Empathy Quotient Scale Research Articles

The Mediator Role of Empathy and Emotional Intelligence in the Relationship between Alexithymia and Emotional Expression Styles

Although there are studies on the effect of alexithymia on expressed emotion, emotion expression in people with alexithymia was not specifically examined. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between alexithymia and emotional expression styles and whether emotional intelligence and empathy mediate this relationship. A total of 254 teacher candidates were evaluated using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Empathy Quotient Scale, Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, and Emotional Expression Styles Inventory. We performed the analyses using structural equation models. Our results revealed that alexithymia indirectly affected the expression style of happiness and sadness emotions negatively and emotional intelligence and empathy played a mediator role in this effect of alexithymia. Also, an indirect positive relationship was identified between alexithymia and anger expression style, and it was found that this relationship was mediated by emotional intelligence. Accordingly, emotional expression styles were also related to other variables. The present study also determined that alexithymia level was significantly and negatively correlated with emotional intelligence and empathy levels. This is the first study to reveal that alexithymia is related to emotional expression styles and that emotional intelligence and empathy also have mediator roles in emotional expression styles. expression styles were also related to other variables.

Relationship Between the Decision-Making Balance Regarding Organ Donation and Level of Empathy.

In Turkey, the rate of organ donations has not reached the desired level. Although the vital importance of organ transplantation is known, the low participation in organ donation is an issue that needs to be examined meticulously. Organ donation decisions can be affected by demographic factors, such as family, personality traits, and religion and by psychological factors, such as attitude, intention, and sacrifice. For this reason, it is important to find the reasons that prevent people from being a donor and to develop intervention methods for them. In this context, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between the balance of decision-making regarding organ donation and the level of empathy. A total of 638 adults (mean age of 25.32 ± 9.95 years; n = 468 female participants and n = 170 male participants) voluntarily participated in the study. We used the Organ Donation Decisional Balance Survey to measure basic information on participants' personal valuations on the importance of positive and negative aspects of donor decisions. We used the Empathy Quotient scale to determine the empathy level of participants. We determined the relationship between variables using Pearson correlation analysis. Organ donation balance had positive correlations with measures of cognitive empathy subscale (r = 0.115; P < .01), emotional reactivity subscale (r = 0.117; P < .01), and social skills subscale (r = 0.084; P < .05). We found a positive relationship between empathy and the individual decision-making balance on donation; therefore, empathy development and altruism may affect organ donation decisions.

The attitudes of social work students toward the older adult and their empathy levels

ABSTRACT The study aimed to investigate the attitudes and empathy levels of social work students toward the elderly according to some variables and to reveal the relationship between attitudes and empathy. The research population consisted of 899 students. 480 students were included in the sample. The Personal Information Form, the Kogan’s Attitude toward Old People Scale, and the Empathy Quotient Scale were used to collect data. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, research data were collected by administering the data collection tools face-to-face and using a web-based survey system. The results showed that among the social work students, women students, those who lived in the same house with an elderly person, and those who visited the nursing home had significantly higher positive attitudes toward the elderly. The first and third year students were found to have statistically more positive attitudes toward the elderly than the second and fourth year students. Moreover, the students who communicated with older individuals 1–2 times a week were found to have more positive attitudes toward the elderly than those who never communicated with the elderly. The students who had live in the same house with an elderly person and those who had visited the nursing home were found to have significantly higher empathy levels. The empathy levels of those who visited elderly individuals 1–2 times a week were found to be significantly higher than those who visited them once a month. In addition, a weak, positive, and significant relationship was revealed between the attitudes of social work students toward the elderly and their empathy levels.

Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of the Embodied Sense-of-Self Scale.

(1) Background: The Embodied Sense-of-Self Scale (ESSS) is the only validated measure for self-assessing embodiment abnormalities, which differentiate people with anomalous embodied self-representations such as schizophrenic patients from controls. The aim of the current study was to translate the ESSS from English to Italian and to examine its factor structure, reliability, and validity in the Italian context. (2) Methods: We tested the fit of the original three-factor structure (agency, ownership, and narrative identity) across a community sample (N = 269) and the reliability as well as the convergent and divergent validity of the ESSS. (3) Results: The three-factor structure of the ESSS was confirmed. However, three different factors have emerged from our analysis (self-recognition, self-consistence, and self-awareness). Higher internal consistency of the ESSS was obtained by removing six items that seemed problematic. The three ESSS scales show highly intercorrelated constructs. The measure was reliable and positively correlated with schizotypy (via the Perceptual Aberration Scale) and aberrant salience (via the Aberrant Salience Inventory), and negatively correlated with empathy (via the Italian Short Empathy Quotient scale), generalized self-efficacy (via the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale), and social self-efficacy (via the Perceived Social Self-Efficacy Scale). (4) Conclusions: The 19-item Italian version of the ESSS is a suitable measure with which to assess embodiment abnormalities in Italian samples.

