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Rethinking Empathy: Value And Context In Motivation And Adaptation, O'Neal Buchanan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The broad aim of this dissertation is to present an alternative approach to empathy research. The three main questions raised are: What is empathy? How do its component psychological processes become active and operate together? How did empathy evolve? In answering these questions, most researchers have started from a conventional approach that can be described as focusing on short-term phenomena “inside the head” of an individual, evidence that is gathered exclusively in a laboratory environment, and neurocognitive processes that are universally shared by all humans.

A problem with the conventional approach is that it makes social and normative issues in …