SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “empathy”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1990

What is empathy, and can empathy be taught?

Empathy is a commonly used, but poorly understood, concept. It is often confused with related concepts such as sympathy, pity, identification, and self-transposal. The purposes of this article are to clearly distinguish empathy from related terms and to suggest that the act of empathizing cannot be taught. According to Edith Stein, a German phenomenologist, empathy can be facilitated. It also can be interrupted and blocked, but it cannot be forced to occur. What makes empathy unique, according to Stein, is that it happens to us; it is indirectly given to us, "nonprimordially." When empathy occurs, we find ourselves experiencing it, rather than directly causing it to happen. This is the characteristic that makes the act of empathy unteachable. Instead, promoting attitudes and behaviors such as self-awareness, nonjudgmental positive regard for others, good listening skills, and self-confidence are suggested as important in the development of clinicians who will demonstrate an empathic willingness.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed1976

Empathy and pseudo-empathy: the affective judgments of first- and third-graders.

Eighty male and female first- and third-grader Ss were presented one of two brief videotaped social interaction episodes. Half of the Ss viewed an unambiguous tape in which a target character's affective response was congruent with the situational context in which he operated. The remaining Ss viewed a similar, but ambiguous tape in which the nonverbal affective response of the target character was incongruent with situational demands. Ss' responses were scored on the basis of their judgments of the target character's affective state and facial expression, and the degree of relative certainty with which they made their affective judgments. No differences were predicted or found in any of the empathic responses of first- and third-graders to the unambiguous tape. The two age groups studied did, however, differ significantly in their responses to the ambiguous tape. As anticipated, the first-grade Ss employed a highly centered inference strategy and based their judgments on only one of the available incongruous cues. The older Ss, by contrast, recognized the incongruities present and expressed little confidence in their ability to infer the true affect state of the target character.

Affect↗

PubMed1990

Biopsychosocial elements of empathy: a multidimensional model.

Empathy is a topic of growing concern in a variety of disciplines. Although considerable empathy research is reported, often single dimensions of a multidimensional and multiphasic construct are actually being studied. Empathy is a unitary construct involving biopsychosocial components and is particularly well suited for nursing study because of its theoretical congruence with nursing philosophy and concerns. Empathy's importance goes beyond the usual emphasis on helper empathy. Although commonly associated with prosocial behavior, empathy involves underlying processes which may be used for either positive or negative social purposes. Recent technological improvements in research methodology, concerns regarding social violence, and conceptual shifts have led to greatly increased interest in the phenomenon of empathy and an expanded research thrust. One major recent change in empathy research is the tendency to view the phenomenon as multidimensional and consequently to include a variety of measures to capture different elements of the construct. This paper reviews the major approaches to measurement of empathy and classifies these approaches according to the dimensions of empathy that they measure. Physiological change in association with empathy is less frequently measured, but because empathy is commonly assumed to include an emotional response to another, concomitant physiological changes should accompany the emotional aspect of empathy and indicators of physiological response may be appropriate measures to include in nursing studies of empathy. A conceptualization of empathy is presented that considers empathy to be a multidimensional phenomenon, with emotional, cognitive, communicative, and relational components. Because empirical approaches can only examine the most easily measured aspects of empathy, phenomenological approaches are also needed to begin to capture the total construct.

Cognition↗

PubMed1988

Five studies testing two new egoistic alternatives to the empathy-altruism hypothesis.

