Components Of Empathy Research Articles

Развитие ментализации и эмпатии в онтогенезе: обзор эмпирических исследований

The article considers the main fields and onotogenetic development processes of men- talization and empathy. The neural measures and psychological studies results show that there is an active formation process of mentalization and empathy in adolescence. The article highlights the disputable character of the results of modern studies of social cognition in adolescence. The neural measures require further interpretation. The differences in mechanisms of empathy and mentalization are discussed, specifically the order of empathy components (cognitive or emotionally) forming in the onotogenetic development process. The various results of studies showing the proximity of these processes and prove their relative independence (including at the level of neural networks). The article contains the evidence that strong mentalization reduces the risk of emotional maladjustment and aggressive behavior, while its deficits correlate with bullying. We consider the current study of mentalization and empathy family factors. Particular attention is paid to the E.Mains study, which summarizes the research of social cognition ontogenetic development factors in building on the cultural and historical theory development of the of the psyche L.S. Vygotsky. The study was performed by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (grant № 14- 18-03461) at the Federal Medical Research Centre of Psychiatry and Narcology under the Ministry of Public Health of the Russian Federation.

Links Among Cognitive Empathy, Theory of Mind, and Affective Perspective Taking by Young Children

The authors investigated the development of the affective, cognitive, and behavioral components of empathy in preschoolers, specifically examining how cognitive empathy is linked to theory of mind and affective perspective taking. Participants were 158 children aged 4–6 years. They listened to narratives and then answered questions about the protagonists' emotions. The affective component was probed with the question, “How do you feel seeing the little girl/boy?”; the cognitive component with the question, “Why do you feel [emotion shared with the character]?”; and the behavioral one with the question, “What would you do if you were next to the little boy/girl [experiencing an emotional scenario]?” Results revealed a developmental sequence in the self-focused attribution of cognitive empathy, and a trend toward a developmental sequence for behavioral empathy, which underwent a slight linear increase between 4 and 6 years old. Affective empathy remained stable. More interestingly, they showed that cognitive empathy is linked to both theory of mind and affective perspective taking.

Empathy and Modern Technology: A Neuroergonomics Perspective

AbstractThe primary purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of empathy in the design of advanced systems in manufacturing and service industries in order to ensure suitable working conditions for employees from the social and technological point of view. The origins and components of empathy are briefly reviewed. The neural underpinnings of three components of empathy, including cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects, are considered in the context of human–human and human–machine interactions, as well as design of working environments. Finally, the potential advantages of applying empathy‐related knowledge to the design and development of human‐centered technology are discussed.

The Influence of Storytelling Approach in Travel Writings on Readers’ Empathy and Travel Intentions

As a fascinating concept, storytelling attracts many researchers from a variety of disciplines. Of particular interest is the power of storytelling both on a corporate and on a product level. However, its components and implications on the people and their behavioral intentions (i.e., word and mouth, visit intention) within travel marketing are limited. In this study, we empirically investigated the relationship between the components of storytelling, empathy and behavioral intentions. By studying 155 readers, we found that perceived esthetics, narrative structure, self-reference will evoke reader empathy. We also showed that empathy was found to generate positive emotional response and behavioral intentions toward travel destination. In this sense, we suggested that travel narratives need to consider esthetics, narrative structure and relevance to readers and empathy can be considered as a determinant of emotion in the research of marketing.

The Basic Empathy Scale adapted to French middle childhood: Structure and development of empathy.

We adapted the adult French version of the Basic Empathy Scale to French children aged 6-11years, in order to probe the factorial structure underlying empathy. A total of 410 children (189 girls and 221 boys) were instructed to fill out the resulting Basic Empathy Scale in Children (BES-C). Results showed that, as in adulthood, the three-factor model of empathy (i.e., emotional contagion, cognitive empathy, and emotional disconnection) was more relevant than the one- and two-factor ones. This means that as early as 6years of age, children's responses should reflect the same organization of the three components of empathy as those of adults. In line with the literature, cognitive empathy increased and emotional disconnection decreased in middle childhood, while emotional contagion remained stable. Moreover, girls exhibited greater emotional contagion than boys, with the reverse pattern being observed for emotional disconnection. No sex difference was found regarding cognitive empathy.

Developing peer support in film for cancer self-management: what do men want other men to know?

