Empathic Focus Research Articles

The impact of activating an empathic focus during COVID19 on healthcare workers motivation for hand hygiene compliance in moments serving the protection of others: a randomized controlled trial study

AimThe “Five moments of hand hygiene” (World Health Organization 2009) can be classified into moments of hand hygiene before and after patient care. Based on research indicating that hand hygiene compliance differs with regard to moments before and after patient care, this research evaluates the effectiveness of an empathy-based intervention in motivating hand hygiene compliance with regard to moments before patient care which protect vulnerable individuals from contamination and infection.Subjects and methodAn online experiment involving 68 healthcare professionals working at a German hospital during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic investigates whether instructing healthcare professionals to consider consequences for others (vs for themselves) if they contracted SARS-CoV-2 promotes hand hygiene compliance referring to moments before (vs after) patient care.ResultsIn the condition in which healthcare professionals considered consequences for others if they contracted SARS-CoV-2 (other-focus condition), ratings of importance increased (M = 3.49, SD = 1.30) compared to the condition in which healthcare professionals considered consequences for themselves (M = 2.68, SD = 1.24), F(1,66) = 6.87, p = .011, partη2 = .09. Participants in the other-focus condition reported more intentions to comply with “before moments” in the future (M = 3.34, SD = 1.14) compared to participants in the self-focus condition (M = 2.77, SD = 0.80), F(1,66) = 6.15, p = .016, partη2 = .09.ConclusionResults indicate that activating an empathic focus in the context of the current pandemic promotes perceived importance and motivation of healthcare professionals to comply with moments aiming at protecting vulnerable others.

Rethinking Educational Assessment from the Perspective of Design Thinking

Because human processes are subtle, complex, and contextualized, computational representations of those processes face highly significant unmet design challenges. Design Thinking (DT) offers a potential new paradigm of creativity and innovation in education capable of effecting meaningful culture change. DT is nonlinear but encompasses elements of empathy, problem definition, ideation, prototyping, and tests that may freely move as needed from and to each other. DT's empathic focus on end users' needs suggests educational measurement's information infrastructures will have to coherently integrate assessment and instruction across multiple levels of complexity in communication. Applying DT reveals the need to attend to previously undeveloped technical issues in communication. Especially important are developmental, horizontal, and vertical forms of coherence, and denotative, metalinguistic, and metacommunicative levels of complexity. New solutions emerge when classrooms are reconceived as meta-design ecosystem niches of creativity and innovation structured from the bottom up by flows of self-organizing information. Recently identified correspondences between educational measurement and metrology support efforts aimed at developing multilevel common languages for the communication of learning outcomes. Prototype reports illustrate how emergent measured constructs can be brought into language in ways that integrate developmental, horizontal, and vertical coherence across levels of complexity. Coherent information infrastructures of these kinds are capable of adapting to new circumstances as populations of persons and items change, doing so without compromising the continuity of comparisons or the uniqueness of locally situated knowledge and practices.

Turning off the empathy switch: Lower empathic concern for the victim leads to utilitarian choices of action

Empathy enables people to vicariously experience the other’s pain. At the same time, the focus of empathy can be narrow and reserved for a limited number of people. In sacrificial dilemmas, non-empathic people are more likely to sacrifice one person for greater good. However, no study has investigated the role of diminished empathic concern for the victim in utilitarian choices of action. In two studies, we investigated how empathy actually experienced in sacrificial dilemmas affects a decision to perform a harmful action onto the victim. In Study 1 (N = 275), participants were asked to rate the extent to which they were feeling two divergent tropes of affective empathy: other-oriented empathy (empathic concern) and self-oriented empathy (personal distress). Results showed that lower levels of other-focused empathy for the victim predicted utilitarian choices of action. In Study 2 (N = 170), participants were asked to rate the extent to which they empathized with the victim and the saved. We also assessed dispositional empathy and psychopathy to test a hypothesis that psychopathy mediates the relationship between lower empathy for the victim and utilitarian choices of action. Results supported this hypothesis, whereas dispositional empathy was not significantly correlated with utilitarian choices of action. Overall, lower empathy experienced in the dilemma situation was associated with utilitarian choices of action, and this was specific to reduced empathic concern for the victim. People choose to pursue the utilitarian end that accompanies harm onto the other as a mean when the victim is out of their empathic focus.

