Accurate Empathy Research Articles

Empathy and Imagination

This study examined the relationship between empathy and imagination. The hypotheses were: a) the greater an individual's imagination, the more empathy the individual will show, and b) individuals instructed to imagine themselves in another's unfortunate situation will show greater empathy than others not similarly instructed. The subjects were 141 tenth- and eleventh-grade Israeli boys and girls. Imagination was measured by the daydreaming and night-dreaming scales of the Imaginal Processes Inventory [1] and empathy was rated on the Israeli version of the Accurate Empathy Scale [2]. The data support the first hypothesis, but not the second.

Therapists and quasi-therapists in a therapy analogue situation.

Evaluated an assumption from previous psychotherapy analogue studies, namely, that trained psychotherapists and untrained quasi-therapists with personality similarities will respond similarly to patient presentations. Ss were 24 male psychotherapists and 24 male undergraduate students, chosen partially on the basis of their responses to an A-B personality scale derived from the work of Whitehorn and Betz (1954). The three-factor experimental design included S personality type (A or B), S professional status (psychotherapist vs. student), and videotaped patient simulations (neurotic vs. schizoid), with all Ss exposed to both patient prototypes. Therapists demonstrated a higher degree of accurate empathy, were less active, made shorter responses, and used more declarative sentences (p less than .01 for each variable). Second-order interaction effects indicated that therapist personality type X patient type pairings produced opposite results for quasi-therapists when compared to professional therapists.

Training Counselors to Work with Disabled Clients: Cognitive and Affective Components

This study examines the relationship of cognitive complexity, counselor anxiety, and client disability condition to accurate empathy on the part of students in training. A sample (n = 28) of students in a graduate counseling program observed a series of eight vignettes of counseling interviews (four clients with disabilities and four without disabilities) and reported a verbal counseling response to a client statement. A significant main effect was found for the cognitive complexity variable only (p < .05). A significant interaction among cognitive complexity, anxiety, and client disability condition (p < .01) indicated that all three factors interact to influence empathy. Implications for research and the training of counselors are discussed.

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.

Evaluation of drug counselor training: a pilot study.

A pilot evaluation study was conducted to explore the impact of a training course aimed at helping drug counselors establish effective therapeutic relationships with their clients. Counselor abilities to reflect accurate empathy, sensitivity to client values and attitudes, and use of specified problem-solving techniques were measured before and after training through counselor self-ratings and ratings of counselor behaviors provided by clients and supervisors. The preliminary findings reveal a trend toward improved drug counselor functioning along these dimensions following training. However, the findings also suggest that the greatest impact of training may be a shift in drug counselor self-perceptions toward more confidence in their own capability to establish effective therapeutic relationships.

Subjective and objective outcomes of communication skills training in the first year.

An 8-hour training programme in basic communication skills was carried out for an entire behavioural science class. Students participated in small-group practical workshops which focused on attending and primary accurate empathy (Egan, 1975). The latter was assessed objectively be written responses to short trigger statements, and in matched pre- and post-training measures showed a significant overall increase in empathetic responding. Student evaluations of the project were positive and allowed suggestions for increasing the impact of similar training efforts in the future.

Ego Development: Inferring the Client's Frame of Reference

The application of the ego development scheme to social work practice includes the development of more accurate empathy in formulating treatment expectations, in assessing outcome, in understanding implicit client assumptions about self and other, and in adjusting worker's cognitive mode to client's mode.

Depression and attribution: Some new data and a review of old data

Depressed, formerly depressed, and never depressed college women were randomly assigned to success or failure conditions on a supposed measure of “accurate empathy.” Based on the Abramson, Seligman, and Teasdale (1978)theory, it was predicted that depressed subjects would favor internal, stable attributions for failure and external, unstable attributions for success. Consistent with previous research, depressed subjects made more internal attributions for failure than did never depressed subjects. In absolute terms, however, they favored external over internal attributions for failure and internal over external attributions for success. Depressed subjects tended to favor stable attributions for both success and failure. These results were compared with previously published ones, and it was concluded that there is, at best, inconsistent evidence that depressives attribute failure internally and that there is relatively clear evidence that they do not attribute success externally and unstably.

Experiential Empathy: a Theory of a Felt-Level Experience

Accurate empathy is presented in terms of the previous theoretical and operational definitions. The departure from the Rogerian hypothesis is explored, and a new theoretical view of experiential empathy is presented. This theory is an extension of Rogers' perspectives and draws upon the works of Feldenkrais and Gendlin. The relationships between the empathic process and the right hemisphere and its functions are established and compared to Truax and Carkhuff's definition of accurate empathy, which is shown to be the communication process and a function of the left hemisphere. Support for the theory of experiential empathy is found in the research on meditation, and a model for developing empathy as a felt-level experience is proposed.

The mourning of the health care professional: an important element in education about death and loss.

This article explores the centrality of the mourning process in the education of developing health care professionals who are the survivors of complex and manifold losses. This was discussed in an elective seminar for senior medical students and graduate nurses. Learning about clinical responsibility often occurred in the context of loss and mourning. The outcome of mourning included for some a greater sensitivity to the impact of clinical interventions and a more accurate empathy for losses incurred by patients as a result of illness. Old and unresolved loss and mourning experiences were reawakened as a result of the seminar, which led to a sorting and mastering of these experiences. This is felt to be a common result of discussions about encounters with death and loss. Courses on death and dying for the health care professional, although important, are not sufficient by themselves for mastery of these topics. Clinical teachers must be aware of the student's response to loss and provide an atmosphere that legitimizes learning about these issues. The principles of awareness and open acknowledgement of loss and mourning are applicable to all health care settings.

