Tuesday, January 8, 2013

BARACK OBAMA AND THE 'EMPATHY DEFICIT'



“The US president claims that ‘the empathy deficit’ is a more pressing problem than the federal deficit, but empathy may be merely a product of changing scientific fashions”
By: Mark Honigsbaum
Published: The Observer, Friday 4 January; www.guardian.co.uk or www.observer.co.uk Alternatively, just copy paste the title and google.
Level of Difficulty: ***
BEFORE YOU READ
1.       What is meant by the word empathy? Explain.
2.       Read the subtitle of the text and state clearly to what extent you agree with Mr. Obama.
QUESTIONS
1.       Was the initial hypothesis of the researchers at the University of Chicago proved or disproved as a result of the experiment with rats? How do you know?
2.       What is the main idea of paragraph 3? Be careful!
3.       What does “It” refer to in the sentence “It also confuses the different psychological and philosophical meanings of empathy”?
4.       In the phrase “The result is that”, the result of what exactly is the writer referring to and what is the result as far as empathy is concerned?
5.       Read paragraphs 9, 10 and 11. What conclusion can we draw from them?
6.       The first clue to the empathy circuit came when………………………………………………………………….
7.       Which of the regions of the brain mentioned in the text seems to have the greatest significance as far as empathy is concerned? Why?
8.       Patients with damage to the ventro medial part of the MPC are similar to psychopaths with respect to …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
9.       The text states “Simon Barron Cohen, an expert on autism spectrum disorders, has shown this is frequently not the case”. What exactly is the case according to him?
10.   People with Asbergers and psychopaths are similar in that …………………………………………. but different in that ……………………………………………………………..
11.   Read the example of Anders Behring Breivik carefully. What conclusion can we draw from this example? You will need to tweak the text.
12.   Greater perspective taking increases feelings of empathy because …………………………………………
13.   The drop in societal violence in the last 300 years or so is down to …………………………………… according to Steven Pinker.
14.   The case of a blue collar criminal from the working class receiving a harsher  sentence than he perhaps deserves compared to his white collar and middle class accomplice proves that ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
15.   What does “This” refer to in the phrase “In theory this should be good for Osborne”?
16.   Why did “Romney spend the closing weeks of last year’s campaign desperately trying to persuade voters that he was just as compassionate as Obama”?
17.   What conclusion did Paul Zac reach as a result of the studies into chemical reactions to empathy and economic exchange games?
18.   What is the major difference between the altruism observed in animals and humans?
19.   Human societies have evolved safeguards against possible misplaced trust by ensuring that ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
20.   Does the writer believe we are hard wired for pro sociality and morality or not?
WRITING TASK
Write a problem solution essay describing the ways in which we can foster more empathy in society. Use the points below and any others you can think of.
·         Perspective taking
·         The use of novels, television and the internet
·         A reward system for altruism and charity
·         Education
·         Religion
BARACK OBAMA AND THE ‘EMPATHY DEFICIT KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES
This highly topical text should be covered after Deadly Dreams, which is also on this blog in the same file, as the latter is about the psychology of school shooters and the former is about empathy and how to foster it in society. The text Stress and Urban Decay could be covered in the same week making a lovely theme based week. Time should be made for the reading related writing to be done in class.
1.       It was proved; the researchers conducted a simple experiment to ascertain whether a rat would release another rat from a cage without being given a reward and it did.( Rats displayed empathy)
2.       Empathy – or its absence – is everywhere these days
3.       Using the same word to describe the pro social behavior of rats and similar behavior observed in humans.
4.       (The fact that) we mirror the distress of another and we are moved to alleviated their suffering; empathy is one of the sentiments increasingly seen as social glue and the evolutionary basis of human cooperation.
5.       A survey of the historical and scientific literature reveals the meaning of empathy has shifted significantly over time. You need to look back and see what it refers to.
6.       (in 1992) A group of Italian researchers neurons in macaque monkeys that fired both when they picked up a raisin and when they saw a person pick up a raisin.
7.       The medial prefrontal cortex; because it is a hub for social information processing. This is all you need because the comma that follows indicates the rest is an explanation.
8.       Their responses when shown distressing images; OR their heartbeats and other autonomic responses when shown distressing images.
9.       We are not primed for morality; these circuits aren’t the source of humanity’s for intimate participation and companionship.
10.   They both have zero degrees empathy; only psychopaths are capable of extreme cruelty.
11.   There are cognitive dimensions to empathy.
12.   When we take an imaginative step into the shoes of another person and see things from their perspective, we become less capable of ignoring their suffering.
13.   The marriage of empathy and humanitarian reason
14.   Empathy often leads us astray
15.   The fact that liberals focus almost entirely on care and fairness, conservatists seem to give equal weight to all six dispositions. 
16.   Because the absence of empathy is a powerful weapon with which to browbeat a political opponent.
17.   Empathy and trust are two sides of the same adaptive response.
18.   Over the course of a lifetime, humans (we) will cooperate with thousands of genetically unrelated strangers with whom they are unlikely to interact again.
19.   Social norms are learned, cooperations are altruistically rewarded and free riders are altruistically punished.
20.   No

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