Match the words 'empathy', 'sympathy', and 'compassion' to the sentences given in the table below.
Sympathy matches with the sentence: "I am so sorry for what is happening to you. It is sad, do you want something to eat?" This is because sympathy involves feeling pity or sorrow for someone's distress.
Empathy matches with the sentence: "I can imagine how you feel. I understand that you are upset and why." This is because empathy is the ability to step into someone else's shoes and truly understand their emotions.
Compassion matches with the sentence: "I understand why you feel terribly low. I will spend some time with you, so that you don’t feel lonely." This is because compassion goes beyond understanding; it includes a desire to take action to help alleviate the person's suffering.
Explanation
Sympathy is feeling pity or sorrow for someone's hardships, which aligns with feeling 'sorry' for the person. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, matching the phrase 'I can imagine how you feel'. Compassion involves both understanding the suffering and taking action to help, which aligns with the sentence where the speaker offers to spend time so the person doesn't feel lonely.
Solution Steps
Step 1: Identify the core meaning of each word based on the sentences provided.
Step 2: Match 'Sympathy' to the expression of feeling sorry and sad for the person.
Step 3: Match 'Empathy' to the expression of imagining and understanding the person's feelings.
Step 4: Match 'Compassion' to the expression of understanding feelings combined with taking an active step to help (spending time).