The empathy-altruism hypothesis claims that prosocial motivation associated with feeling empathy for a person in need is directed toward the ultimate goal of benefiting that person, not toward some subtle form of self-benefit. We explored two new egoistic alternatives to this hypothesis. The empathy-specific reward hypothesis proposes that the prosocial motivation associated with empathy is directed toward the goal of obtaining social or self-rewards (i.e., praise, honor, and pride). The empathy-specific punishment hypothesis proposes that this motivation is directed toward the goal of avoiding social or self-punishments (i.e., censure, guilt, and shame). Study 1 provided an initial test of the empathy-specific reward hypothesis. Studies 2 through 4 used three procedures to test the empathy-specific punishment hypothesis. In Study 5, a Stroop procedure was used to assess the role of reward-relevant, punishment-relevant, and victim-relevant cognitions in mediating the empathy-helping relationship. Results of these five studies did not support either the empathy-specific reward or the empathy-specific punishment hypothesis. Instead, results of each supported the empathy-altruism hypothesis. Evidence that empathic emotion evokes altruistic motivation continues to mount.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

A cognitive/affective empathy training program as a function of ego development in aggressive adolescent females.

This study investigated the effects of an affective/cognitive empathy training program on level of empathy in 24 aggressive adolescent females in a residential treatment center. In addition, the relationship between empathy and level of ego development was explored. Empathy was defined as a psychological construct regulated by both cognitive and affective components, interacting in a systemic manner to produce emotional understanding. Subjects were pretested on measures of affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and Loevinger's scale of ego development. High and low scores on the measures of ego development were defined by a median split. Following random assignment to groups, experimental subjects were exposed to four 1.5-hour training sessions directed at increasing levels of affective and cognitive empathy. Posttests revealed significant positive relationships between ego development and both measures of empathy. Training significantly increased levels of affective empathy, while increases in cognitive empathy were unremarkable. There was no difference between high and low ego development scorers in their ability to profit from training. The hypothesized systemic relationship between affective and cognitive empathy was also supported by the findings.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1977

Measuring medical students' empathy: a validation study.

The aim of this study was to validate the empathy scale (Hogan, 1969) for use in the context of medical education in Australia. Empathy Scale scores of students in their first clinical year at Monash University were correlated with patient ratings, self ratings, and peer ratings of empathy. Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability were assessed. Correlations were also obtained between Empathy Scale scores and course marks in psychiatry. Of the empathy ratings only those by peers correlated significantly with Empathy Scale scores (r = 0-45, P less than 0-05, n = 29). Empathy Scale scores were unrelated to academic performance. In a separate part of the study, not connected to the establishing of criterion-related validity, Empathy Scale scores of the medical student group were found to be significantly higher (t=4-44, df = 52, P less than 0-001) than the scores of psychiatric patients with a diagnosis of "personality disorder". This study provides some support for the Empathy Scale as a measure of interpersonal effectiveness, but has not established it as a valid measure of empathy in a clinical setting.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Empathy and burnout in male and female helping professionals.

Relationships between empathy and burnout and possible confounding influences of sex and profession were explored in a sample of 492 male and female nurses, social workers, and teachers. Respondents completed Mehrabian's Emotional Empathy Scale, Stotland's Fantasy-Empathy Scale, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). There were no main effects of profession on empathy or burnout variables. There was, however, an interaction effect of sex and profession on depersonalization, which was accounted for by subjects in social work and teaching. Women had significantly higher empathy scores than men; however, men had higher scores than male normative groups. Age related negatively to depersonalization and emotional exhaustion for women, whereas percentage of work time spent in direct practice correlated with depersonalization for men. The possibility that empathy and burnout might represent opposite poles of the same underlying construct was examined but not found. Instead, emotional empathy was significantly positively correlated with both emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment, whereas emotional exhaustion was also positively related to depersonalization. It is hypothesized that high emotional empathy may predispose helping professionals to emotional exhaustion and that emotional exhaustion, if not mediated by personal accomplishment, may lead to the development of depersonalization. This more complex, interactive model of the empathy-burnout relationship needs longitudinal study.

Burnout, Professional↗

PubMed1990

Empathy, experience of burnout and attitudes towards demented patients among nursing staff in geriatric care.

