Abstract
Objective: This study intended to construct a scale measuring the catharsis effect on medical professionals or students through illness narratives (ECS-IN). Methods: After a systematic literature review and panel discussion, the researchers conducted a pilot study with a sample of seven hundred and eighty-two randomly selected healthcare students and providers in Taiwan to examine psychometric properties using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for item derivation and factor extraction. The researchers also tested the validities and reliabilities of the ECS-IN scale to confirm its feasibility. Results: the EFA yielded 29 items and three factors: “emotional identification as self-healing” (12 items; 55.500% of variance explained), “emotional release for compensation” (10 items; 7.465% of variance explained), and “emotional adjustment for intellectual growth” (7 items; 4.839% of variance explained). The CFA yielded an 18-item, three-factor model with satisfactory fit to the data, where the χ2/df ratio = 1.090, Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = 0.996, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.997, and root mean square of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.020. The convergent validity and discriminant validities also demonstrated the feasibility of the ECS-IN scale. For the first version of the ECS-IN scale (29 items), the Cronbach’s alphas for the three factors and the overall scale were in the range between 0.912 and 0.971; for the reduced version of the scale (18 items), the Cronbach’s alphas and composite reliabilities were in the range of 0.888–0.946 and 0.890–0.968. Conclusion: The findings proved that the ECS-IN could be a reliable and valid instrument to assess participants’ emotional catharsis through illness narratives.
Highlights
The word “catharsis,” originating from the Greek words katharein and kathares, refers to a Greek chorus’s use of music, song, and dance to achieve the cleanliness, purgation, or purification of humans’ souls or emotions [1]
Aristotle proposed that, when intense emotions, such as pity and fear, are aroused, dramatic art can achieve the goal of catharsis, that is, it can bring out the purgation and purification of those intense emotions
The results prove that the ECS-IN could be a reliable and valid instrument to assess participants’ emotional catharsis through illness narratives
Summary
The word “catharsis,” originating from the Greek words katharein and kathares, refers to a Greek chorus’s use of music, song, and dance to achieve the cleanliness, purgation, or purification of humans’ souls or emotions [1]. Aristotle proposed that, when intense emotions, such as pity (eleos) and fear (phobos), are aroused, dramatic art can achieve the goal of catharsis, that is, it can bring out the purgation and purification of those intense emotions As he [2] suggested, an audience may partake in various experiences while watching dramatic arts, perhaps evoking their pity and fear concerning a hero’s dilemma. While experiencing this conflict along with the tragic hero and being aroused to pity and fear, the audience may purify their own emotions by identifying with the hero and releasing their inner stress and reaching purification and peace of mind [2]. It can be concluded that the word “catharsis” involves the liberation of those negative or intense feelings or effects, 4.0/)
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