, 2022). Atferdsvitenskapelige metoder og prinsipper utgjør også en naturvitenskapelig tilnaerming gjennom antagelsen om at empati er en målbar atferd eller respons.…”

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“…Sommeren 2022 skrev Magnus H. Blystad en populaervitenskapelig artikkel om empati i forskersonen.no (Blystad, 2022). Teksten var basert på en teori hvor empati postuleres som noe en gjør, fremfor noe en har (Blystad & Hansen, 2022). Dette faglige bidraget skulle bøte på en registrert mangel av litteratur på feltet atferdsfokusert empati.…”

“…En annen positivistisk tilnaerming har sitt utspring i atferdsvitenskap eller laeringspsykologi. Her er empati en respons på omgivelsene, en atferd som kan trenes lik andre former for atferd (Argott et al, 2017;Schrandt et al, 2009), og der ut vik lingen kan beskrives med grunnleggende laerings-og atferdsprinsipper (Blystad & Hansen, 2022). Atferdsvitenskapelige metoder og prinsipper utgjør også en naturvitenskapelig tilnaerming gjennom antagelsen om at empati er en målbar atferd eller respons.…”