A non-anonymous questionnaire was distributed to all nursing staff (n = 557) including RNs, LPNs (psychiatric), LPNs (somatic) and nurses' aides, in one nursing home, one somatic long-term care clinic and one psychogeriatric clinic. Scales measuring empathy, burnout experience and attitudes towards demented patients were included in the questionnaire. The aim of the study was to compare levels of empathy, burnout experience and attitudes among different categories of nursing staff and to examine connections between empathy, burnout and attitudes. The nursing staff showed an overall figure of moderately well-developed empathy and the RNs showed the highest empathy. The RNs had a significantly lower degree of burnout compared to the nurses' aides and the LPNs. Of all respondents, 27.4% were assessed at risk from burnout. Overall, the staff showed a moderately positive attitude towards demented patients and the RNs were most positive. No linear correlation was found between empathy, burnout experience and attitudes. However, a weak negative correlation between burnout and empathy is in accordance with other authors who are suggesting that burnout experience leads to lower empathy in the nursing staff. The fact that the RNs showed the most positive attitudes towards demented patients and had the highest level of empathy compared to LPNs and nurses' aides could be related to lower degree of burnout assessed in the RNs. Qualitative and quantitative overload among the LPNs and nurses' aides connected to the growing number of demented patients in the institutions examined are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed2026

Associations Between Short Video Exposure, Empathy and Attitudes Toward End-Of-Life Care Among Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.

AIM: This cross-sectional study examined the associations between short video exposure, nursing students' empathy, and attitudes toward end-of-life (EOL) care, and tested whether perceived impact is statistically consistent with an indirect pathway in these relationships. DESIGN: A descriptive cross-sectional study. METHODS: In total, 534 undergraduate nursing students were included. Data were collected using a self-designed questionnaire, including the Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying Scale and the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Professions Student version for empathy assessment. Statistical analysis for correlation and mediation analysis (PROCESS macro) was performed. RESULTS: 85.96% of students watch short videos for more than 30 min daily, with more than 60% of them viewing EOL-related content. Students with prior caregiving experience or formal palliative care education showed significantly higher empathy and more positive attitudes (p < 0.05). Exposure to medical and EOL-related short videos was positively correlated with perceived impact, empathy, and positive EOL attitudes, with effect sizes ranging from very weak to modest (r = 0.10 to 0.27). The data were consistent with an indirect pathway between short video exposure and empathy via perceived impact (indirect effect = 0.04; 95% bootstrap CI [0.01, 0.08]). However, for EOL attitudes, short video exposure showed a direct association rather than an indirect pathway via perceived impact (direct effect = 0.09, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: In this cross-sectional study, short video exposure was modestly associated with nursing students' empathy, with data consistent with an indirect pathway via perceived impact; the observed associations explained only approximately 1% to 7% of the variance in the outcome variables. However, reshaping EOL attitudes may require more systematic education beyond brief video exposure. These findings are hypothesis-generating and await validation through longitudinal and experimental research using standardized video content. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: Nursing educators should consider integrating curated short video content into palliative care curricula to enhance students' empathy and perceived impact of end-of-life education. However, brief video exposure alone may be insufficient to reshape deeper end-of-life attitudes, suggesting the need for comprehensive, multi-modal educational strategies.

Humans↗

PubMed1988

Empathy in psychiatric patients.

The definition of empathy is controversial. Here one aspect of it, namely perception of others' feelings and personality, was investigated. Empathy was assessed by comparing self-rating with rating by other persons. Group psychotherapy patients were used. Nineteen patients with a history of schizophrenic psychosis and 20 neurotics were found to have lower empathy than 20 patients with borderline personality disorders whose empathy was as high as the descriptively used scores of four psychotherapists. Empathy was not found to be dependent on similarity of personalities. It correlated negatively with obsessional features, such as emotional constriction or rigidity. The borderline patients' high empathy appeared of particular interest in view of clinical observations that psychotics had high empathy before the development of psychosis. The possible relevance of empathy in the development of psychosis is discussed.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A course in empathy.

