Empathic Abilities Research Articles

The Interaction Between Mentalizing, Empathy and Symptoms in People with Eating Disorders: A Network Analysis Integrating Experimentally Induced and Self-report Measures

BackgroundThe role of mentalizing and empathy in the socio-emotional processing deficits of Eating Disorder (ED) patients has been under investigated. We aimed to assess these psychological processes and their interplay with ED symptoms by means of the network analysis approach.MethodsSeventy-seven women with EDs completed self-report questionnaires assessing ED, anxious and depressive symptoms, and underwent two computerized tasks; the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC), assessing emotional and non-emotional mental state inferences, and the Empathic Accuracy Task-Revised (EAT-R), measuring accuracy in identifying others’ emotions and the extent to which those emotions are shared. A partial correlation network and bridge function analyses were computed.ResultsIn the partial correlation network inference of cognitive mental states and shape concern were the nodes with the highest strength centrality. Inference of emotional mental states was the node with the highest bridge strength in the cluster of social cognition functions. Empathic and mentalizing abilities were directly connected with each other and with ED symptoms.ConclusionsThis is the first network analysis study which integrates self-reported symptoms and objective socio-cognitive performance in people with EDs. Results highlight the importance of mentalizing abilities in that they contribute to maintenance of ED psychopathology and to empathic ability.

A Study on Relationship between Undergraduates' Personality Characteristics, Emotional Intelligence, and Empathic Ability : Moderating Effect of Experience in Taking Counseling Course

A Study on Relationship between Undergraduates' Personality Characteristics, Emotional Intelligence, and Empathic Ability : Moderating Effect of Experience in Taking Counseling Course

Covid-19 Outbreak In Italy: Are We Ready for the Psychosocial and the Economic Crisis? Baseline Findings From the PsyCovid Study.

The Covid-19 pandemic is burning all over the world. National healthcare systems are facing the contagion with incredible strength, but concern regarding the psychosocial and economic effects is growing quickly. The PsyCovid Study assessed the influence of psychosocial variables on individual differences from the perceived impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the issues of health and economy in the Italian population. Italian volunteers from different regions completed an online anonymous survey. The main outcomes were the perceived impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on health and the economy. A two-way MANOVA evaluated differences in the main outcomes, with geographical area (northern, central, and southern regions) and professional status (healthcare workers or not) as factors. We then tested the relationship linking psychosocial variables (i.e. perceived distress and social isolation, empathy, and coping style) to the main outcomes through two different mediation models. 1163 responders completed the survey (835 females; mean age: 42 ± 13.5 y.o.; age range: 18-81 y.o.) between March 14 and 21, 2020. Healthcare workers and people living in northern Italy reported a significantly worse outbreak impact on health, but not on the economy. In the whole sample, distress and loneliness were key variables influencing the perceived impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on health, while empathy and coping style affected the perceived impact on the economy. The Covid-19 pandemic is a worldwide emergency in terms of psychological, social, and economic consequences. Our data suggests that in the Italian population, actual differences in individual perception of the Covid-19 outbreak severity for health are dramatically modulated by psychosocial frailty (i.e., distress and loneliness). At the same time, problem-oriented coping strategies and enhanced empathic abilities increase people's awareness of the severity of the impact of the Covid-19 emergency on economics. There is an immediate need for consensus guidelines and healthcare policies to support interventions aimed to manage psychosocial distress and increase population resilience towards the imminent crisis.

Brain imaging evidence for why we are numbed by numbers

We as humans do not value lives consistently. While we are willing to act for one victim, we often become numb as the number of victims increases. The empathic ability to adopt others’ perspectives is essential for motivating help. However, the perspective-taking ability in our brains seems limited. Using functional MRI, we demonstrated that the core empathy network including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was more engaged for events happening to a single person than those happening to many people, no matter whether the events were emotionally neutral or negative. In particular, the perspective-taking-related mPFC showed greater and more extended activations for events about one person than those about many people. The mPFC may be the neural marker of why we feel indifferent to the suffering of large numbers of people in humanitarian disasters.

Empathic Accuracy in Clinical Populations.