Sustained Empathic Focus and the Creation of a “We Space” Revisited in the Light of Recent Findings in Neurobiology

ABSTRACTThis article is an attempt to expand our understanding of the curative process with an emphasis on the group therapy setting. It presents a self psychological approach that underlines the importance of a “sustained empathic focus” on each patient’s subjective experience and the creation of what we have referred to as shared “vulnerable moments” and a “we-space.” The relationship of our approach to recent findings in the field of neurobiology is then considered.

Intensifying attachment-related sadness and decreasing anger intensity among individuals suffering from unresolved anger: The role of relational reframe followed by empty-chair interventions

This study examined whether two therapy interventions – relational reframe followed by empty chair – were associated with increases in sadness intensity and decreases in anger intensity among a sample of 61 undergraduate students suffering from unresolved anger toward an attachment figure (e.g. parent, sibling, and past-romantic partner). Participants underwent a single analog therapy session comprised of three interventions delivered in sequence: empathic focus on their anger; relational reframe; and empty-chair enactment. Participants retrospectively reported on the intensity of their attachment-related anger and sadness during the session using an interpersonal process recall procedure. Results showed that over the course of the relational reframe and empty-chair intervention sequence, sadness intensity increased and anger intensity decreased. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Impasses, the Use of Self, and Self-Disclosure: A Self Psychological View

Sustained empathic focus is presented in this article as a bridge that provides a mean‑ ingful connection between theory and practice. This concept is utilized within a self psychological–intersubjective context to discuss experiences of impasse, the group leader’s use of self, and self‑disclosure.

Sustained Empathic Focus and its Application in the Treatment of Couples

Although all psychoanalytically informed approaches to couples therapy recognize the importance of underlying dynamics, there are important differences in the focus of the treatment. This paper suggests a focus that is based on a self-psychological/intersubjective viewpoint. Two concepts that exemplify this model, a sustained empathic focus and an appreciation of the experience of vulnerability, are discussed and applied to a couples session. What is emphasized in this material is a process of focusing on underlying vulnerability, affect and subjective experience.

Vulnerability, Process, and Preston's “Edge of Awareness”

In this discussion of Preston's article, “The Edge of Awareness,” I share my reactions and pose some questions. I will not try to answer them. The central theme of the article relates to a sense of process that is often referred to by clinicians, but seldom clearly defined. When we speak about a sense of process, are we talking about pushing the edge of awareness? Can we define this sense more clearly, or is it itself often on the edge of awareness? In essence, is this sense of process an implicit walking of the boundary between knowing and not knowing? The discussion closes with a brief illustration of a “sustained empathic focus.” Even in the abstracted form presented here, I think that it is a good example of one of the many ways that analysts intuitively encourage the exploration of Preston's concept of the “edge of awareness.” En esta discusión sobre “El Límite de la Consciencia” de Preston, voy a compartir mis reacciones al artículo y propondré algunas preguntas. No voy a tratar de responderlas. El tema central del artículo se refiere a la sensación de proceso que a menudo es mencionada por los clínicos, pero que raramente es definida con claridad. Cuando hablamos de sensación de proceso ¿estamos hablando de mover el límite de la conciencia? ¿Podemos definir más claramente esta sensación, o en sí misma está a menudo en el límite de la conciencia? En esencia ¿es esta sensación de proceso un implícito transitar por el borde entre el conocer y el no conocer? La discusión se cierra con una ilustración breve de un “foco empático sostenido.” Incluso en la forma abstracta que aquí se presenta, creo que es un buen ejemplo de las muchas maneras en que los analistas intuitivamente animan la exploración de lo que Preston denomina “el límite de la conciencia.” Cette discussion de l'article de Preston, «The Edge of Awareness» sera l'occasion pour moi de partager mes réactions et de poser certaines questions, sans toutefois tenter d'y répondre. Le thème central de cet article réfère à un sens du processus souvent mentionné par les cliniciens mais rarement clairement défini. Lorsque nous parlons d'un sens du processus, parlons-nous de repousser les limites de la conscience? Pouvons-nous définir ce sens plus clairement, ou se situe-t-il lui-même aux limites de la conscience? Essentiellement, ce sens du processus revient-il à justement se mouvoir implicitement sur la frontière entre savoir et ne pas savoir? La discussion se termine par une brève illustration de «centration empathique soutenue». Même dans la forme abstraite présentée ici, je pense qu'il s'agit d'un bon exemple d'une des nombreuses manières par lesquelles les analystes encouragent intuitivement l'exploration ce que Preston propose conceptuellement comme le «bord de la conscience». Mit dieser Diskussion von Prestons “The Edge of Awareness” (Schwelle des Bewusstseins) will ich dem Leser meine Reaktion mitteilen und einige Fragen stellen. Ich werde jedoch nicht versuchen, sie zu beantworten. Das zentrale Thema dieser Ausarbeitung bezieht sich auf den Sinn eines Prozesses, auf den Kliniker oft hinweisen, der aber selten klar definiert wird. Wenn wir über die Sinnhaftigkeit eines Prozesses sprechen, reden wir dann über das Erweitern der Bewusstseinsschwelle? Vermögen wir diesen Sinn deutlicher zu definieren und dies stellt oft die Schwelle des Bewusstseins dar? Stellt der Sinn eines Prozesses tatsächlich ein implizites Sich-an-der-Grenze-Bewegen zwischen Wissen und Nicht-Wissen dar? Die Diskussion schließt mit einer kurzen Illustration eines “aufrecht gehaltenen empathischen Fokus.” Selbst in der hier zusammengefassten Form denke ich, dass sie ein gutes Beispiel für einen der vielen Wege ist, der Analytikern intuitiv Mut zur Exploration von Prestons Konzept der “Schwelle des Bewusstsein” macht. In questa discussione del lavoro di Preston “Il bordo della consapevolezza”, metterò in comune le mie reazioni e porrò alcune domande. Non cercherò di dare risposte. Il tema centrale dell'articolo tratta a un senso del processo al quale spesso si fa riferimento da parte dei terapeuti, ma che di solito è poco chiaramente definito. Quando parliamo di un senso del processo, stiamo parlando di spingere avanti il bordo della consapevolezza? Possiamo definire meglio questo senso, oppure esso stesso è spesso al bordo della consapevolezza? In sintesi, questo senso del processo è un procedere implicito del confine fra conoscere e non conoscere? La discussione s conclude con una breve illustrazione di un “focus empatico continuativo”. Anche nella forma astratta presentata qui, penso che sia un buon esempio di uno dei modi in cui gli analisti incoraggiano intuitivamente l'esplorazione del concetto di “bordo della consapevolezza” di Preston.

