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Einleitung: Definitionen, Modelle und Trainierbarkeit von Empathie

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Trainings- und Interventionsprogramme zur Förderung von Empathie

Zusammenfassung

Empathie ist politisch, wissenschaftlich und gesellschaftlich ein zurzeit vieldiskutiertes Thema. So fordert Rifkin (2009) in seinem Buch Die empathische Zivilisation die Weiterentwicklung der Gesellschaft hin zur Empathie; in ähnliche Richtung wird Barack Obama in The Guardian zitiert, dass er das „empathy deficit“ als gravierender einschätzt als die Staatsverschuldung (Honigsbaum 2013); und ebenso sieht auch die lokale Spreezeitung den „Mangel an Empathie [als] Geißel unserer Zeit“ und schließt mit der Frage: „Lässt sich Empathiefähigkeit womöglich trainieren?“ (Pidun 2015). Diese Beiträge sind sicherlich typisch für die allgemeine Rezeption des Begriffs Empathie, die auch in einer Vielzahl weiterer Berichte und Kommentare in den Medien so zu finden ist: Zum einen wird Empathie per se eingefordert und damit als allgemein wichtiges und wünschenswertes Phänomen betrachtet, das als uneingeschränkt förderungswürdig angesehen wird. Zum anderen fanden wir bei einer Sichtung der Begriffsverwendung in den Medien so gut wie keine Erklärungen (positive Ausnahme bei The Guardian), die spezifizieren, was der jeweilige Autor resp. die Autorin unter Empathie versteht. Dies zeigt, dass der Terminus „Empathie“ in den Sprachgebrauch übergegangen ist und der Sender davon ausgehen kann, dass die Verwendung dieses Begriffes keiner Explikation bedarf, sich dieser also von selbst versteht. Wie auch bei anderen Termini, die Eingang in die Alltagssprache gefunden haben (z. B. „Selbstwertgefühl“), gilt auch für den Begriff „Empathie“, dass er sich in der wissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzung als wesentlich komplexer und uneindeutiger erweist als in der Alltagskommunikation, in die er eingegangen ist. Im Folgenden sollen daher zunächst verschiedene Auffassungen zum Konstrukt und seiner Trainierbarkeit vorgestellt werden, die in der Psychologie existieren, wobei diesbezüglich kein Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit erhoben wird.

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  1. Institut für Psychologie, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Berliner Platz 6–8, 45127, Essen, Deutschland

    Marcus Roth, Tobias Altmann & Victoria Schönefeld

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  1. Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Marcus Roth

  2. Fakultät für Bildungswissenschaften, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

    Victoria Schönefeld

  3. Psychologie, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

    Tobias Altmann

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Roth, M., Altmann, T., Schönefeld, V. (2016). Einleitung: Definitionen, Modelle und Trainierbarkeit von Empathie. In: Roth, M., Schönefeld, V., Altmann, T. (eds) Trainings- und Interventionsprogramme zur Förderung von Empathie. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-48199-8_1

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