Alison Jane Martingano

Dissertation: A Dual Process Model of Empathy
June 2020
Alison Jane Martingano

  1. Cognitive Empathy

Gives a definition of empathy.

In psychology they talk about 2 types of empathy.

  1. Effective Empathy

    • an emotional response to some one else.. See a child crying, you feel sad for them

  2. Cognitive Empathy

    • is understanding what someone else is going through without necessarily feeling anything for them.


Effort - each type of empathy needs a different amount of effort.

  • Cognitive Empathy - takes effort to understand what people are going through and to understand them. It takes practice to improve and exercise this skill. VR does a lot of the perspective taking effort and therefore we do not exercise and strengthen our cognitive empathy skills

  • it take effort and practice to truly understand who someone is.


Research is on empathy. There is a lot of confusion of what it is.

There's lots of confusion around what empathy is probably because it's a multi dimensional concept that has like multiple components already. The Empathy includes understanding what other people are feeling and feeling for them.

So my my research, I designed what I call a dual process model of empathy, which means I argue that

  • we automatically feel for people who are in distress,

  • but it takes effort and practice to truly understand what somebody's going through.

So for example,

  • we found that reading literary fiction increases understanding of people's mental states that listening to other people does to me with my collaborators,

  • I'm working on a smartphone app, which we're designing to challenge people to increase their empathy skills, which we've got some evidence of a little bit of success on that.

  • I'm also really interested to see whether certain life experiences such as being an immigrant, for example, might challenge people to work the empathy muscles a little bit harder in order to understand what people are thinking or feeling who are different from my research, I sort of surprising results.



Edwin's Responses to Alison 's definition model of Empathy


Alison’s Dual Process Model.

EMOTIONAL EMPATHY - Feeling emotion in Response to another person's expression of emotion
(Edwin - I do not see this as empathy but a block to empathy. the complication comes in that it takes empathy to sence the other person but then there is a reaction that can block empathy.. This can be role played in the empathy circle to demonstrate. Also to be consistent, all reactions to the emotions one sense in the other should have a name. ie. empathic joy, empathy apathy, etc.)

  • Empathic Concern, compassion, sympathy

  • Personal Distress - called by some, Empathic distress

  • Emotional Contagion, Emotional Resonance


COGNITIVE EMPATHY -understanding another persons thoughts and feelings.

(I would say is the process and quality of the state or way of being in forming and developing understanding. understanding is a by-product and not the empathy itself.)

  • Theory of Mind

  • Mentalizing

  • Empathic Accuracy - emotion recognition

  • Perspective Taking - sympathy




In psychology they talk about 2 types of empathy.
The Empathy includes understanding what other people are feeling and feeling for them.

  1. Effective Empathy

    • an emotional response to some one else.. See a child crying, you feel sad for them

    • we automatically feel for people who are in distress,

      • Response

        • Empathy is a way of being and is feeling into and is not the response.

        • It a step before the response.

        • There are unlimited responses people can have when they empathize with themselves and others.

        • The responses can be blocks to empathy.

        • Empathy Circle Scenario: - create a of someone listening to someone and resulting in Sadness as a reaction,


  2. Cognitive Empathy

    • is understanding what someone else is going through without necessarily feeling anything for them.

    • it takes effort and practice to truly understand what somebody's going through.

      • Response

          • Empathy is a way of being and is feeling into. this leads to understanding but in not the core of empathy, it is more the process of feeling into with deeper and growing understanding being an outcome.

          • Empathy Circle Scenario:



Dissertation: A Dual Process Model of Empathy
By Alison Jane Martingano - June 2020

"This dissertation will investigate the nature of these mechanisms and provide evidence for a dual process model."

"However, although empathy is predominantly prosocial, some types of empathy can leave people distressed and overwhelmed, and reduce the likelihood of them helping (O’Connor, Berry, Weiss & Gilbert, 2002)."

"the distinction Smith made between detached imagination and emotional responsiveness persists today under the nomenclature of cognitive empathy and emotional empathy."


"Cognitive empathy (a term encompassing both Smithian sympathy and Titchener’s empathy) is used to refer to understanding another person’s thoughts or feelings. This understanding can be achieved though utilizing a variety of subtypes of cognitive empathy such as perspective taking, theory of mind, and empathic accuracy. These subtypes can work independently. Understanding another’s mental state can occur without taking someone else’s perspective, perhaps by recognizing outward expressions of emotion. And perspective-taking is certainly not always accurate."


Emotional empathy refers to the extent to which a person experiences emotion in response to another person’s expression of an emotion. Within the category of emotional empathy, there is a distinction between emotional contagion (feeling as another person feels) and empathic concern (feeling for another person) (Batson & Ahmad, 2009). To add further definitional confusion, these types of emotional empathy have also been referred to as sympathy and empathy. Feeling the same emotion as another person is a common dictionary definition of empathy (e.g. “Empathy”, n.d.).