Sustained Empathic Focus, Intersubjectivity, and Intimacy in the Treatment of Couples

Theory should provide a focus for clinical work. A self psychological/intersubjective model provides a particular emphasis that can guide listening and intervention. Sustaining a focus on an individual's subjective/affective experience, and on emerging vulnerability, invites the processing of previously walled-off painful affect. This article underscores how a sustained empathic focus can be instrumental in the development of an increased capacity for affect regulation and the building of psychic structure in the context of couples treatment. This focus, particularly in working with couples, highlights, and often begins to heal, intersubjective differences and ruptures, leading to a deepening of intimacy in both individuals. La teoría tiene que suministrar un foco para el trabajo clínico. El modelo self-psicológico e intersubjetivo suministra un énfasis particular que puede guiar la escucha y las intervenciones. Manteniendo el foco en la experiencia subjetiva/afectiva del individuo, y en la vulnerabilidad que emerge, facilita que se procesen afectos dolorosos que previamente habían sido dejados de lado. Este artículo subraya como el mantenimiento continuado de un foco empático puede ser decisivo en el desarrollo de una capacidad para la regulación de los afectos y la construcción de estructura psíquica en el contexto del tratamiento de parejas. Este foco, particularmente al trabajar con parejas, destaca, y a menudo empieza a curar, diferencias y rupturas intersubjetivas, lo que conduce a profundizar en la intimidad de ambos miembros de la pareja. La théorie devrait définir le centre de l'attention du travail clinique. Un modèle de psychologie du soi/théorie de intersubjectivité fournit une telle centration particulière, qui peut guider l'écoute et l'intervention. Le fait de soutenir une centration sur l'expérience subjective/affective de l'individu, et sur la vulnérabilité émergente, ouvre la porte au traitement de l'affect douloureux préalablement séquestré. Cet article souligne comment une centration empathique soutenue peut être instrumentale dans le développement d'une capacité accrue de régulation affective et de la structuration psychique dans le contexte du traitement des couples. Cette centration, particulièrement dans le travail avec les couples, éclaire, et souvent commence à guérir, les différences et les ruptures intersubjectives, menant à un approfondissement de l'intimité chez chaque individu. La teoria dovrebbe fornire un focus per il lavoro clinico. Un modello orientato dalla psicologia del sé/intersoggettività offre un accento particolare che può guidare l'ascolto e gli interventi. Sostenere l'attenzione sull'esperienza soggettivo/affettiva dell'individuo, e sulla vulnerabilità che emerge, invita all'elaborazione di affetti dolorosi prima inaccessibili. Questo articolo sottolinea come un focus empatico continuativo possa essere utile nello sviluppo di una crescente capacità di regolazione affettiva e nella costruzione di struttura psichica nel contesto della terapia di coppia. Questo focus, specialmente nel lavoro con le coppie, mette in luce, e spesso inizia a curare, le differenze e le rotture intersoggettive, portando a un approfondimento dell'intimità in entrambi gli individui. Eine Theorie sollte eine Ausrichtung für die klinische Arbeit liefern. Ein selbstpsychologisches-intersubjektives Konzept stellt eine besondere Betonung dar, die das Zuhören und die Interventionen leitet. Die Aufrechterhaltung der Aufmerksamkeit auf die subjektiven und affektiven Erfahrungen eines Menschen und auf die auftauchende Vulnerabilität ermöglicht die Bearbeitung von zuvor wie durch eine Mauer abgeschotteten schmerzlichen Affekten. Dieser Aufsatz unterstreicht, wie ein fortwährend empathischer Fokus bei der Entwicklung einer zunehmenden Fähigkeit zur Affektregulation und für den Aufbau psychischer Struktur im Kontext einer Paarbehandlung förderlich sein kann. Dieser Fokus, insbesondere bei der Arbeit mit Paaren, betont—und beginnt damit oft zu heilen—intersubjektive Unterschiede und Beziehungsbrüche und führt dadurch zu einer Vertiefung der Intimität der beiden Beteiligten.

