Empathy Attitudes Research Articles

Cultural aspects of communication in cancer care

Cultural competence in oncology requires the acquisition of specific knowledge, clinical skills, and attitudes that facilitate effective cross-cultural negotiation in the clinical setting, thus, leading to improved therapeutic outcomes and decreased disparities in cancer care. Cultural competence in oncology entails a basic knowledge of different cultural attitudes and practices of communication of the truth and of decision-making styles throughout the world. Cultural competence always presupposes oncology professionals' awareness of their own cultural beliefs and values. To be able to communicate with cancer patients in culturally sensitive ways, oncologists should have knowledge of the concept of culture in its complexity and of the risks of racism, classism, sexism, ageism, and stereotyping that must be avoided in clinical practice. Oncologists should develop a sense of appreciation for differences in health care values, based on the recognition that no culture can claim hegemony over others and that cultures are evolving under their reciprocal influence on each other. Medical schools and oncology training can teach communication skills and cultural competence, while fostering in all students and young doctors those attitudes of humility, empathy, curiosity, respect, sensitivity, and awareness that are needed to deliver effective and culturally sensitive cancer care.

Therapeutic ingredients in helping session episodes with observer-rated low and high empathic attunement: a content analysis of client and therapist postsession perceptions in three cases

The authors investigated the relationship between helping session episodes with different levels of empathic attunement and the therapeutic ingredients as experienced by client and therapist. Based on their theoretical micromodel of the empathic interaction process, the authors hypothesized that, with an increasing level of empathic attunement, an increase is expected in depth of exploration, experiential insight, empathy, and relational attitudes, which are interwoven with empathy; a decrease is expected for therapeutic ingredients that are an implementation of genuineness and transparency. As for exploration, insight, genuineness, and transparency, the model is reliably confirmed. As for experiencing empathy and the interwoven relational categories, no univocal differences are found. On the basis of their findings, the authors indicate that there seems to be no specific class of empathic helping episodes but that the different levels of empathic attunement represent different phases within the global empathic interaction process.

A MOTHER'S LOVE: GENDER, ALTRUISM, AND SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION

This article explores the concepts of altruism, spiritual connection, and shamanic healing as practiced by female curanderas in northern Peru. It suggests how coessence rather than transcendence is at the heart of the shamanic journey that both healers and patients embark upon in order to transform suffering. Using ethnographic and case-study research, it describes how the metaphors of maternal care, shared suffering, and compassionate love are used by female healers in this region to shape their patients' understandings of illness and health as well as to construct their own understandings of the shaman's role in their healing process. The healers studied adopt attitudes of acceptance, empathy, spiritual connection, and altruism as integral to their work and encourage their patients to do the same in order to regain a sense of mastery over their own suffering. Parallels are presented between the model of spiritual connection and healing described here and that described by both scholars of feminist theology and feminist spirituality such as Rosemary Radford Ruether and popular lecturers/authors such as Marianne Williamson.

The effects of adding emotion-focused interventions to the client-centered relationship conditions in the treatment of depression

Abstract A study was conducted to test the effects of adding emotion-focused interventions to the empathic relationship. The authors compared client-centered therapy, which provides an empathic relationship based on the relational attitudes of empathy, positive regard, and congruence, and emotion-focused therapy (EFT), which integrates process-guiding emotion-focused interventions that focus on depressogenic affective–cognitive problems with a client-centered supportive relationship. Thirty-eight patients meeting DSM–IV criteria for major depressive disorder were randomly assigned to 16 to 20 sessions of 1 of the 2 treatments. Clients’ level of depressive symptoms, general symptom distress, interpersonal distress, and self-esteem improved in each condition, but improvement on symptomatology was superior in the EFT condition. An empathic relationship appears to be enhanced by the addition of specific emotion-focused interventions. Zusammenfassung Die Effekte zusatzlicher emotions-fokussierter Interventione...

Differences in empathy and pain attitudes between nurses and nursing students

Differences in empathy and pain attitudes between nurses and nursing students

Biological and caregiver correlates of behavioral inhibition

AbstractThe aim of this study was to explore the relationships among measures of behavioral inhibition, physiological reactivity, and caregiver attitudes. Measures comprised of heart rate; survey assessments of caregiver empathy with the child, appropriateness of caregiver developmental expectations of the child, and use of positive discipline techniques; and observational measures of behavioral inhibition were gathered in a laboratory setting on 72, 5–6‐year old children. It was found that heart rate and behavioral inhibition were positively correlated (0.595), whereas behavioral inhibition was negatively correlated with caregiver attitudes of empathy (−0.356), appropriate expectations (−0.366), and use of positive discipline techniques (−0.275). However, there was no correlation between heart rate and caregiver attitudes. These data suggest that physiological reactivity to novel stimuli and caregiver attitudes of empathy, appropriate expectations, and use of positive discipline techniques conjointly influence behavioral inhibition in early childhood. Further, these three caregiver variables accounted for significant variance in children who had high reactive physiological profiles associated with inhibited behavior patterns, but did not display such patterns. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Attitudes of Nurses Caring for HIV/AIDS Patients

HIV/AIDS remains in epidemic proportions worldwide. The incidence of HIV/AIDS among infants, children, adolescents, and women has risen rapidly, and nurses cannot avoid HIV/AIDS patients. Because HIV/AIDS is associated with certain risk groups that have historically been subjects of discrimination, it has a stigma which contributes to the attitudes developed by nurses. To examine the attitudes of nurses in a southern community hospital, an AIDS Attitude Scale (AAS) survey was administered to all registered nurses (RNs) in staff positions. The AAS, a six-point Likert scale, examines avoidance and empathy attitudes. The survey was voluntary and anonymous. Sixty-eight percent (n = 175) of RNs responded to the survey. The overall mean score for avoidance was 2.37 and for empathy was 5.19. The general score of 2.82 indicated an overall empathetic attitude toward HIV/AIDS patients.