This study reports an innovative theory-driven approach for developing filmed peer support for cancer self-management. Peer support conventionally includes empathetic interaction between people with shared experiences. This unique study considers how to authentically communicate peer empathy in a one-way film narrative. We co-created a film based on phenomenological interviews with seven men who had volunteered to support other men by sharing their experiences of coping with prostate cancer. The film contributed to successful engagement with self-management. Interpretative phenomenological analysis of the interview data was conducted to explore the components of experiential empathy that the men had communicated. Four themes were identified illustrating what men wanted other men to know about coping with prostate cancer: Going into the unknown, it was difficult but I got through highlighted trauma and the importance of having a determined attitude; Only you can do it illustrated the triumph of their journey and of regaining control; I haven't changed massively reflected the importance of a constant self; and Stay involved represented the overriding need to remain part of pre-cancer social environments. We propose a construct framework of experiential empathy for men with prostate cancer: Resilience, Regaining Control, Continuity-of-Self, and Social Connectedness. Filmed peer support that communicates these constructs will offer wide-ranging benefit to meet the needs of this group of men in both e-health and face-to-face self-management contexts. Further research could develop this theory-driven approach to filmed peer support for other cancer groups.

Improving Empathy in the Care of Pain Patients

Empathy is associated with countless benefits in clinical interactions, yet it is not always optimal in health care providers. Social neuroscience offers a window onto the cerebral processes underlying the complex relationships between the multiple components of empathy, patient care, and the caregiver's well-being. Neuroimaging studies have revealed patterns of empathy-related neural responses that shed some light on the mechanisms that could partially explain the phenomena of empathy decline and pain underestimation in health care providers. Such information, complementary to behavioral research findings, may help develop new means of improving empathy in health care, as long as interpretation of neuroimaging data remains grounded. Additionally, research on empathy in this context has largely focused on how clinicians' empathy may affect patient outcomes, but the relationship between empathy and well-being in health care providers is often neglected. The quest to optimize empathy in patient–clinician interactions must take into account the welfare of both members of this dyad.

Educational Research Report: Changes in Students' Levels of Empathy during the Didactic Portion of a Veterinary Program.

Empathy can be defined as the ability to understand and connect with the emotional state and frame of mind of another. Establishing connections with others is a crucial skill for veterinarians who must earn the trust and compliance of their clients to provide quality care for their patients. This is a longitudinal study using the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) to assess changes in veterinary students' self-reported empathy as they progressed through the didactic portion of the DVM program at Colorado State University. The IRI consists of four subscales that measure cognitive and affective components of empathy: Perspective Taking, Fantasy, Emphatic Concern, and Personal Distress. Data were collected at three time points, corresponding to the start of the first year, the fourth semester (second year), and the fifth semester (third year). Results showed an overall decline in Perspective Taking scores, with a significant decrease between first and second year. There was an overall increase in students' levels of Personal Distress as they progressed through the program. The significant difference was found between years 1 and 3. This is especially concerning because the enhanced unease in interpersonal interactions coincides with students entering clinical rotations in the third year-the very time when these traits are necessary for quality client and patient care. Veterinary educators are urged to use this information as a basis for investigating novel curricular and programmatic interventions to counteract these changes in student empathy.

Individual differences in local gray matter density are associated with differences in affective and cognitive empathy

The understanding of empathy from a neuroscientific perspective has recently developed quickly, with numerous functional MRI studies associating different brain regions with different components of empathy. A recent meta-analysis across 40 fMRI studies revealed that affective empathy is most often associated with increased activity in the insula, whereas cognitive empathy is most often associated with activity in the midcingulate cortex and adjacent dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (MCC/dmPFC). To date, however, it remains unclear whether individual differences in brain morphometry in these regions underlie different dispositions in affective and cognitive empathy. In order to test this hypothesis, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to examine the extent to which gray matter density predicts scores from an established empathy measure (Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy; QCAE). One hundred and seventy-six participants completed the QCAE and underwent MRI in order to acquire a high-resolution, three-dimensional T1-weighted structural scans. A factor analysis of the questionnaire scores revealed two distinct factors of empathy, affective and cognitive, which confirmed the validity of the QCAE. VBM results revealed gray matter density differences associated with the distinct components of empathy. Higher scores on affective empathy were associated with greater gray matter density in the insula cortex and higher scores of cognitive empathy were associated with greater gray matter density in the MCC/dmPFC. Taken together, these results provide validation for empathy being a multi-component construct, suggesting that affective and cognitive empathy are differentially represented in brain morphometry as well as providing convergent evidence for empathy being represented by different neural and structural correlates.