Agreeableness, empathy, and helping: A person × situation perspective.

This research program explored links among prosocial motives, empathy, and helping behavior. Preliminary work found significant relations among components of self-reported empathy and personality (N = 223). In Study 1, the authors examined the generality of prosocial behavior across situations and group memberships of victims (N = 622). In Study 2, empathic focus and the victim's outgroup status were experimentally manipulated (N = 87). Study 3 (N = 245) replicated and extended Study 2 by collecting measures of prosocial emotions before helping. In Study 4 (N = 244), empathic focus and cost of helping as predictors of helping behavior were experimentally manipulated. Overall, prosocial motivation is linked to (a) Agreeableness as a dimension of personality, (b) proximal prosocial cognition and motives, and (c) helping behavior across a range of situations and victims. In persons low in prosocial motivation, when costs of helping are high, efforts to induce empathy situationally can undermine prosocial behavior.

Sustained Empathic Focus, Vulnerability, and the Centrality of Subjective-Affective Experience: Further Thoughts on a Self Psychological Approach to the Clinical Use of Dreams

Dreams, and the analyst's responsiveness to them, provide an excellent opportunity for the development of a playful and metaphorical communication between analyst and patient that can enhance the curative process. For the playspace, created by the analyst's empathic responsiveness, to facilitate a deepening of the curative process, it must include a sense of focus. This article presents and illustrates (with particular attention to the clinical use of dreams) the use of a self psychologically informed focus referred to as a “sustained empathic focus” on the patient's subjective-affective experience.

Sustained Empathic Focus and the Clinical Application of Self–Psychological Theory in Group Psychotherapy

The concept of focus can provide a meaningful bridge between theory and practice. The authors’ aim in this paper is to demonstrate that for theory to be clinically useful, it should provide a sense of focus and organization for clinical work. They illustrate how their particular use of a self–psychological/intersubjective model leads to an emphasis on what they refer to as “sustained empathic focus.” The authors’ choice of concepts leads them consistently to stress the patient’s subjective experience and emerging vulnerability.

A Curry for Your Thoughts: Empathic Effects on Counterfactual Thinking

The present research investigated the psychological correlates of counterfactual thinking. Building on existing research in this domain, it was predicted that empathic focus would exert considerable influence on the magnitude of counterfactual effects on social judgments. More specifically, it was predicted that whereas a victim set would amplify the effects of counterfactual thinking on accident-related judgments, a perpetrator set would attenuate them. The results obtained strongly supported this prediction. The implications of these findings are considered, and suggestions are offered for future research.