Exploring Empathy in Our Lives

What is empathy?

• The ability to solve maths problems quickly

• The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person

• The ability to memorise facts

• The ability to persuade others to agree with you

Which of the following is an example of showing empathy?

• Ignoring a friend when they are upset

• Laughing at someone’s mistake

• Listening to a friend and trying to understand how they feel

• Telling someone to “get over it”

How does empathy help in building strong relationships?

• By making people compete with each other

• By helping people understand and support each other

• By encouraging people to ignore each other’s feelings

• By making people argue more

Which of the following is NOT a way to develop empathetic skills?

• Practising active listening

• Judging others quickly

• Trying to see things from another person’s perspective

• Asking questions to understand someone’s feelings

Empathy is an important part of which broader skill set?

• Physical fitness

• Emotional intelligence

• Mathematical reasoning

• Artistic ability

When resolving a conflict, why is empathy important?

• It helps people ignore each other’s opinions

• It allows people to understand each other’s feelings and find a fair solution

• It encourages people to argue more

• It makes people forget about the problem

Which of the following best describes “active listening”?

• Thinking about what you will say next while someone is talking

• Interrupting the speaker to share your own story

• Paying full attention and showing you care about what the other person is saying

• Looking away while someone is talking

How can empathy help prevent bullying at school?

• By encouraging students to ignore each other

• By helping students understand how their actions affect others

• By making students compete for attention

• By rewarding negative behaviour

Which of the following is a sign of high emotional intelligence?

• Being able to run 5 kilometres quickly

• Understanding and managing your own emotions, and recognising emotions in others

• Memorising all the capitals of the world

• Winning every argument

If your friend is feeling nervous before a big test, what is an empathetic response?

• “You shouldn’t be nervous, it’s just a test.”

• “I understand how you feel. Tests can be stressful. Is there anything I can do to help?”

• “I don’t care.”

• “You’ll probably fail anyway.”