Empathy, broadly defined as the ability to understand the other and to share others’ emotions, motivates prosocial behavior and underlies successful interpersonal relations. Dysfunctions in this ability may cause fundamental difficulties in social communication. Empathy has been measured in various ways, from self-report questionnaires to laboratory objective performance tests. Empathic accuracy (EA), i.e., the ability to accurately empathize, is measured using more complex and ecological paradigms, such as asking participants to infer filmed interactions, or having people narrate personal emotional stories then assessing the correspondence between the perceiver and the target of empathy as the criteria for empathic ability. This measure is particularly useful in the study of clinical populations, where deconstructing the multifaceted concept of empathy may contribute to a more complete understanding of specific clinical profiles. This paper presents a scoping review of the literature on EA in clinical populations, and on EA and clinical traits and states in nonclinical or high-risk populations. Following an exhaustive literature search, 34 studies were found eligible to be included in this review. The largest category was studies focused on EA in people with schizophrenia (31%; 11 papers), followed by studies focused on EA in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and autistic traits in a nonclinical population (22%; 8 papers). Studies were also found on EA and depression tendencies, psychopathy, social anxiety, behavior disorders, and personality disorders, and a few other clinical conditions. The included studies varied on research aims, designs, sample sizes, and male:female ratios. The overall synthesized results suggest that EA is reduced in schizophrenia and ASD. In other clinical populations, the number of studies was very limited. We urge researchers to further examine EA in these less-studied populations. The review reveals a general underrepresentation of female participants in studies on EA in clinical populations. We suggest that future research address understudied clinical populations, such as those diagnosed with psychopathy. Subject, target, and situational variables should also be considered, with special attention to gender differences (and similarities), the association between EA abilities and adaptive functioning, and the study of individuals with clinical conditions as targets, not just observers, in EA tasks.

Exploring the Korean adolescent empathy using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)

The educational approach of empathy has been prominently mentioned as a possible solution to the dehumanization occurring as a byproduct of the rapid development of science and technology in modern society. This study aims to identify the characteristics of Korean adolescents on the empathy factor, as a core competency of twenty-first century education, and the applicability of the empathy scale. This study analyzed 688 Korean adolescents’ cognitive and affective empathy using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Korean adolescents showed an increase in all four factors of IRI as they got older. According to gender, females’ empathy was higher in all four factors. In terms of the validity of the scale, the difference in subscales by gender was obvious. But, the instability in subscales by age of the Perfective Taking (PT) and Personal Distress (PD) was shown. Especially, PD had an insignificant correlation with other subscales. By revealing the limitations of the IRI, this study suggested ways to improve it. Therefore, this study will contribute to the educational foundation of Korean adolescents’ empathic ability.

Empathy and Theory of Mind in Alzheimer's Disease: A Meta-analysis.

A large literature now shows that Alzheimer's disease (AD) disrupts a number of social cognitive abilities, including social perceptual function and theory of mind (ToM). However, less well understood is how the specific subcomponents of ToM as well as both the broader and specific subcomponents of empathic processing are affected. The current study provides the first meta-analytic review of AD that focuses on both empathy and ToM as broad constructs, as well as their overlapping (cognitive empathy and affective ToM) and distinct (affective empathy and cognitive ToM) subcomponents. Aggregated across 31 studies, the results revealed that, relative to controls, AD is associated with large-sized deficits in both cognitive ToM (g = 1.09) and affective ToM/cognitive empathy (g = 0.76). However, no statistical differences were found between the AD participants and controls on affective empathic abilities (g = 0.36). These data point to a potentially important disconnect between core aspects of social cognitive processing in people with AD. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Social approach and place aversion in relation to conspecific pain in dairy calves.

Despite scientific interest in animal empathy, and growing public concern for farm animal welfare, the empathic abilities of farm animals remain under researched. In this study, we investigated empathic responses of young Holstein dairy calves to conspecifics recovering from hot-iron disbudding, a painful procedure common on dairy farms. A combination of social approach and place conditioning was used. First, ‘observer’ calves witnessed two ‘demonstrator’ calves recover from either a painful procedure (hot-iron disbudding and sedation) or a sham procedure (sedation alone) in distinct pens. Observer calves spent more time in proximity and paid more attention to calves recovering from the painful procedure compared to sham calves (proximity: 59.6 ± 4.3%; attention: 54.3 ± 1.5%). Observers were then tested for conditioned place aversion (in the absence of demonstrators) at 48h, 72h and 96h after the second demonstration; observers tended to avoid the pen associated with conspecific pain during the second of the three tests, spending 34.8 ± 9.6% of their time in this pen. No strong evidence of pain empathy was found, but our tentative results encourage further research on empathy in animals.