Mediating Role of Empathy in the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Thinking Styles

The aim of the study is to examine the mediating role of empathy in the relationship between rational and experiential thinking styles and was designed in a correlational design. The sample of the study consists of 593 university students who were determined by simple random sampling method. Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire–Short Form, Empathy Quotient Scale, and Rational-Experiential Thinking Styles Scale were used for data collection. Bootstrapping method and Pearson product moments analysis were used to analyze the mediating role of empathy. Results indicated that there are significant relationships between the variables. In addition, empathy is a full mediation in the relationship between emotional intelligence and experiential thinking style and empathy is a partial mediation in the relationship between emotional intelligence and rational thinking style.

Validity and reliability of the Korean version of the Humanism Scale Short Form: A cross-sectional study.

AimTo examine the reliability and validity of a Korean version of the Humanism Scale Short Form.DesignA cross‐sectional descriptive design.MethodsThis study involved 191 nurses in Korea. Data were collected from 1 May to 30 June 2019. Bilingual nursing professionals translated the scale into Korean, and reverse translation was performed. Validity and reliability were assessed, and the correlation coefficients of the developed scale were compared with those of the Korean version of the Empathy Quotient Scale and Compassion Competence Scale to evaluate concurrent validity.ResultsExploratory factor analysis with 15 items showed that two factors (human equality and respect for human beings) explained 50.86% of the variance. Cronbach's alpha for the overall scale was 0.88. Thus, the scale has acceptable reliability and validity. Humanism measures can predict a nurse's approach to holistic care and provide fundamental data for developing programs to improve integrated caring capacities.

Social and Neurocognitive Deficits in Remitted Patients with Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective and Bipolar Disorder.

This study assesses the empathy level, cognitive performance and emotion recognition skills of remitted patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder, and also explores the relationship between impairments in the mentioned domains. The study was performed on 77 subjects divided into two groups: PAT sample (N = 37) included remitted patients with either schizophrenia, schizoaffective or bipolar disorder who were compared with healthy control subjects from the HC sample (N = 40). Along with sociodemographic and clinical data, empathy levels (using EQ (Empathy Quotient) scale), the ability to recognize another person’s emotional state (using RMET (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test)), and cognitive performance (using MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) Scale) were investigated. The intensity of the psychiatric symptoms was measured with BPRS-E (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale—Expanded). The remitted patients had lower EQ (p = 0.02) and RMET (p < 0.0001) scores than the healthy subjects. In the PAT group, RMET scores were positively correlated with MoCA total scores. Both EQ and RMET scores were negatively correlated with BPRS-E total scores. Psychiatric disorder was a significant predictor for deficits in emotion recognition. There were no significant differences in RMET, EQ and MoCA scores between patients with respect to diagnosis, the type of antipsychotic or the associated medication. In both samples, females had higher empathy levels (p = 0.04) and better emotion recognition abilities (p = 0.04) than males. Patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective or bipolar disorder, currently in remission, displayed lower empathy levels and poorer emotion recognition skills than healthy subjects. Poor emotion recognition skills were associated with symptom severity and impairments in global cognition.

The Effect of Perceptions and Attitudes Regarding COVID-19 on Somatization Symptoms and Empathy Skills

BACKGROUND: Post-disaster somatization symptoms are common. But post- disaster somatization symptoms are one of the psychiatric symptoms that are usually ignored. This study evaluates the relationship between somatization disorder and empathy during the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. METHOD: The study has a descriptive cross-sectional design. The study sample consisted of 1029 subjects, of whom 658 were healthcare workers and 371 non-healthcare workers. The study used the measurement tools of Somatization Scale, Empathy Quotient Scale, Perception of COVID-19 (sub-dimension; dangerousness, contagiousness), and Avoidance Attitudes from COVID-19 (sub- dimension; behavioral avoidance, cognitive avoidance). RESULTS: There was a significant difference between the groups in terms of marital status (p

Determination of the Empathy Levels of Prospective Classroom Teachers: An Example of the Life Skills Teaching Course