Aggressive and Prosocial? Examining Latent Profiles of Behavior, Social Status, Machiavellianism, and Empathy

The present study tests whether aggression and prosocial behavior can coexist as part of a socially functional and adaptive profile among early adolescents. Using a person-centered approach, the study examined early adolescents' likelihood of being classified into profiles involving aggressive and prosocial behavior, social status (popular, liked, cool), machiavellianism, and both affective and cognitive components of empathy (empathic concern and perspective taking, respectively). Participants were 1170 early adolescents (10-12 years of age; 52% male) from four schools in metropolitan Santiago, Chile. Through latent profile analysis, three profiles emerged (normative-low aggressive, high prosocial-low aggressive, and high aggressive-high popular status). Both empathic concern and perspective taking were higher in the high prosocial-low aggressive profile, whereas the high aggressive-high popular status profile had the lowest scores on both empathy components as well as machiavellianism. No profile emerged where aggressive and prosocial behaviors were found to co-exist, or to be significantly above the mean. The results underscore that aggressive behavior is highly contextual and likely culturally specific, and that the study of behavioral profiles should consider social status as well as socio-emotional adjustment indicators. These complex associations should be taken into consideration when planning prevention and intervention efforts to reduce aggression or school bullying and to promote positive peer relationships.

Specific electrophysiological components disentangle affective sharing and empathic concern in psychopathy.

Empathic impairment is one of the hallmarks of psychopathy, a personality dimension associated with poverty in affective reactions, lack of attachment to others, and a callous disregard for the feelings, rights, and welfare of others. Neuroscience research on the relation between empathy and psychopathy has predominately focused on the affective sharing and cognitive components of empathy in forensic populations, and much less on empathic concern. The current study used high-density electroencephalography in a community sample to examine the spatiotemporal neurodynamic responses when viewing people in physical distress under two subjective contexts: one evoking affective sharing, the other, empathic concern. Results indicate that early automatic (175-275 ms) and later controlled responses (LPP 400-1,000 ms) were differentially modulated by engagement in affective sharing or empathic concern. Importantly, the late event-related potentials (ERP) component was significantly impacted by dispositional empathy and psychopathy, but the early component was not. Individual differences in dispositional empathic concern directly predicted gamma coherence (25-40 Hz), whereas psychopathy was inversely modulatory. Interestingly, significant suppression in the mu/alpha band (8-13 Hz) when perceiving others in distress was positively associated with higher trait psychopathy, which argues against the assumption that sensorimotor resonance underpins empathy. Greater scores on trait psychopathy were inversely related to subjective ratings of both empathic concern and affective sharing. Overall, the study demonstrates that neural markers of affective sharing and empathic concern to the same cues of another's distress can be distinguished at an electrophysiological level, and that psychopathy alters later time-locked differentiations and spectral coherence associated with empathic concern.

The Role of Empathy in Burnout, Compassion Satisfaction, and Secondary Traumatic Stress among Social Workers.

Social workers are at risk for experiencing burnout and secondary traumatic stress (STS) as a result of the nature of their work and the contexts within which they work. Little attention has been paid to the factors within a social worker's control that may prevent burnout and STS and increase compassion satisfaction. Empathy, which is a combination of physiological and cognitive processes, may be a tool to help address burnout and STS. This article reports on the findings of a study of social workers (N = 173) that explored the relationship between the components of empathy, burnout, STS, and compassion satisfaction using the Empathy Assessment Index and the Professional Quality of Life instruments. It was hypothesized that higher levels of empathy would be associated with lower levels of burnout and STS, and higher levels of compassion satisfaction. Findings suggest that components of empathy may prevent or reduce burnout and STS while increasing compassion satisfaction, and that empathy should be incorporated into training and education throughout the course of a social worker's career.

Heartfelt empathy? No association between interoceptive awareness, questionnaire measures of empathy, reading the mind in the eyes task or the director task.