Empathy, mentalizing, and cognitive functioning in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa

ABSTRACT The existing evidence on the specific profile and the determinants of empathic and mentalizing abilities in anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) is not conclusive. Moreover, it is not clear whether patients with eating disorders also exhibit diminished ability to accurately appraise their own empathic skills. We examine in AN and BN: (a) the impairments in various aspects of empathy and theory of mind (ToM), while accounting for the effect of other cognitive functions and (b) the accuracy of self-appraisal of empathy. Self-reported and performance-based empathy, ToM, and cognitive functions were assessed in 46 patients with AN, 30 patients with BN, and 42 healthy controls (HC). Both AN and BN patients reported diminished overall empathic abilities, whereas only BN patients reported reduced cognitive empathy compared to HC. Deficits in performance-based empathy were found in both patient groups. Cognitive ToM was impaired only in AN. Significant correlations between self-reported and performance-based empathy were found in BN and HC but not in AN. Cognitive deficits negatively affected the self-appraisal of empathy in AN but not empathic skills per se. Our findings highlight a double deficit related to empathic responding in AN: diminished performance and inaccurate self-appraisal of empathic abilities, indicating dysfunctional self-reflection.

KUZU POSTU GİYMİŞ KURTLAR: ÖRGÜTLERDE KARANLIK ÜÇLÜ KİŞİLİK ÖZELLİKLERİNİ TESPİT ETME VE NEDEN OLDUKLARI SORUNLARIN ÜSTESİNDEN GELME

The dark personality characteristics mainly refer to socially aversive behaviors and associated with various kinds of interpersonal difficulties, problems and cover potentially destructive behaviors such as aggression, deception, manipulation and exploitation. The Dark Triad of personality is the group of personality traits which includes Narcissism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy. The maladaptive features of the Dark Triad often deteriorate the work flow and relationships among employees at work. The Dark Triad traits are related with behaviors and features that lead to impaired social relationship functioning including aggressive tendencies, limited empathic abilities, hostility, and deception at workplaces. The Dark Triad traits: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy are the prominent socially destructive personality traits that simply poison the organizations because these traits might cause serious counterproductive behaviors that may lead to huge hidden costs (e.g., employee burnout, higher employee turnover) for the organizations. In this conceptual study, the Dark Triad of Personality, Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy will be outlined and the behaviors of the employees that show the Dark Triad traits will be focused on thoroughly. In the conclusion section, the recommendations will be made and solutions will be offered in order to reduce and overcome their devastating effects at workplaces.

The Empathic Brain of Psychopaths: From Social Science to Neuroscience in Empathy.

Empathy is a crucial human ability, because of its importance to prosocial behavior, and for moral development. A deficit in empathic abilities, especially affective empathy, is thought to play an important role in psychopathic personality. Empathic abilities have traditionally been studied within the social and behavioral sciences using behavioral methods, but recent work in neuroscience has begun to elucidate the neural underpinnings of empathic processing in relation to psychopathy. In this review, current knowledge in the social neuroscience of empathy is discussed and a comprehensive view of the neuronal mechanisms that underlie empathy in psychopathic personality is provided. Furthermore, it will be argued that using classification based on overt behavior, we risk failing to identify important mechanisms involved in the psychopathology of psychopathy. In the last decade, there is a growing attention in combining knowledge from (neuro)biological research areas with psychology and psychiatry, to form a new basis for categorizing individuals. Recently, a converging framework has been put forward that applies such approach to antisocial individuals, including psychopathy. In this bio-cognitive approach, it is suggested to use information from different levels, to form latent categories on which individuals are grouped, that may better reflect underlying (neurobiological) dysfunctions. Subsequently, these newly defined latent categories may be more effective in guiding interventions and treatment. In conclusion, in my view, the future understanding of the social brain of psychopaths lies in studying the complex networks in the brain in combination with the use of other levels of information (e.g., genetics and cognition). Based on that, profiles of individuals can be formed that can be used to guide neurophysiological informed personalized treatment interventions that ultimately reduce violent transgressions in individuals with psychopathic traits.

Psycholinguistic Peculiarities of the Development of Communicative Competence of Teachers of Secondary Schools

The purpose of the article is to analyze psycholinguistic peculiarities of the development of communicative competence in the structure of social intelligence of teachers and directors of secondary schools in contemporary Ukrainian society.
 Methods of the Research. The following theoretical methods of the research were used to solve the tasks formulated in the article: a categorical method, structural and functional methods, the methods of the analysis, systematization, modeling, generalization. Also we used empirical methods – the methods of observation, conversation, testing with the aim to study the structure of communicative competence and social intelligence of teachers; psychological and pedagogical experiment in a form of the research of the development of the structure of communicative competence and social intelligence of teachers.
 The results of the Research. In the content of communicative competence of teachers we can emphasize the ability to optimize interpersonal relationships in the group; social sensitivity; a set of communicative skills, behavior patterns and communication techniques; a communicative potential; the interpretative competence. Teachers with a low level of communication competence have characterized by communicative failures caused by a violation of their orientation onto the process of communication: non-motivated change of speech strategies, mental orientations and the register of speech; failure by the speaker communicate postulates; neglecting by the speaker the linguistic means, which involve the maxim of the tact; unsuccessful choice by the speaker the tone and the register of communication. Scripts of role deixis, explicit and implicit pragmatic constituents in the structure of teacher’s communicative competence were formulated, their content was revealed.
 Conclusions. Psycholinguistic peculiarities of the development of communicative competence of the teachers and the directors of schools were established: the composite assessment of the teacher’s communicative competence positively correlates with social intelligence, reflexive and empathic personal abilities; communicative competence of the teacher depends on the actualization of scripts of role deixis, explicit and implicit pragmatic constituents in its structure, etc.

