The Theory-Theory and Simulation Theory within Empathy - Essay Example

Theory Theory and Simulation Theory on Accounts of Empathy Student’s Name: Institutional Affiliation: Theory theory and Simulation theory One of the most important disciplines in the Contemporary Philosophy is the Philosophy of mind. The explanation of the capacities and cognitive abilities of human beings is the central goal of the contemporary cognitive study on behavior. The discipline explores the capacity of an adult to comprehend and produce natural language and the capacity of a child to acquire the language from the adults. Humans anticipate and adapt to other peoples’ behavior by the use of activated mental processes that if practiced, would produce the same actions. This includes expression of emotions as well as intentional behaviors. Children use their emotions to understand and predict what others do. This is referred to as a projection of behavior in psychology (Frye & Moore, 1991). The acquisition of behavior depends on the Theory of Mind, which explains why individuals are able to perceive the feelings and emotions of other people, and how these feelings affect their behavior (Smith & Hitt, 2005). The ability to understand the feelings and emotions of others is referred to as empathy. For thousands of years, empathy has attracted the attention and thinking of many Philosophers. The discipline has found a centre stage in the social neuroscience research and contemporary psychology. Scientists argue that empathy develops from a series of theories that develop at early childhood and that, which determines the behavior, or response of an individual towards an event or experience. On the other hand, contemporary psychologists and philosophers argue that behavior develops from the theory of mind and simulations that relate to the feelings and emotions of a human being. This has led to the development of mind reading and folk Psychology that explain the development of behavior. So far the concepts have not concluded on the development on how human beings are able to empathize with others, but there are two theories that try to explain this. This is the Simulation Theory (ST) and the Theory-Theory (TT). Research indicates that the two theories complement each other, but do not satisfy the requirement of understanding empathy. The following is an analysis of the concepts that are in the two theories that explain the development of behavior and empathy. Some attention has been given to current research while other are derived from the findings of contemporary scientists. The developed essay below, explains the two theories, their applications and limitations in explaining empathy, in psychology. It is a description of the two folk Psychological accounts that developed in understanding empathy, and a comparison of the similarities and differences in establishing which of the models explain empathy (Wagman, 1991). The major concepts analyzed are from philosophical findings and contemporary research of the theories in trying to discuss the theory of mind and the development of cognitive behavior that describe empathy. Simulation plays a considerable role in understanding human cognition. ST is an approach used in describing the attributes of people on the mental states of others. It is generally agreed that human beings engage in a mind reading process at an early stage of development. The process involves understanding each other by the use of an empathetic response. The theory argues that human beings foresee and create the sense out of the behavior of others by activating a psychological procedure that produces similar actions if carried out. This includes the use of intentional behavior and expressing emotions towards the behavior or feelings of other people. The theory argues that, in the development stage, children use their own emotions and feelings in order to understand the behavior of others. This indicates that the process involves a projection of our own states of minds onto others (Hooker, et al., 2010). The argument behind TT is that children do not like, simple logical, definitions to understand behavior, but rather seek to get the full explanation of various things. The children always seek for causes, reasons, and the underlying principles behind their experience. According to this theory, children learn about behavior and people and start to represent these attitudes at around the age of four years. At this age, children are able to ascribe false beliefs to other people. At this age, children are said to have acquired a mental state of concepts developed form observing and imitating what the adults do. This theory is based on a modular approach of the mind. The theory claims that our brains are designed particularly to understand the minds of other people (Leiberg & Anders, 2006). The two theories apply the Theory of Mind (ToM) in explaining empathy. This is in explaining the mindreading system and the learning of cognitive behavior. Behavior is derived from the observation and learning of the complex social systems that result from the interaction. The theories agree that the mind reading process is important in development of behavior. At an early stage of development, children observe and apply the behavior that they experience from the adults or form the society they are raised form. Their experience is translated to the brain in understanding the behavior. The term TT proposes that our everyday understandings of human behavior and psychology constitutes to theory from which we try to predict and explain behavior (Davis, 1994). This is in terms of intentions, causal beliefs, emotions, characters, etc. The theory in general proposes to explain psychological capacity and empathy in terms of tactic and explicit internal derived theory of a domain. According to ST, the children empathize according to the acquired behavior form the adults. This involves the use of personal emotions and feelings that are related to the situation. Contrary, the TT explains that the acquisition process involves a development of own theories. The theories enable the children to differentiate between false and truth. On this grounds the TT, fails to explain the cause of empathy. The development of theories at the age of four is a postulation that could not be appropriate in cognitive development. The development of the theories only analyses the behavior of others but do not develop the behavior of the individual (Armstrong, 1993). A core assumption that limits the application of the two theories in understanding empathy is that we only distinguish or experience the physical state of movements since mental states cannot be observed. The views differ with regard to the psychological process used to shift from the observable behavior to mental state attributions In TT, mental state attribution occurs via a theoretical and biological inference. It is by applying this theoretical knowledge that one gets to understand the feelings and the behavior of others. The theory suggests that in understanding the behavior of others, children develop their own theories and apply them for reference. Contrary, the ST denies that human beings use such theoretical knowledge and claims that human beings simulate being another person. This is what determines the mental states that we posses if we were the other person in such a situation. Our inner being and the mental states project the state of the other persons. Both the folk psychological explanations perceive our experience as a mere behavior, and the mental state to understand only comes after a performance of some additional psychological processes that are beyond our perceptions (Wagman, 1993). The idea of direct perception is a concept that is used in the two theories. The concept implies that, all the information that we need to perceive information on objects or behavior is transmitted to our sense organs and is translated to be ready for detection by our brains (Rand, 2002). The information needs not to be inferred or computed from the sensory organs through a set of psychological process. The theories agree that empathy is the behavior that develops form the series of the psychological process. The understanding of the behavior of other people develops from these processes. On this perception however, the ST is limited on the fact that perception involves a complex process