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PubMed1983

A-B similarity-complementarity and accurate empathy.

Rated the audio portions of videotaped segments of 32 dyadic interviews between A-type and B-type undergraduate males for accurate empathy using Truax's AE-Scale. Results indicate that the level of empathy displayed by both members of an interactive dyad was influenced by the A-B types of the individuals of the dyad. B-types elicited higher levels of empathy when they interacted with other B-types, while any dyad that contained an A-type resulted in a lower level of empathy when compared to the empathy found in BB dyads. This result better fits a similarity hypothesis than a complementarity hypothesis.

Empathy↗

PubMed1983

Emotional separation and empathy.

Investigated emotionality and empathy (N = 18). Empathy was considered in terms of empathic resonation and expressed empathy, two phases from Barrett-Lennard's (1981) empathy cycle. The results supported the hypothesis that participants' emotional experiences would correspond to the clients' affective presentation. Empathic resonation also correlated negatively with the maintenance of emotional separation. The results were in the predicted direction for expressed empathy, but failed to reach statistical significance.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Relationship of empathy to appraisal, depression, life satisfaction, and physical health in informal caregivers of older adults.

The relationship between empathy and caregiving appraisal and outcomes was examined among 140 informal caregivers of older adults. Caregivers with high cognitive empathy appraised the caregiving situation as less stressful and less threatening, were less depressed, and reported higher life satisfaction than did caregivers with low cognitive empathy. The caregivers' appraisal, along with educational levels and total household income, significantly predicted individual differences in caregiver depression, life satisfaction, and perceived physical health. Emotional empathy was negatively related to life satisfaction. There appeared to be distinct roles for emotional and cognitive empathy in informal caregiving outcomes. The study supported the important role of caregiving appraisal and resources in caregiving outcomes.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1985

Hypertension, perceived clinician empathy, and patient self-disclosure.

The purpose of this study was to compare groups of outpatient hypertensive and diabetic patients to a control group (no known chronic illnesses) on their perceptions of clinician empathy and the importance and difficulty of disclosing information about themselves to health care providers. It was hypothesized that hypertensives would differ from the other groups in perceiving less clinician empathy and in attributing less importance, but greater difficulty, to self-disclosing. The sample was 54 hypertensives, 47 diabetics, and 115 nonchronically ill patients. Each subject completed the Empathy scale of the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory and a patient self-disclosure questionnaire. The empathy hypothesis was supported but the self-disclosure hypotheses were not. Hypertensive patients differed from other patients in perceiving the least clinician empathy and in attributing the greatest importance to discussing their responses to health care.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1982

Empathy: a factor in antisocial behavior.

Empathy has been accepted as a crucial factor in the development of prosocial thought and behavior. This study attempted to clarify the role of empathy in the development of antisocial and aggressive delinquent behavior. The subjects were 331 delinquents and 64 nondelinquent controls ages 12 to 18. The delinquents were found to be significantly delayed or arrested in the development of empathy. The nondelinquent group exhibited a significant age-related increase in empathy during the adolescent period, whereas the delinquent group did not. Of three delinquent subgroups utilized, the neurotics were least empathic, the psychopathics next, and the subculturals the most empathic; the groups differed significantly from each other. Aggressive delinquents were significantly lower in empathy level than nonaggressive delinquents, though differentiation by type of aggression (person or property) was not significant.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1993

The nature and evolution of phenomenological empathy in nursing: an historical treatment.

This study is an historical analysis of the nature and evolution of phenomenological empathy in nursing covering the period from 1861 through 1981. Nursing archival data were analyzed beginning with the inception of modern American nursing during the Civil War. The categories patient cues, empathy, nursing interventions, and patient responses were applied to the qualitative data. Analysis generated 119 instances of phenomenological empathy. The findings showed that patient cues were not a factor in precipitating nurse empathy, whereas patient responses to nursing interventions showed positive outcomes. A conceptual model of phenomenological empathy comprised of four major constructs and 18 concepts was derived from the archival data.

Empathy↗

PubMed2006

Affective empathy deficits in aggressive children and adolescents: a critical review.

Aggressive children and adolescents are often hypothesized to have lower levels of empathy than comparable nonaggressive peers. A review of 17 studies examining the relationship between affective empathy and aggressive or delinquent behavior was conducted to determine the validity of this hypothesis. The studies offered conflicting findings, even when the measures of empathy were identical across studies. Based on this review, there was not a consistent relationship between empathy and aggression in children, but a negative relationship was typically found in adolescents. Self-report measures of empathy used with adolescent participants showed the most robust relationship with aggression. Clinical implications, limitations of present research, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Empathy for positive and negative emotions in the gustatory cortex.

