Importance of empathy for social work practice: integrating new science.

Empathy is more important than ever to a national population worried about difficult political and socioeconomic situations. During the last 10 years, an enormous amount of research has been carried out to elucidate the nature, mechanism, and function of empathy. New research from social-cognitive neuroscience and related fields indicates that, like language or eye-hand coordination, empathy is an innate human capability that can be greatly enhanced by purposeful and informed guidance. Empathy is particularly important to social work practice. Clients experiencing empathy through treatment have improved outcomes. Empathic social work practitioners are more effective and can balance their roles better. Social work practitioners can and should learn about emerging research on empathy and use that information to better serve their client populations. This article, emphasizing research of the past decade, focuses on empathy and its benefits as an asset to social work practitioners.

Conation: a missing link in the strengths perspective.

Conation is action derived from instinct, purposeful mode of striving, volition. It is a conscious effort to carry out self-determined acts and, as such, may result in the same goal being approached by different individuals through the use of different actions. It is a critical, yet neglected aspect of the "tripartite" human mind, which is composed of cognitive, affective, and conative elements. Because most social workers are not familiar with the concept, client behavior that represents action toward a goal might not be understood or might be misunderstood. A true strengths-based approach to social work requires this understanding. The authors use case studies to describe conation and to demonstrate its applicability. They present examples of how clients' and social workers' conative ability are important to the assessment and intervention process and describe implications for research.