Empathy

The five components of emotional intelligence are: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.^[1]

Empathy (noun) is the understanding of the emotional state or thoughts of another person.

Empathy involves being curious about other people, active listening, self-awareness, emotional intelligence and openness.^[2]

Some benefits of empathy skills are:^[3]

1. Better understanding of the needs of people around you

2. More clearly understanding how you affect others

3. Better at understanding non-verbal cues

4. Better for your career, business success and various social endeavors

5. Better equipped to deal with interpersonal conflict. See: Conflict resolution

6. More accurately predict people’s behaviour

7. Greater ability to motivate the people around you. See: Motivation

8. Greater ability to work more effectively with others. See: Interpersonal skills

9. Ability to see the greater social picture. See: Social analysis

10. Greater ability to be a better leader, worker and friend e active listening

Empathy and happiness

See also: Happiness

Research indicates that empathy and happiness are positively correlated. Individuals who exhibit higher levels of empathy generally report greater levels of happiness and well-being.^[4]

Source: Is empathy positively correlated to happiness?

Articles:

• Can Empathy Help Individuals and Society? Through the Lens of Volunteering and Mental Health, Healthcare (Basel). 2021 Oct 20;9(11):1406. doi: 10.3390/healthcare9111406
• How to boost your happiness by cultivating kindness

Agreeableness is one of the Big Five personality traits.

See also: Agreeableness and Interpersonal skills

People build friendships in both leisure and work situations.

Building strong personal relationships

• Building and maintaining healthy relationships, HealthDirect

• Building and Sustaining Relationships Building and Sustaining Relationships, University of Kansas

• Friendship 101 - 8 ways to build positive relationships with your friends

• Top tips on building and maintaining healthy relationships, Mental Health Foundation

• Building and maintaining relationships, Milne Library

Building strong work relationships

• Building Good Work Relationships

• 5 Keys To Building Lifelong Business And Personal Relationships, Forbes

• Relationship Building Skills: Definitions and Examples

• Relationship Building: How to Build Good Relationships at Work

• 8 Ways To Build Strong Relationships in the Workplace

• How to build real relations at work, Harvard Business Review

The Empathy Quotient ( EQ ) is a 60-item questionnaire (there is also a shorter, 40-item version) designed to measure empathy in adults. The test was developed by Simon Baron-Cohen at ARC (the Autism Research Centre) at the University of Cambridge.

• Empathy quotient

• How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks. Random House (October 24, 2023)

• Agreeableness
• Atheism and empathy

• What Is Empathy?
• Empathic Skills: Definition and Examples
• The most Important Empathy Skills With Examples

Increasing empathy:

• How to Be More Empathetic, WebMD
• How to Be More Empathetic, PsychCentral
• How to Be More Empathetic in a Relationship and Why It Matters, PsychCentral
• How to Develop Empathy in Relationships
• Eight Ways to Improve Your Empathy
• How to Be More Empathetic
• Increasing Our Empathy Quotient

Videos:

• Increasing empathy videos - video playlist