The purpose of this project was to determine whether an empathy skills training course would produce an improvement in student nurses' Empathy Scale scores. Empathic skills were defined as the ability to communicate an accurate understanding of another's feeling and experience, and were operationally measured with a paper-and-pencil test (the Empathy Scale, Gazda, et al., 1977). In a posttest-only control group experimental design, a random sample of two groups of nursing students completed these measures. Empathy Scale scores were the dependent variable and the empathy skills course was the independent variable. A t-test demonstrated that students who had completed the empathy skills course had significantly lower (more empathic) scores on the Empathy Scale (p less than .05). Analysis of demographic data using Pearson's correlation coefficient showed no significant relationship between scores on the Empathy Scale and age (r = -.16), nor between scores and years in the health care field (r = .06).

Communication↗

PubMed1990

A validity study of four empathy instruments.

The construct validity of four empathy instruments were evaluated through examining group differences and correlations between tests. Subjects were 18 registered nurses (RNs) and 32 nursing assistants (NAs). Instruments used were the Empathy Test (Layton, 1979), the Carkhuff (1969a, 1969b) Empathic Understanding in Interpersonal Processes Scale, the empathy subtest of the Barrett-Lennard (1962) Relationship Inventory, and LaMonica's (1981) Empathy Construct Rating Scale (ECRS). The first hypothesis, that RNs would score significantly higher than NAs on all empathy measures, was confirmed (p less than .0003 to p less than .027). The second hypothesis, that the various empathy measures would be positively related, was partially confirmed. The Carkhuff scale was significantly correlated with the ECRS (r = .25, p less than .05). The ECRS and the Barrett-Lennard also were correlated (r = .78, p less than .001). Results are interpreted using Barrett-Lennard's (1981) theory of empathy.

Data Collection↗

PubMed1990

The Young Children's Empathy Measure: reliability, validity and effects of companion animal bonding.

The Young Children's Empathy Measure is a brief measure of young children's cognitive and affective perspective taking developed to assess preschool children's empathy. The Cronbach alpha coefficient of internal reliability for the empathy score was acceptable and interrater reliability across four rates was very high. The children's empathy scores were correlated with their ages and social development, but not with their IQs. Empathy toward children was correlated with empathy for pets, and children with a strong pet bond had higher scores on empathy for children than young children without pets.

Child↗

PubMed1992

Empathy: the importance of recognizing two types.

1. Empathy has been a consistent topic in nursing literature. Although authors attest to the importance of empathy for quality nursing care, an understanding of empathy and its role in the nurse-patient relationship remains elusive. 2. The study of empathy in nursing has been hampered by a lack of theoretical and methodological clarity, a factor that has contributed to the inexplicable findings in empathy studies. 3. The recognition of two distinct types--basic empathy, a human developmental trait, and trained empathy, a clinical skill state--is set forth as a possible solution to methodological problems.

Clinical Competence↗

PubMed2026

Empathic Accuracy and Behavioral Empathy After a Moderate Dose of Beer.

OBJECTIVES: Empathic accuracy (EA) represents a person's ability to correctly infer the emotions of another person. One past study in men found lower EA for positive emotions after a moderate dose of hard liquor compared to after placebo, particularly among non-hazardous drinkers. The present study aimed to replicate this finding, using a moderate dose of beer and a mixed design. Moreover, we added a novel measure of behavioral empathy. METHODS: Participants (62% men) completed the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, Empathy Quotient, and Revised Drinking Motives Questionnaire. Before and after drinking either beer (6.6% alcohol, n = 28) or its 0.0% equivalent (placebo, n = 38), they watched videoclips of targets talking about emotional autobiographical events and rated how targets felt while talking. Behavioral empathy was assessed by presenting participants with painful scenarios and asking whether they would help the people in pain. RESULTS: The previous finding of lower EA for positive emotions after alcohol was not replicated. Nonetheless, after alcohol non-hazardous drinkers were less willing to help people in pain. Trait affective empathy (i.e., a person's long-term disposition to experience emotional responses congruent to another's feelings) and the drinking to cope motive did not significantly moderate the findings. CONCLUSIONS: Although alcohol may alter empathy, its effects are not consistent and may depend on the dose and type of alcohol consumed. The moderating roles of trait empathy and trait aggressivity deserves further study.