ORAL HEALTH AND NUTRITION

The relationships between oral health conditions, dietary practices and nutritional status, and general health status in the older American are complex, with many interrelating factors. Just as inadequate nutrition can affect oral health, poor oral health status affects food choices and, thus, nutritional status. It is clearly essential that the primary care practitioner and/or screening health professionals always include an evaluation of oral status in assessment of an elderly person. Effective care for the elderly dental patient requires knowledge about the disease of aging and the impact of those diseases on oral health and nutrition, pharmacology and drug interactions and their impact on oral health status, the biology of aging including sensory changes, the relationship of general medicine and systemic diseases, and psychology and sociology. The attitudes of empathy and understanding, caring and compassion, respect and a positive attitude toward the older patient, and flexibility in treatment planning are also critical elements.42 The interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, nutrition professionals, dentists, and social service professionals must all work together to ensure that good oral health status and adequate nutrition are maintained in older Americans. Recognizing and treating oral health and nutrition problems are important in improving the health and quality of life for the elderly population. Research that can provide more answers to health care problems in this growing group; educating professionals with respect to the relationships between oral health and nutrition; and public policy changes with regard to provision and funding of nutrition services, especially when provided by registered and/or licensed nutrition professionals, contribute to improving the health and quality of life for elders.

Oral Health and Nutrition

The relationships between oral health conditions, dietary practices and nutritional status, and general health status in the older American are complex, with many interrelating factors. Just as inadequate nutrition can affect oral health, poor oral health status affects food choices and, thus, nutritional status. It is clearly essential that the primary care practitioner and/or screening health professionals always include an evaluation of oral status in assessment of an elderly person. Effective care for the elderly dental patient requires knowledge about the disease of aging and the impact of those diseases on oral health and nutrition, pharmacology and drug interactions and their impact on oral health status, the biology of aging including sensory changes, the relationship of general medicine and systemic diseases, and psychology and sociology. The attitudes of empathy and understanding, caring and compassion, respect and a positive attitude toward the older patient, and flexibility in treatment planning are also critical elements. The interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, nutrition professionals, dentists, and social service professionals must all work together to ensure that good oral health status and adequate nutrition are maintained in older Americans. Recognizing and treating oral health and nutrition problems are important in improving the health and quality of life for the elderly population. Research that can provide more answers to health care problems in this growing group; educating professionals with respect to the relationships between oral health and nutrition; and public policy changes with regard to provision and funding of nutrition services, especially when provided by registered and/or licensed nutrition professionals, contribute to improving the health and quality of life for elders.

Counselling in Health Promotion: A Nursing Perspective

ABSTRACTThis paper illustrates and promotes the value of counselling as an effective health promotion strategy. Counselling, as a humanistic activity is often different from the educative model of health promotion suggested by WHO, that aims to empower people to make healthy and informed choices about their lifestyles. The authors argue that education and knowledge alone do not motivate decision making. The values and attitudes inherent in counselling are perceived as more conducive to lasting change and self motivation. Counselling focuses on the person rather than the problem and views individuals as fully functioning human beings with all the necessary inner resources to enable them to change and become healthy. The paper illustrates the value of a counselling approach through three case studies taken from a nursing context. The importance of the core counselling attitudes of genuineness, acceptance and empathy are emphasised.

Supervising the Therapy of Patients with Eating Disorders

Supervising residents, fellows, and interns conducting psychoanalytic psychotherapy with eating-disorder patients presents special problems and opportunities. The authors explore specific countertransference issues in the long-term therapy of patients with anorexia and bulimia, and describe how these issues in the therapy are often mirrored in the supervisory process. Countertransference phenomena include being secretive, intrusive, shaming, overcontrolling, overindulgent, or overidentified. Experiences associated with countertransference impasses include power struggles, despair, helplessness, and boredom. The wide range of transference and countertransference manifestations represents the difficult domain of long-term therapy with anorexic and bulimic patients, whose relationship with their eating symptom is so complex and ambivalent. Therapists in training benefit from a supervisory attitude of respect and empathy, with specific attention to countertransference difficulties as they arise. While unaddressed countertransference poses the risk of disrupting the supervision and/or the therapy, appropriate recognition and exploration of its meaning in the supervision is an especially valuable training tool in the teaching of psychodynamic psychotherapy, and a source of learning for the therapist in training, the supervisor, and ultimately the patient.

Empathy and attitudes among medical students: the effects of group experience.

This study compares the level of empathy of medical students with the levels of empathy among other university students. It also explores the impact of the psychiatric clerkship with group experience on the medical students' empathy for and attitudes toward mental patients as compared with the level of attitudes and empathy of medical students without group experience. The results indicated that psychiatric teaching can change and enhance empathy and increase positive attitudes toward mental illness among medical students. These results were dependent upon the students' participation in a self-exploratory group experience. An additional goal of the study was to test the impact of medical students' psychiatric clerkships on the relationship between the level of self-reported empathy and the level of empathy as judged by their peer group. It was found that these separate vantage points merged as a consequence of group participation.

Moral Socialization: An Empirical Analysis of the Hogan Model

Abstract An alternative social psychological model of moral development, proposed by Robert Hogan, is empirically assessed for the first time. Five character‐trait dimensions of moral character (moral knowledge, socialization, empathy, autonomy, and ethical attitudes) were used to predict a measure of rule‐breaking behaviour. Results indicate some support for Hogan's model. Suggestions are made for refinements in Hogan's theory and for additional research.