Abstract Introduction: The concept of empathy has been described in many ways by researchers. According to some, it is the basic cognitive function or ability of being aware of others’ thoughts and feelings. Empathy refers to being able to respond to emotions, sharing the feelings of individuals, and reflecting them as if in a mirror. It also helps to establish good relationships with people, to understand them, and share their feelings. The use of empathy in the classroom, especially in life skills courses help students to make connections between school and everyday life. Methods: This study aimed to investigate how an empathy-based education programme implemented in the life skills teaching course affected the empathy skills of prospective classroom teachers in Turkey. For this purpose, using a mixed-methods research design, the participant prospective classroom teachers received empathy-based education programme 12 class hours. The data collection tools used in the study were the Empathy Quotient Scale, document analysis and open-ended questionnaire. The study was conducted with 64 prospective classroom teachers attending at Istanbul University, Turkey. The dependent t-test was employed to analyze the quantitative data and content analysis for qualitative data. Results: As a result, it was seen that the qualitative data supported the quantitative data. According to the quantitative data, after receiving empathy-based education programme, the students developed the skills of empathy. According to the qualitative data, it was determined that prospective teachers understood the importance of empathy and put themselves in the place of others. In addition, the prospective teachers considered that empathy would have several positive contributions to their future primary school students. It is thought that the results obtained from this study will guide teaching practices involving empathy-based activities. Discussion: According to the findings obtained from the quantitative data, the empathy-based education programme provided for the prospective teachers caused a significant increase in their empathy levels. Similarly, in a study who applied a critical thinking programme and empathic tendency scale to prospective teachers, reported a positive correlation between critical thinking and empathic tendency at a low-level significance. According to the findings obtained from the qualitative data, the topics chosen for the preparation of empathy-based activities were mostly from the life skills subjects of the first grade of primary school, followed by second and third grades. This may be because the prospective teachers considered it appropriate to perform empathy-based activities with children from the earliest age. Furthermore, a higher number of participants chose to prepare written empathy-based activities, followed by drawing and photography, which might be attributed to their belief that they could better express themselves through writing, rather than drawing or taking/showing pictures. Limitations: The study group covered in the third year of the classroom teaching programme in the selected university only. Although the empathy-based education programme prepared by the researcher was implemented with the prospective teachers as part of the life skills teaching course in 10 class hours. Conclusions: In conclusion, empathy is considered to be very important especially in the education of children of young age. As revealed by the review of literature, empathy skills also affect many positive elements. For this reason and considering that the available research in the literature is based either on quantitative or on qualitative data, more mixed-design studies are needed to investigate the effects of similar empathy-based education programmes integrated into life skills and social studies courses. In addition, it is as important to conduct empathy-based activities in other courses of the primary and middle school as in life skills and social studies courses. It is also suggested that empathy-based education should also be provided for teacher candidates enrolled in science teaching programmes, as well as those in social studies.

Association between Perceived Empathy and Conflict Management Styles: Using Two Empathy Measurement Scales

This study aimed at exploring the relationship between perceived empathy and conflict management styles among undergraduate students with the use of two measurement scales of empathy. A modified version of Toronto Empathy Questionnaire and a revised version of Empathy Quotient (EQ) were used to measure empathy of students. A sample of 172 accounting students in a selected public university in Bangkok, Thailand was gathered for data collection through an online version questionnaire. With the use of Toronto scale, results of Pearson correlation analysis indicated the significant associations between empathy and collaborating, compromising, and accommodating style. In addition, when employing Empathy Quotient scale, results found that empathy had a positive significant correlation with competing, collaborating, compromising, and accommodating style. This unexpected finding was described since it was inconsistent with the previous research.

Evaluation of the Intercultural Sensitivity and Empathy Quotient Scale Scores of Term 1 and 2 Students of Baskent University Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry

Evaluation of the Intercultural Sensitivity and Empathy Quotient Scale Scores of Term 1 and 2 Students of Baskent University Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry

Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the empathy quotient among Chinese minority college students

BackgroundWhen the minority college students from the ethnic minority communities come to study in Chinese Han region, they encounter adapting difficulties of culture and socio-psychology, in which empathy plays a crucial role. Current instruments used to measure empathy have many limited effectiveness. The empathy quotient (EQ) scale which has been validated in many countries was explicitly designed for clinical applications and was intended to be sensitive to a lack of empathy. This study is to develop a complete Chinese version of the EQ scale and to assess its reliability and validity among Chinese minority college students in the Han Chinese region.MethodsA total of 1638 Chinese minority college students in the Han region were selected and were randomly divided into two groups. One group of 818 students took part in the implementation of the exploratory factor analysis while the other group of 820 students participated in the confirmatory factor analysis.ResultsTwenty-nine items of the EQ were retained based on the factor analysis and four factors were extracted: self-awareness, cognitive empathy, social skills, and emotional reactivity, which can explain 51.793% of the total variance. The factors of the EQ scale were significantly correlated with each other, with the correlation coefficient ranging from 0.316 to 0.563. The coefficient of internal consistency (Cronbach’s α) was 0.824 for the total scale and ranged from 0.640 to 0.818 for the subscales. Confirmatory factor analysis proved that the measured data fitted well with the hypothesized four-factor model. All of the items in the scale fitted the model well, and the point-measure correlation coefficient had acceptable consistency.ConclusionsThe refined 29-item Chinese version of the EQ possesses good reliability and validity, and can be applied in assessing empathy among Chinese minority college students.

