Abstract
The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) is a commonly used instrument for measuring individual differences in trait empathy. It is composed of the following four subscales: Perspective taking; fantasy; empathic concern; and personal distress. Previous studies have reported finding a positive relationship between psychological well-being and perspective taking, but little remains known about the association between psychological well-being and the other IRI subscales. Therefore in this study, we investigated the degree to which each IRI subscale could predict psychological well-being, which was measured using Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scales, in 119 Japanese undergraduate and graduate students (43 females, 76 males; mean age: 22 years; age range: 19 - 25 years). Regression analysis revealed that perspective taking positively predicted personal growth, purpose in life, and environmental mastery, while personal distress negatively predicted autonomy, environmental mastery, and self-acceptance. Neither fantasy nor empathic concern predicted psychological well-being. These results support those found in previous studies, and suggest that perspective taking, a cognitive component of empathy, plays an important role in the improvement of psychological well-being.
Highlights
Empathy is defined as “the ability to imagine oneself in another’s place and understand the other’s feelings, desires, ideas, and actions” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1999 edition) and is thought to be an essential component of human social behavior
It is thought that perspective taking represents the cognitive component of empathy, while empathic concern and personal distress represent the affective component of empathy (Dziobek et al, 2008)
Examples of items from each of the six Psychological Well-Being Scales (PWB) subscales are as follows: Personal growth, “For me, life has been a continuous process of learning, changing, and growing”; purpose in life, “I have a sense of direction and a purpose in life”; autonomy, “My decisions are not typically influenced by what everyone else is doing”; self-acceptance, “In general, I feel confident and positive about myself”; environmental mastery, “I am quite good at managing the many responsibilities of my daily life”; and positive relationships with others, “I know that I can trust my friends, and they know that they can trust me”
Summary
Empathy is defined as “the ability to imagine oneself in another’s place and understand the other’s feelings, desires, ideas, and actions” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1999 edition) and is thought to be an essential component of human social behavior. The multidimensional facets are reflected by instruments designed to measure individual differences in empathy One such example is the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) (Davis, 1983), one of most widely used questionnaires for measuring trait empathy, which consists of the following four subscales: Perspective taking (trying to adopt the perspective of others); fantasy (identifying with fictional characters); empathic concern (having warm feelings toward and concern for others); and personal distress (feeling anxiety in response to the negative experiences of others). Empathic concern has been shown to be positively related to quality of life (Thomas et al, 2007), but not to mental health (Shanafelt et al, 2005), and some studies that examined the relationship between empathy and psychological well-being measured trait empathy as the sum of perspective taking and empathic concern (Manczak et al, 2015) or of perspective taking, fantasy, and empathic concern (Boyraz & Waits, 2015). We expected the results of the present study to provide clues regarding which aspects of psychological well-being could be predicted by trait empathy
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