Humans↗

PubMed1991

Staff burnout in dementia care--relations to empathy and attitudes.

Sixty nursing staff in geriatric and psychogeriatric care (RNs, LPNs and nurse's aides) were selected to be studied on two occasions with an interval of one year regarding the relationships between their experience of burnout, empathy and attitudes towards demented patients. A semistructured interview was performed on the second occasion to learn more about their work experience and to relate the ratings of burnout, empathy and attitudes to their experience at work. The staff's experience of burnout changed from a mean score of 2.7 in 1987 to 2.5 in 1988. Their empathic ability was moderately high and increased from 398 (m) in (1987) to 450 (m) in 1988. The attitudes of staff remained unchanged from 1987 to 1988 and no differences were found regarding the staff's age, place of work or time at present place of work. As for the staff's empathy, there was no difference with respect to sex, category of staff or place of work. RN's showed the most positive attitudes towards demented patients both in 1987 and 1988 and differed compared to the nurse's aides and LPN's. Burnout correlated with lower empathy and less positive attitudes in the staff. Regression analysis showed that 'experience of feed-back at work' and 'time spent at present place of work' were the most important factors when explaining burnout among the staff. Staff with high empathy experienced "a close contact with the patient" as the most stimulating factor at work while staff with low empathy experienced "improvement of the patient's health" and "contact with colleagues" as the most stimulating factors. The importance of counteracting burnout in the care of demented patients is stressed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Distress in cancer patients and primary nurses' empathy skills.

This descriptive, correlational study was designed to explore the relationship between the empathy skills of primary nurses and the distress level of their primary patients. Data on empathy skills were generated from the La Monica Empathy Profile. Data on patient distress were generated from the Profile of Mood State Inventory and a Visual Analogue Scale. A nonprobability convenience sample of 65 primary nurses employed on surgical primary nursing care units of a large teaching hospital participated in the study. Sixty-five cancer patients assigned to the participating primary nurses also took part in the study. Descriptive statistics of each variable were examined. Pearson product-moment correlations were used to examine the hypothesis and the demographic variables for nurses and patients. Analysis of variance was used to assess relationships among many of the demographic variables. A significant correlation (but not in the expected direction) was found between the perceiving/feeling/listening empathy skill and patient distress. Nurses' age, years of experience, and education were significantly correlated with some empathy skills. Distress levels of female patients were higher than those of male patients. In general, nurses scored low in the use of empathy skills, and patients scored low in distress. The complex nature of defining and measuring communication skills and relating these skills to outcomes in patient care, such as distress, requires more study. Research questions exploring how and why nurses' interpersonal skills make a difference to patients and their health care outcomes must be generated by nurse administrators, nurse educators, nurse researchers, and practicing nurses.

Adult↗

PubMed1987

Women's attributions of responsibility for date rape: the influence of empathy and sex-role stereotyping.

The purpose of the study presented here was to investigate the relationship among sex-role stereotyping, empathy with the victim, and subsequent blaming of the victim in response to a date-rape scenario. It was hypothesized that sex-typed (traditional) females would be less likely to perceive forced sex on a date as rape and would attribute more responsibility to the victim than would more egalitarian (nontraditional) females. It was also predicted that the enhancement of victim empathy would result in less victim blame. The subjects were 76 female undergraduates who were chosen on the basis of their extreme scores on a sex-role stereotyping scale. Vignettes describing a date rape were used to manipulate victim empathy. Findings indicated that although attributions of responsibility were influenced by the subject's sex-role stereotyping, the manipulation of empathy had no apparent influence on victim blame. Furthermore, the lack of correlation between the degree of victim empathy and the subject's own history of victimization suggests that victim empathy is not a component in victim blame.

Adult↗