Distinguishing Empathic Concern from Personal Distress

Abstract

Abstract Distinguishing empathic concern from personal distress can be done with the six-item Empathic Concern Index and an eight-item Distress Index, items for which are also embedded in the Emotional Response Scale. Statistical analyses indicating the distinctiveness of these emotional states are reported. The distinction isn’t quantitative; it’s qualitative, with low-impact needs (adjustment/coping) producing empathy and high-impact needs (physical suffering) producing distress. Although low-impact needs are less likely to produce personal distress, high-impact needs can produce high levels of both empathic concern and personal distress. Yet, even when these emotional states co-occur, they’re experienced as qualitatively distinct. Complicating measurement, adjectives used to report personal distress are more likely to reflect empathic distress (a form of empathic concern not personal distress) when respondents report reactions to another’s coping/adjustment problem. But when reacting to another’s physical suffering, the distress adjectives provide a valid measure of personal distress.