Understanding Empathy

This week our assignment was to watch a video by Daniel Pink about empathy and also to take a quiz on how empathetic we are. On the quiz, I scored a 52, which is about average. Usually, women will score a 47, so I suppose I'm slightly above average. I would say this quiz was pretty close on the scaling. I have been told that I'm understanding of people and I know that usually I will try to see the other person's point of view in a conversation. I believe that people are born with a certain amount of empathy. However, I think that parents can definitely teach their kids to have at least a little empathy. A part of this is just having manners. If kids have manners, then they will be polite towards the feelings of other people and therefore show some empathy. 


My sister, although she can be rash, is very good at observing both sides of a problem. When she is having problems with someone, she will take the time to understand where the other person is coming from. Also, when I have a problem with someone, she helps me to decide what the next step should be judging by how the person will react to different situations. 


However, I also know someone who could use a few tips when it comes to empathy. One of my former friends only thought of herself when her feelings got hurt. She wouldn't even bother looking at where the other person was coming from and she didn't take the time to think about how that was affecting her friendships. If you got in an argument with her, it wouldn't be over until you said she was right even if she was wrong. Living without any sense of empathy is toxic to any relationships that person may have with another person.