that occurs inside a person. The ST does not apply biological concepts in explaining behavior. In this case, TT explains the informational processing and the representation of characterization as the cause of empathy. The idea is that TT applies the cognitive science to feature the sub personal level processes that enable individual level psychological phenomena such as perception of empathy. In understanding empathy and behavior, the contributions of the environment, inners states, and behavioral output are considered. The two theories apply these concepts in explaining the model. The theories explain that given information about something or the behavior of another individual through a facial expression, attributors make inferences of the mental state. Proponents of the TT divert the mental state into a theory acquisition. Form a philosophical perspective, empathy is a concept that should be acquired through a framework of developed theories (Roeckelein, 2006). The TT uses developed theories to explain behavior. The theory argues that ToM is the basic component in explaining the causes of empathy and its application from experience. Defenders of the ST theory in the other hand suggest that empathy is acquired through a precise inner mechanism, therefore cannot be translated into a theory. They argue that before a mind reader attributes a mental state to a target, the first step is to introspect the state generated by the cognitive system in order to determine its content. The TT argues on the generation of theory while the ST argues on development of cognition on behavior. Evidence from contemporary research on empathy indicates that, the features and concepts that are related to behavior and feelings can only be acquired, and not generated from a series of theories. The behavior acquisition model develops from a cognitive field that is determined by the previous experiences and the environment that one is subjected to. Empathy and mental state attribution involve a common cognitive mechanism. The strength of the ST lies on the fact that the theory approaches empathy in a considerable credence to the simulation model of account that is related to the attributions of the state of mind. Considerations of empathy are important to the philosophy of mind that is involved in the process of simulation (Walters, 2000). Consequently, there is a realism possibility that a pure simulation theory can explain the different kinds of sophisticated social cognition, without having to depend on a concept that combines simulations and theories. In addition, there is a simulation that a pure TT would not use simulations because the concept involves many verbal labels of the behavior of other people. This limits TT in explanations of the cause of empathy. The development of a pure ST, would establish social cognition that proposes the use of vector transformations that compare perception and behavior without using verbal labels. This means that emotions caused by individual perception of other people would not be developed from the simulations of the emotions of other people. This is what empathy is all about: The emotions of other people should not affect how one feels to a certain behavior or character. An individual empathy should result form own perception and not determined by the results of the simulations of other people. The theory of cognitive behavior argues that the perceptions and feelings of other people should not affect how an individual feels or behaves towards an object. What matters should be the individual perspective and own simulation and belief towards the behavior. A pure model of Simulation theory, therefore analyses the model of empathy (Medin, 1997). Social interaction and integration is critical in development o the two theories. The reading of mind develops after social integration of behavior. TT describes children as social scientists, who search and collect evidence in the form of expressions and gestures, and use this to develop theories that explain and predict the mental state of the people that they get in contact. ST states that everyone is a natural mind reader and acquisitions of behavior develops from the placement of our inner selves into the “mental shoes” of others and use our minds to model the behavior of others. Vittorio Gallese, a Neuroscientist in the University of Parma, develops TT in terms of mirror neurons. The underlying concept of mirror neurons is that individuals pretend to be in other people’s mental shoes. Soial cognitive scientists in developing the idea behind behavior and ToM have used the development of the mirror neurons. It describes the behavior behind autism. Many scientists agree that the mirror neurons embody the predictions of ST in explaining the development of empathy. The scientists argue that individuals share not only on the way they act, experience and feel but also on neural circuits that enable same actions, emotions and sensations. This explains the mutual relationship between the Simulation theory and Theory theory in explaining empathy (Carruthers, 1989). There is no satisfactory evidence on the ST and TT in explaining empathy and behavioral development. The two theories have limitations that do not agree with the definition and the development of empathy. The ability to imagine oneself in another’s situation is covered by the two theories. However the theories lack an explanation of how one understands the feelings, actions , desires and ideas of concepts or thoughts that are in another person’s mind. They lack an explanation of the difference that occurs between automatic and contextual empathy. The details in the theories do not explain how one can differentiate the two in determining situations of natural and artificial empathy. Empathy should be analyzed based on understanding a situation, and perceive the problems much better than the other person perceives. References Frye, D., & Moore, C. (1991). Children’s Theories of Mind: Mental States and Social Understanding. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Armstrong, D.M. (1993). A Materialistic Theory of Mind. New York: Routledge. Carruthers, P. (1989). Introducing Persons: Theories and Arguments in Philosophy of Mind. New York: Routledge. Davis, M. H. (1994). Empathy: A Social Psychological Approach. Boulder,CA: West view Press. Goldman, A. I., & Sripada, C. S. (2005). Simulationist Models Of Face-Based Emotion  Recognition. Cognition, 94(3), 193-213. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2004.01.005.  Hooker, C. I., Verosky, S. C., Germine, L. T., Knight, R. T., & Esposito, M. (2010). Neural activity during social signal perception correlates with self-reported empathy. Brain research, 1308, 100-13. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2009.10.006  compromise . Medin, D. L. (1997). The Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Advances in Research and Theory. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Leiberg, S., & Anders, S. (2006). The Multiple Facets Of Empathy: A Survey Of Theory And Evidence. Progress in Brain Research, 156, 419-440. Rand, M. L. (2002). Mirror Neurons: Somatic Empathy and Counter transference. Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, 5(2), 26-51. Roeckelein, J. E. (2006). Elservier’s Dictionary of Psychological Theories. Boston: Elsevier. Smith, A. (2006). Cognitive Empathy and Emotional Empathy in Human Behavior and Evolution. The Psychological Record, 56(3), 41-59. Smith A. (2009). The Empathy Imbalance Hypothesis of Autism: A Theoretical Approach to Cognitive and Emotional Empathy in Autistic Development. The Psychological Record, 59(2), 36-95. Smith, K. G., & Hitt, M. A. (2005). Great Minds in Management: The Process of Theory Development. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Wagman, M. (1993). Cognitive Psychology and Artificial Intelligence : Theory and Research in Cognitive Science. New York: Praeger Publishers. Walters, G. D. (2000). Beyond Behavior: Construction of an Overarching Psychological Theory of Lifestyles. New York: Praeger. Wagman, M. (1991). Cognitive Science and Concepts of Mind: Towards a General Theory of Human and Artificial Intelligence. New York: Praeger Publishers. Yabar, Y., & Hess, U. (2007). Display of Empathy and Perception of Out-Group Members. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 36(6), 23-36. Read More