Anterior insula and adjacent frontal operculum (hereafter referred to as IFO) are active during exposure to tastants/odorants (particularly disgusting ones), and during the viewing of disgusted facial expressions. Together with lesion data, the IFO has thus been proposed to be crucial in processing disgust-related stimuli. Here, we examined IFO involvement in the processing of other people's gustatory emotions more generally by exposing participants to food-related disgusted, pleased and neutral facial expressions during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We then exposed participants to pleasant, unpleasant and neutral tastants for the purpose of mapping their gustatory IFO. Finally, we associated participants' self reported empathy (measured using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, IRI) with their IFO activation during the witnessing of others' gustatory emotions. We show that participants' empathy scores were predictive of their gustatory IFO activation while witnessing both the pleased and disgusted facial expression of others. While the IFO has been implicated in the processing of negative emotions of others and empathy for negative experiences like pain, our finding extends this concept to empathy for intense positive feelings, and provides empirical support for the view that the IFO contributes to empathy by mapping the bodily feelings of others onto the internal bodily states of the observer, in agreement with the putative interoceptive function of the IFO.

Emotions↗

PubMed2002

Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases.

There is disagreement in the literature about the exact nature of the phenomenon of empathy. There are emotional, cognitive, and conditioning views, applying in varying degrees across species. An adequate description of the ultimate and proximate mechanism can integrate these views. Proximately, the perception of an object's state activates the subject's corresponding representations, which in turn activate somatic and autonomic responses. This mechanism supports basic behaviors (e.g., alarm, social facilitation, vicariousness of emotions, mother-infant responsiveness, and the modeling of competitors and predators) that are crucial for the reproductive success of animals living in groups. The Perception-Action Model (PAM), together with an understanding of how representations change with experience, can explain the major empirical effects in the literature (similarity, familiarity, past experience, explicit teaching, and salience). It can also predict a variety of empathy disorders. The interaction between the PAM and prefrontal functioning can also explain different levels of empathy across species and age groups. This view can advance our evolutionary understanding of empathy beyond inclusive fitness and reciprocal altruism and can explain different levels of empathy across individuals, species, stages of development, and situations.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

The relations between temperament and empathy in 2-year-olds.

The role of infant and toddler temperament in the prediction of empathy in 2-year-old children was examined. Assessments of temperament included reactivity and affect observed at 4 months of age, as well as inhibition at Age 2. Empathy was measured in 2-year-old children's responses to simulations of distress performed by their mothers and by an unfamiliar person. Children showed relatively more concern for the mother's distress, but they were also responsive to unfamiliar victims. Infants who were unreactive and showed little affect also showed less empathy toward the unfamiliar adult almost 2 years later. Inhibition toward an unfamiliar adult (but not toward the mother) at 2 years of age was negatively related to empathy. Inhibited temperament may thus have a major impact on young children's empathy in unfamiliar contexts. Findings also highlight the need to consider early underarousal as another dimension of temperament that may dampen expressions of empathic concern.

Adult↗

PubMed1984

Individual differences among adult women in sensitivity to infants: evidence in support of an empathy concept.

Emotional and physiological responsivity to infant signals was assessed in individuals who differed markedly in their level of empathy. Eighteen high-empathy and 20 low-empathy female observers viewed videotaped scenes of smiling, quiescent, and crying 5-month-olds as the observers' physiological and facial reactions were monitored. Subjects then rated their subjective emotional reactions to the scenes and judged the intensity of the infants' need for care. High-empathy subjects had larger electrodermal responses, tended to respond with matching facial expressions, had more extreme happiness and sadness reactions, and indicated stronger desire to pick up the infants. Additionally, the empathic group showed a trend toward greater cardiac responsiveness to the signals. The results support the hypothesis that high-empathy individuals are more emotionally responsive to infant emotional stimuli and hold different values about caregiving behavior. Applications of the findings to the training of caregivers are considered.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1987

Empathy-based helping: is it selflessly or selfishly motivated?

A substantial body of evidence collected by Batson and his associates has advanced the idea that pure (i.e., selfless) altruism occurs under conditions of empathy for a needy other. An egoistic alternative account of this evidence was proposed and tested in our work. We hypothesized that an observer's heightened empathy for a sufferer brings with it increased personal sadness in the observer and that it is the egoistic desire to relieve the sadness, rather than the selfless desire to relieve the sufferer, that motivates helping. Two experiments contrasted predictions from the selfless and egoistic alternatives in the paradigm typically used by Batson and his associates. In the first, an emphatic orientation to a victim increased personal sadness, as expected. Furthermore, when sadness and empathic emotion were separated experimentally, helping was predicted by the levels of sadness subjects were experiencing but not by their empathy scores. In the second experiment, enhanced sadness was again associated with empathy for a victim. However, subjects who were led to perceive that their moods could not be altered through helping (because of the temporary action of a "mood-fixing" placebo drug) were not helpful, despite high levels of empathic emotion. The results were interpreted as providing support for an egoistically based interpretation of helping under conditions of high empathy.

Altruism↗

PubMed1991

Empathic joy and the empathy-altruism hypothesis.

Three experiments tested whether empathy evokes egoistic motivation to share vicariously in the victim's joy at improvement (the empathic-joy hypothesis) instead of altruistic motivation to increase the victim's welfare (the empathy-altruism hypothesis). In Experiment 1, Ss induced to feel either low or high empathy for a young woman in need were given a chance to help her. Some believed that if they helped they would receive feedback about her improvement; others did not. In Experiments 2 and 3, Ss induced to feel either low or high empathy were given a choice of getting update information about a needy person's condition. Before choosing, they were told the likelihood of the person's condition having improved--and of their experiencing empathic joy--was 20%, was 50%, or was 80%. Results of none of the experiments patterned as predicted by the empathic-joy hypothesis; instead, results of each were consistent with the empathy-altruism hypothesis.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

What is clinical empathy?

