Final answer:
Empathy is the ability to recognize and understand another person's emotions, which begins to increase during adolescence and is crucial for healthy social interactions. It's distinct from altruism, active problem-solving, or behavior modification, focusing instead on emotional connection and understanding.
Step-by-step explanation:
Empathy involves recognizing and understanding another person's emotions. This definition aligns with cognitive empathy, which is the capacity to take the perspective of others and is crucial for social problem-solving and avoiding conflict. Starting in adolescence, cognitive empathy begins to increase, being instrumental in the development of interpersonal relationships. Teenagers with supportive environments, particularly those with fathers open to discussing worries, are better equipped to develop empathy, suggesting the role of a nurturing background in empathic development.
Empathy is distinct from other concepts that may appear similar. It does not inherently involve the desire and action to reduce problems (altruism), offering advice and solutions (active problem-solving), or the desire to change the person's behavior (behavior modification). Rather, empathy is about connecting emotionally and understanding another's emotional state.