Simulated patients and the assessment of medical students' interpersonal skills.

While the use of simulated patients for the assessement of medical students' skills is increasing there is little data on whether students perform differently vs real patients. The present study examined this issue using second-year medical students' ability to empathize with simulated and genuine patients. Forty second-year students each conducted two interviews which were audio-recorded and later rated by raters who had achieved a high degree of reliability using the 9-point accurate empathy scale (Truax, 1967). Ten students saw a genuine patient for each interview while ten students saw simulators on both occasions. Of the remaining twenty students, ten saw genuine patients at the first interview and simulated patients at the second session. This order was reversed for the remaining ten students. No significant differences were found in the levels of empathy between students' interaction with genuine or simulated patients. As the students were also unable to discriminate between the two groups of patients it was concluded that simulators represent a viable procedure given the skill to be assessed in the present research and the experience of the students.

A Comparison of the Construct Validities of Four Measures of Empathy

Various scales and inventories purport to measure effective/cognitive empathy. This article discusses four frequently used measures of empathy: Truax's Accurate Empathy Scale; Cark-huff's Empathic ...

Clinical responses of A and B practising psychotherapists to schizoid and neurotic patient prototypes

Eighty-three male psychotherapists varying on A-B type and experience orally responded to tape-recordings of simulated schizoid and neurotic patients in the privacy of their own offices. Five dimensions of therapist response were studied: accurate empathy, positive social-emotional reactions, negative social-emotional reactions, length of response and proportion of declarative statements. Although the simple A-B interaction effect was not found, significant second-order interactions were found for both accurate empathy and positive reactions which indicated that the predicted interaction effect tends to be upheld for inexperienced therapists but attenuated or reversed for experienced therapists. A significantly reversed interaction for experienced therapists' response length was also found. Examination of the results from this study and previous studies suggested a revision of the A-B interaction hypothesis: for inexperienced therapists, As will be more effective with schizoids/schizophrenics than Bs, whereas Bs will surpass As with neurotics; for experienced therapists, however, this interaction will be attenuated or reversed. Speculations about underlying processes in A-B interaction phenomena were offered.

Understanding the patient: A neglected aspect of medical education

It is widely accepted that ability to understand the patient is an essential feature in the establishment of good rapport and effective doctor/patient communication. A review of the literature is presented which suggests that many patients are dissatisfied with their doctor's ability to communicate effectively with them, and it is therefore necessary to train medical students in interpersonal communication skills. Data are presented which indicate that the ability of medical students to respond with accurate empathy in the interview situation is at a minimum level, and that levels of performance do not improve as they progress through the undergraduate course. A training programme, designed to teach the skills of empathy, is described and results indicating its effectiveness are presented. It is concluded that such communication skills training should be incorporated into the undergraduate medical curriculum.

Understanding the patient: a neglected aspect of medical eduction.

Abstract It is widely accepted that ability to understand the patient is an essential feature in the establishment of good rapport and effective doctor/patient communication. A review of the literature is presented which suggests that many patients are dissatisfied with their doctor's ability to communicate effectively with them, and it is therefore necessary to train medical students in interpersonal communication skills. Data are presented which indicate that the ability of medical students to respond with accurate empathy in the interview situation is at a minimum level, and that levels of performance do not improve as they progress through the undergraduate course. A training programme, designed to teach the skills of empathy, is described and results indicating its effectiveness are presented. It is concluded that such communication skills training should be incorporated into the undergraduate medical curriculum.

The effects of therapeutic conditions: positive results revisited.

This paper surveys evidence relating the 'therapeutic conditions' of Accurate Empathy, Non-Possessive Warmth and Genuineness to psychotherapeutic outcome. The studies reviewed include comparisons of 'good' therapy with no-treatment control groups, and correlational studies relating levels of 'conditions' to outcome. Even leaving aside the question of the validity of the outcome measures used, it is concluded that present evidence suggests no more than a weak relationship between these 'conditions' and patient improvement. It is suggested that a methodologically adequate, experimental, demonstration of their effectiveness has yet to be attempted.

More sources of variance in accurate empathy ratings: A response.

More sources of variance in accurate empathy ratings: A response.

Truax factors, speech characteristics, and therapeutic outcome.

Initial interview ratings of therapist accurate empathy, unconditional positive regard, and self-congruence were correlated with nonlexical speech characteristics and outcome of individual psychotherapy. Speech characteristics of both patients (greater total speech time, shorter pause time following therapists' comments, and faster reaction times) and therapists (fewer speech units) were significantly related to improved outcome. While Rogers-Truax factors were unrelated to outcome, they were related to speech characteristics of both patient and therapist. Furthermore, patients whose therapists showed high levels of the Truax factors tended to increase their average speech durations and total speech time during the course of the initial interview.

Conversational Structure and Accurate Empathy: an Exploratory Study

Conversational Structure and Accurate Empathy: an Exploratory Study

A reply to Beutler et al.'s study: Some sources of variance in accurate empathy ratings.

A reply to Beutler et al.'s study: Some sources of variance in accurate empathy ratings.