The major concepts analyzed are from philosophical findings and contemporary research of the theories in trying to discuss the theory of mind and the development of cognitive behavior that describe empathy. Simulation plays a considerable role in understanding human cognition. ST is an approach used in describing the attributes of people on the mental states of others. It is generally agreed that human beings engage in a mind reading process at an early stage of development. The process involves understanding each other by the use of an empathetic response.

The theory argues that human beings foresee and create the sense out of the behavior of others by activating a psychological procedure that produces similar actions if carried out. This includes the use of intentional behavior and expressing emotions towards the behavior or feelings of other people. The theory argues that, in the development stage, children use their own emotions and feelings in order to understand the behavior of others. This indicates that the process involves a projection of our own states of minds onto others (Hooker, et al., 2010). The argument behind TT is that children do not like, simple logical, definitions to understand behavior, but rather seek to get the full explanation of various things.

The children always seek for causes, reasons, and the underlying principles behind their experience. According to this theory, children learn about behavior and people and start to represent these attitudes at around the age of four years. At this age, children are able to ascribe false beliefs to other people. At this age, children are said to have acquired a mental state of concepts developed form observing and imitating what the adults do. This theory is based on a modular approach of the mind.

The theory claims that our brains are designed particularly to understand the minds of other people (Leiberg & Anders, 2006). The two theories apply the Theory of Mind (ToM) in explaining empathy. This is in explaining the mindreading system and the learning of cognitive behavior. Behavior is derived from the observation and learning of the complex social systems that result from the interaction. The theories agree that the mind reading process is important in development of behavior. At an early stage of development, children observe and apply the behavior that they experience from the adults or form the society they are raised form.

Their experience is translated to the brain in understanding the behavior. The term TT proposes that our everyday understandings of human behavior and psychology constitutes to theory from which we try to predict and explain behavior (Davis, 1994). This is in terms of intentions, causal beliefs, emotions, characters, etc. The theory in general proposes to explain psychological capacity and empathy in terms of tactic and explicit internal derived theory of a domain. According to ST, the children empathize according to the acquired behavior form the adults.

This involves the use of personal emotions and feelings that are related to the situation. Contrary, the TT explains that the acquisition process involves a development of own theories. The theories enable the children to differentiate between false and truth. On this grounds the TT, fails to explain the cause of empathy. The development of theories at the age of four is a postulation that could not be appropriate in cognitive development. The development of the theories only analyses the behavior of others but do not develop the behavior of the individual (Armstrong, 1993).

A core assumption that limits the application of the two theories in understanding empathy is that we only distinguish or experience the physical state of movements since mental states cannot be observed. The views differ with regard to the psychological process used to shift from the observable behavior to mental state attributions In TT, mental state attribution occurs via a theoretical and biological inference.

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