Interoception, defined as afferent information arising from within the body, is the basis of all emotional experience and underpins the ‘self.’ However, people vary in the extent to which interoceptive signals reach awareness. This trait modulates both their experience of emotion and their ability to distinguish ‘self’ from ‘other’ in multisensory contexts. The experience of emotion and the degree of self/other distinction or overlap are similarly fundamental to empathy, which is an umbrella term comprising affect sharing, empathic concern and perspective-taking (PT). A link has therefore often been assumed between interoceptive awareness (IA) and empathy despite a lack of clear evidence. To test the hypothesis that individual differences in both traits should correlate, we measured IA in four experiments, using a well-validated heartbeat perception task, and compared this with scores on several tests that relate to various aspects of empathy. We firstly measured scores on the Index of Interpersonal Reactivity and secondly on the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy. Thirdly, because the ‘simulationist’ account assumes that affect sharing is involved in recognizing emotion, we employed the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task’ for the recognition of facial expressions. Contrary to expectation, we found no significant relationships between IA and any aspect of these measures. This striking lack of direct links has important consequences for hypotheses about the extent to which empathy is necessarily embodied. Finally, to assess cognitive PT ability, which specifically requires self/other distinction, we used the ‘Director Task’ but found no relationship. We conclude that the abilities that make up empathy are potentially related to IA in a variety of conflicting ways, such that a direct association between IA and various components of empathy has yet to be established.

Structure and correlates of self-reported empathy in schizophrenia

Research on empathy in schizophrenia has relied on dated self-report scales that do not conform to contemporary social neuroscience models of empathy. The current study evaluated the structure and correlates of the recently-developed Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) in schizophrenia. This measure, whose structure and validity was established in healthy individuals, includes separate scales to assess the two main components of empathy: Cognitive Empathy (assessed by two subscales) and Affective Empathy (assessed by three subscales). Stable outpatients with schizophrenia (n = 145) and healthy individuals (n = 45) completed the QCAE, alternative measures of empathy, and assessments of clinical symptoms, neurocognition, and functional outcome. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses provided consistent support for a two-factor solution in the schizophrenia group, justifying the use of separate cognitive and affective empathy scales in this population. However, one of the three Affective Empathy subscales was not psychometrically sound and was excluded from further analyses. Patients reported significantly lower Cognitive Empathy but higher Affective Empathy than controls. Among patients, the QCAE scales showed significant correlations with an alternative self-report empathy scale, but not with performance on an empathic accuracy task. The QCAE Cognitive Empathy subscales also showed significant, though modest, correlations with negative symptoms and functional outcome. These findings indicate that structure of self-reported empathy is similar in people with schizophrenia and healthy subjects, and can be meaningfully compared between groups. They also contribute to emerging evidence that some aspects of empathy may be intact or hyper-responsive in schizophrenia.

Visuospatial transformations and personality: evidence of a relationship between visuospatial perspective taking and self-reported emotional empathy.

In the visuospatial domain, perspective taking is the ability to imagine how a visual scene appears from an external observer's viewpoint, and can be studied by asking subjects to encode object locations in a visual scene where another individual is present and then detecting their displacement when seeing the scene from the other's viewpoint. In the current study, we explored the relationship between visuospatial perspective taking and self-report measures of the cognitive and emotional components of empathy in young adults. To this aim, we employed a priming paradigm, in which the presence of an avatar allowed to anticipate the next perceived perspective on the visual scene. We found that the emotional dimension of empathy was positively correlated with the behavioral advantage provided by the presence of the avatar, relative to unprimed perspective changes. These data suggest a link between the tendency to vicariously experience the others' emotions and the ability to perform self-other spatial transformations.

Empathy and motivation for justice: Cognitive empathy and concern, but not emotional empathy, predict sensitivity to injustice for others

Why do people tend to care for upholding principles of justice? This study examined the association between individual differences in the affective, motivational and cognitive components of empathy, sensitivity to justice, and psychopathy in participants (N 265) who were also asked to rate the permissibility of everyday moral situations that pit personal benefit against moral standards of justice. Counter to common sense, emotional empathy was not associated with sensitivity to injustice for others. Rather, individual differences in cognitive empathy and empathic concern predicted sensitivity to justice for others, as well as the endorsement of moral rules. Psychopathy coldheartedness scores were inversely associated with motivation for justice. Moreover, hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis revealed that self-focused and other-focused orientations toward justice had opposing influences on the permissibility of moral judgments. High scores on psychopathy were associated with less moral condemnation of immoral behavior. Together, these results contribute to a better understanding of the information processing mechanisms underlying justice motivation, and may guide interventions designed to foster justice and moral behavior. In order to promote justice motivation, it may be more effective to encourage perspective taking and reasoning than emphasizing emotional sharing with the misfortune of others.

