| Summary: | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University === It is the hypothesis of this dissertation that interpersonal empathetic ability and aesthetic empathic ability constitute one factor or ability. A secondary purpose of the dissertation is to explore and evaluate all possible methods of measuring empathic ability, and to develop a good pencil and paper test of empathic ability.
"Empathy" is understood here as "pathic perception" -- the perception or cognition of feeling emotion.
The methodology of the dissertation involves a theoretical review and synthesis, and an experiment.
A review of the literature reveals four basic types of empathy theories: (1) self-theories; (2) associationist theories; (3) Gestalt theories; (4) motor theories. Though the theorists representing these four positions argue among themselves as to how the process of empathy operates, almost without exception they agree that it operates in the same manner in the perception of persons as it does in the perception of objects of art. The weight of theoretical opinion is overwhelming on this point. Inerpersonal empathy and aesthetic empathy are held by all of the major empathy theorists to be one and the same process [TRUNCATED]
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