Patients seek empathy from their physicians. Medical educators increasingly recognize this need. Yet in seeking to make empathy a reliable professional skill, doctors change the meaning of the term. Outside the field of medicine, empathy is a mode of understanding that specifically involves emotional resonance. In contrast, leading physician educators define empathy as a form of detached cognition. In contrast, this article argues that physicians' emotional attunement greatly serves the cognitive goal of understanding patients' emotions. This has important implications for teaching empathy.

Emotions↗

PubMed2001

The Ergonomics Society--the Society Lectures 1999: the next 50 years: future challenges and opportunities for empathy in our science.

To stay relevant and applicable in a rapidly changing world, ergonomics must meet several challenges. The paper explores these challenges and how the profession might respond. It is proposed that there are opportunities, and a need, to embrace empathy as a legitimate and useful tool. Empathy has value in three main areas. In research we can broaden our understanding of people and situations, learning 'why' as well as 'how and what' people do. Second, by identifying with the emotional as well as intellectual concerns of sponsors and colleagues from other professions, we inspire trust and confidence, adding value to our collective efforts in collaborative work. Third, through methods such as role-playing and story telling, empathy is a powerful tool for getting ergonomics issues across to implementers and influencing outcomes. Care is needed to balance empathy with systematic observation in the tradition of the scientific method; the power of empathy is in combining it with objective methods to make full use of our abilities as human scientists.

Empathy↗

PubMed2002

Empathy theory and practice: a survey of psychologists and counselors.

Psychologists and counselors completed a questionnaire devised by the authors to explore the relationships between their extent of endorsement of empathy definitions, their use and views of empathy, and their identification with theories of psychotherapy. Results from 565 respondents suggested that those who identified with humanistic/experiential and psychodynamic theories seemed to have similar views of how empathy is defined and viewed and reported that they use empathy more than those with other theoretical inclinations. These findings suggest that there is some consistency between theoretical identification and definition, as well as reported use and views of empathy.

Counseling↗

PubMed2005

Relationships between scores of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI).

This study was designed to examine the relationships between scores of two measures of empathy. One was specifically developed for measuring empathy in patient care situations; the other was developed for the general population. It was hypothesized that the overlap between scores of the two measures would be greater for their constructs that are more relevant to patient care. Study participants were 93 first-year internal medicine residents at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE, specifically developed for administration to health professionals), and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI, developed for the general population) were administered. A statistically significant correlation of a moderate magnitude between the total scores of the JSPE and IRI (r = 0.45, p < 0.01) was found. The research hypothesis was confirmed by observing higher correlations between those scales of the IRI that were relevant to patient care (e.g. empathic concern, perspective taking) and related factors of the JSPE (compassionate care, perspective taking) than other scales of the IRI that seemed less relevant to patient care (e.g. personal distress and fantasy). These findings provide further support for the validity of the JSPE. It is concluded that physician empathy as measured by the JSPE and its underlying factors are distinct personal attributes that have a limited overlap with fantasy and no overlap with personal distress defined as dimensions of an empathy measure that was developed for the general population.

Data Collection↗

PubMed2006

Is pain the price of empathy? The perception of others' pain in patients with congenital insensitivity to pain.

Empathy is a complex form of psychological inference that enables us to understand the personal experience of another person through cognitive/evaluative and affective processes. Recent findings suggest that empathy for pain may involve a 'mirror-matching' simulation of the affective and sensory features of others' pain. Despite such evidence for a shared representation of self and other pain at the neural level, the possible influence of the observer's own sensitivity to pain upon his perception of others' pain has not been investigated yet. The aim of this study was to explore how patients with congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP), who are largely deprived of common stimulus-induced pain experiences, perceive the pain of others. Ratings of verbally presented imaginary painful situations showed that CIP patients' semantic knowledge regarding the pain of others did not differ from control subjects. Moreover, the propensity to infer pain from facial expressions was very similar between CIP patients and control subjects. On the other hand, when asked to rate pain-inducing events seen in video clips in the absence of visible or audible pain-related behaviour, CIP patients showed more variable and significantly lower pain ratings, as well as a reduction in aversive emotional responses, compared with control subjects. Interestingly, pain judgements, inferred either from facial pain expressions or from pain-inducing events, were strongly related to inter-individual differences in emotional empathy among CIP patients, while such correlation between pain judgement and empathy was not found in control subjects. The results suggest that a normal personal experience of pain is not necessarily required for perceiving and feeling empathy for others' pain. In the absence of functional somatic resonance mechanisms shaped by previous pain experiences, others' pain might be greatly underestimated, however, especially when emotional cues are lacking, unless the observer is endowed with sufficient empathic abilities to fully acknowledge the suffering experience of others in spite of his own insensitivity.

Adolescent↗