Affective and physiological responses to the suffering of others: compassion and vagal activity.

Compassion is an affective response to another's suffering and a catalyst of prosocial behavior. In the present studies, we explore the peripheral physiological changes associated with the experience of compassion. Guided by long-standing theoretical claims, we propose that compassion is associated with activation in the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system through the vagus nerve. Across 4 studies, participants witnessed others suffer while we recorded physiological measures, including heart rate, respiration, skin conductance, and a measure of vagal activity called respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Participants exhibited greater RSA during the compassion induction compared with a neutral control (Study 1), another positive emotion (Study 2), and a prosocial emotion lacking appraisals of another person's suffering (Study 3). Greater RSA during the experience of compassion compared with the neutral or control emotion was often accompanied by lower heart rate and respiration but no difference in skin conductance. In Study 4, increases in RSA during compassion positively predicted an established composite of compassion-related words, continuous self-reports of compassion, and nonverbal displays of compassion. Compassion, a core affective component of empathy and prosociality, is associated with heightened parasympathetic activity.

The influence of trait-emotional intelligence on authentic leadership

Orientation: Authentic leadership is a relatively new construct that has recently gained increasing attention resulting from challenges faced by organisations relating to ethical meltdowns, corruption and fraud.Research purpose: This study seeks to explore the relationship between components of emotional intelligence and authentic leadership.Motivation for the study: Several authors called for more empirical investigations into the antecedents of authentic leadership. Despite the important role that emotions play in leadership, empirical studies were lacking about the influence of different components of emotional intelligence to authentic leadership.Research design, approach and method: Data were collected, using questionnaires obtained from 341 full-time employed applicants to MBA and leadership programmes in a South African Business School. Relationships between variables were analysed, using Pearson product-moment correlations and stepwise multiple regression.Main findings: The results indicated that emotional intelligence has positive statistically significant associations with authentic leadership. Specifically, those who scored high on all the emotional intelligence components also scored high on authentic leadership. In addition, the emotional intelligence component of empathy was a statistically significant predictor of authentic leadership.Practical/managerial implications: Initial findings suggest the potential value of recognising and developing the emotional intelligence of leaders to enable them to lead their organisations authentically to desired, successful outcomes. As empathy has been shown to be the most important emotional intelligence predictor of authentic leadership, leaders need to understand when subordinates perceive a leader as displaying empathic emotion.Contribution: This study contributes to the literature and empirical research on the antecedents of authentic leadership.

A brief self-rating scale for the assessment of individual differences in gesture perception and production

Gesture production and perception have a strong impact on speech perception and social-communicative functioning. Consequently, we created the ‘Brief Assessment of Gesture’ (BAG) tool, a set of 12 subjective statements relating to gesture production and perception in everyday life. German native speakers (n=220) were asked to rate each statement. Individual differences in empathy were assessed to disentangle sensitivity to gesture production and perception from general empathic/social functioning. A PCA revealed a four-factor solution, reflecting one production and one perception factor, each occurring with and without an empathy component. The current investigation yielded good psychometric results, with a high reliability and internal consistency. Our findings suggest that BAG is a straightforward and useful tool to assess individual differences in gesture production and comprehension, as well as related empathic/social functioning. As such, BAG may serve as an important instrument for research in speech comprehension, cognitive development, language learning and social-communicative functioning.

Russian

This article deals with questions of indicators of empathy display among future physiotherapists. Two methods were used to carry out the survey: V. Boiko empathy abilities questionnaire has been used to identify empathy components‟ levels and I. Jusupov‟s questionnaire of empathy level diagnostics has been used to identify empathy general level. The random sample size consists of 203 future physiotherapists. Participants comprised 119 students of 1st year and 84 students of 4th year full-time physiotherapy studies of Lithuanian Sports University. It was determined that, in comparison with 1st year students of physiotherapy studies, general empathy level of 4th year students is higher. 1st and 4th year students of physiotherapy studies statistically significant differ according to these empathy components: cognitive empathy, affective empathy, attitudes towards empathy and empathic identification. Levels of these indicators of 4th year students are higher than those of 1st year students.