An Effect of Communication Training Program on Communication Skills and Empathic Ability..

Background/Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate how the communication training program effects on communication skills and empathy ability in dental hygiene students.Method/Statistical Analysis: 21 students who wanted to participate in the communication program and 23 students who did not want to participate in the program were set as the control group. After implementing the communication program, we evaluated the improvement of communication skills and empathy before and after the program. The communication program consisted of 4 sessions (2-3 hours per session)Findings: Unlike the control group, the experimental group showed statistically significant effect of the program in both communication ability and empathy ability. Dental hygiene students have a good understanding other’s perspectives, while their ability to overcome stereotypical thinking and creative communication is low.Improvements/Applications: Communication program is effective in improving communication ability and empathy ability, so more detailed and specialized programs should be developed to cultivate communication skill and empathy ability.

Correlation between the level empathy and the level of personal reflection

This article presents the results of research on the establishment of correlation between empathy and various types of reflection. The author believes that examination of such correlation would allow to better understand the phenomena of empathy and reflection, as well as the possibilities for their development. For verification of the hypothesis on correlation between the discussed phenomena, was conducted an empirical study with application psychodiagnostic techniques aimed at determination of the overall level of development of empathic abilities and the overall level of development of reflexivity, as well as at detection of the type of reflection. Processing of the acquired data was carried out using the statistical package SPSS Statistics 23.0. As a result, the author established correlations (on the high and moderate level of significativity) between the level of empathy and the level of reflexivity, systematic reflection, and the level of development of quasi-reflection; thus, it was established that the phenomena under review have direct correlation. This testifies to the fact that both, empathy and reflection, are attributed to the psychological mechanisms of perception and understanding of oneself and others. The results clarify the relevant scientific representations on the peculiarities of person’s empathy and reflection along with the factors promoting their development, and can be taken into account in arranging effective exercised and recommendations for the development of these phenomena. This may broaden the perception of other people and contribute to better self-understanding, as well as improve the quality of interaction with each other and oneself.

대학생이 지각한 정서문제, 침습적 반추, 공감능력, 자살위험성 간 구조분석

대학생이 지각한 정서문제, 침습적 반추, 공감능력, 자살위험성 간 구조분석

An Analysis of Structural Relationships among Personality, Feeling of Happiness, and Empathic Ability of Early Childhood Teachers, and Interactions between Teachers and Toddlers

An Analysis of Structural Relationships among Personality, Feeling of Happiness, and Empathic Ability of Early Childhood Teachers, and Interactions between Teachers and Toddlers

Association of theory of mind and empathy abilities in adolescents with social anxiety disorder

Studies have shown that elevated empathic abilities and impaired theory of mind (ToM) tasks may be associated with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Adolescence is a critical period for the onset of SAD which may cause impairment in various domains of functioning. We aimed to investigate the association of ToM and empathy characteristics in adolescents diagnosed as having SAD. Forty-one drug-naive adolescents (between 12 and 18 years), who were diagnosed as having SAD without comorbidities were enrolled in the patient group. Forty adolescents in the same age range without any psychiatric disorders were matched as the healthy control group. The sample was evaluated via the Kiddie and Young Adult Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia Present and Lifetime Version. The severity of the SAD symptoms was evaluated using the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents. ToM was evaluated with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test and emotion recognition was assessed by Faces Test. The KA-SI Empathic Tendency Scale was used to assess empathic abilities. The average age was 14.36 ± 1.41 years in the SAD group and 14.30 ± 1.04 years in the control group. Twenty-eight adolescents were female in the SAD and control groups. SAD and healthy controls did not differ in terms of sociodemographic data. There were higher scores in the KA-SI cognitive and affective empathic subscales (p < .001 in all scales) in the SAD group compared with the healthy controls. Adolescents with SAD have more difficulties both in Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test and Faces Test. The results of this study may indicate that although adolescents with SAD may be impaired in decoding aspects of ToM they may evaluate themselves as more empathic in self-report tests. The discrepancy between objective tests of ToM decoding and subjective reports of empathy may play an important role in the etiology and treatment of SAD in adolescents.

Neural Correlates of Empathy in Boys With Early Onset Conduct Disorder.

Background: A deficit in empathy has repeatedly been described in individuals with conduct disorder (CD), and in particular in those with callous unemotional traits. Until now, little is known about the neural basis of empathy in children and adolescents with early onset conduct disorder. The aim of this study was to examine neural responses during empathizing in children and adolescents with CD with a task that allowed to differentiate between the judgment of the emotional states of other people and the own emotional response to other people's emotional state. Moreover, we investigated associations of callous-unemotional traits and neural activations during empathizing.Methods: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we investigated 14 boys with early onset CD and 15 typically developing (TDC) age matched controls between 8 and 16 years of age. Happy and sad faces were presented, and participants were asked to either infer the emotional state from the face (other-task) or to judge their own emotional response (self-task). A perceptual decision on faces was used as a control task. Individual empathic abilities and callous unemotional traits were assessed.Results: During the other task, TDC boys showed significantly larger right amygdala responses than CD boys. Higher empathic abilities (as assessed with the Bryant Index of Empathy) were associated with higher responses in the right amygdala within the CD boys and across the entire sample. Moreover, across the entire sample, callous-unemotional traits were negatively related to the BOLD-response in the right amygdala. CD boys showed larger responses in the dorsal and ventral medial prefrontal cortex across tasks and increased activation in dorsal medial prefrontal cortex specifically during the self-conditions, which were also related to empathic abilities within the CD boys.Conclusions: The data emphasize the important role of the amygdala in empathy related emotional processing. Diminished amygdala responses and their association with low empathy suggest a pivotal influence of impaired amygdala processing in early-onset CD, in particular for deficits in empathic behavior and related callous-unemotional-traits. Elevated response in the medial prefrontal cortex in boys with CD point toward increased involvement of brain areas related to self-referential processing and cognitive empathy during empathizing.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as an intervention to improve empathic abilities and reduce violent behavior in forensic offenders: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundRecent studies show that changes in one of the brain areas related to empathic abilities (i.e. the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)) plays an important role in violent behavior in abusers of alcohol and cocaine. According to the models of James Blair, empathy is a potential inhibitor of violent behavior. Individuals with less empathic abilities may be less susceptible and motivated to inhibit violent behavior, which causes a higher risk of violence. Recent neuroscientific research shows that modulating (stimulation or inhibition) certain brain areas could be a promising new intervention for substance abuse and to reduce violent behavior, such as the neurostimulation technique transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). This study aims to investigate tDCS as an intervention to increase empathic abilities and reduce violent behavior in forensic substance use offenders.Methods/designA total sample of 50 male forensic substance abuse patients (25 active and 25 sham stimulation) will be tested in a double-blind placebo-controlled study, from which half of the patients will receive an active stimulation plus treatment as usual (TAU) and the other half will receive sham stimulation (placebo) plus TAU. The patients in the active condition will receive multichannel tDCS targeting the bilateral vmPFC two times a day for 20 min for five consecutive days. Before and after the stimulation period, the patients will complete self-report measurements, perform the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP) and a passive viewing empathy task. Resting state electroencephalography (rsEEG) will be performed before and after the treatment period. A follow up will be conducted after 6 months. The primary outcome is to investigate multichannel tDCS as a new intervention to increase empathic abilities and reduce violent behavior in offenders with substance abuse problems. In addition, we will determine whether electrophysiological responses in the brain are affected by the tDCS intervention. Finally, the effects of tDCS on reducing craving will be investigated.DiscussionThis study is one of the first studies using multichannel tDCS targeting the vmPFC in a forensic sample. This study will explore the opportunities to introduce a new intervention to improve empathic abilities and reduce violence in forensic substance use offenders. Specifically, this study may give insight into how to implement the tDCS intervention in the setting of daily clinical practice in this complex, multiple-problem target group and with that contribute to reduction of recidivism.Trial registrationDutch Trial Register, NTR7701. Registered on 12 January 2019. Prospectively registered before the recruitment phase. https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/7459.Recruitment started on the 1st of February 2019 and will be finished approximately in the winter of 2019. Protocol version 1. 22 May 2019.

Influence of Empathic Ability and Self-Efficacy on Problem Solving Ability in Nursing Students

Influence of Empathic Ability and Self-Efficacy on Problem Solving Ability in Nursing Students