The Factorial Structure of a 15-Item Version of the Italian Empathy Quotient Scale

Abstract. The Empathy Quotient (EQ) scale is a self-report measure designed to assess empathy in adults. Although the scale is widely used and has been validated into different languages, its dimensionality is still controversial, as well as it is not clear which scale version should be considered. The aim of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the EQ scale. The Italian version of the EQ scale was administered to a sample of 633 adults. Results showed that the 15-item EQ scale version proposed by Muncer and Ling (2006) had excellent reliability and validity indices, with a gender invariant three-factor structure (Cognitive Empathy, Emotional Reactivity, and Social Skills) and a higher order factor of general empathy. The overall results confirmed that the 15-item EQ scale is an eligible and stable tool for the assessment of empathy.

The relation between empathy and depressive symptoms in a Dutch population sample

BackgroundImpairments in social functioning are common in individuals with (sub)clinical levels of depression. One possible underlying mechanism of this relationship is low empathy. The present study examined linear and non-linear associations between empathy and depressive symptoms, and whether these associations were moderated by gender. MethodsUsing the Empathy Quotient scale, cognitive and affective empathy were assessed using a large convenience sample from the general Dutch population (N = 3076). Depressive symptoms were indexed by the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) and the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS-SR16). ResultsLow cognitive empathy was associated with more depressive symptoms. There was a weak positive relation between affective empathy and depressive symptoms, indexed by the QIDS rather than the DASS. LimitationsGeneralizing results to the general population remains difficult with a convenience sample. Self-reported data may be affected by social-desirability or sex-stereotypical reporting biases. ConclusionsOur results support a linear relationship between cognitive empathy and symptoms of depression. There was some evidence for non-linear associations and a moderating role of gender, but these patterns were not observed across all types of analysis.

Empathy, and its relationship with cognitive and emotional functions in alcohol dependency

Background: Empathy can be defined as the ability to understand the other’s thoughts and feelings. It contains both cognitive and emotional components.Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the empathy ability of patients with alcohol dependency in association with cognitive and emotional functions, after acute detoxification and during long-term abstinence.Methods: Thirty-three alcohol dependent inpatients that completed a detoxification process and stayed abstinent throughout the study, and 33 healthy comparison subjects that matched the patients for age, gender, and education level were included in the study. All the participants were administered the Facial Emotion Identification Test (FEIT), Facial Emotion Discrimination Test (FEDT), Trail Making Test (TMT), Digit Span Test (DST), Auditory Consonant Trigram Test (ACT), and Empathy Quotient Scale (EQS). All the tests were repeated after 3 months of abstinence.Results: At the first evaluation conducted after detoxification, patients performed significantly worse than healthy comparisons in almost all tests. At the second evaluation, which was conducted after 3 months of abstinence, the patients improved significantly in all measures, and no significant differences were detected between the patient and comparison groups. There were significant correlations between the test scores and EQS score.Conclusions: Alcohol dependency has deleterious effects on empathy ability, and cognitive and emotional functions. Those impairments can improve with abstinence. Empathy ability has strong relationships with cognitive and emotional functions.

Dissociating emotional and cognitive empathy in pre-clinical and clinical Huntington’s disease

Huntington’s disease (HD) is centrally characterized by motor, neurocognitive and psychiatric symptoms, but impaired emotional decoding abilities have also been reported. However, more complex affective abilities are still to be explored, and particularly empathy, which is essential for social relations and is impaired in various psychiatric conditions. This study evaluates empathic abilities and social skills in pre-clinical and clinical HD, and explores the distinction between two empathy sub-components (emotional-cognitive). Thirty-six HD patients (17 pre-clinical) and 36 matched controls filled in the Empathy Quotient Scale, while controlling for psychopathological comorbidities. At the clinical stage of HD, no global empathy impairment was observed but rather a specific deficit for the cognitive sub-component, while emotional empathy was preserved. A deficit was also observed for social skills. Pre-clinical HD was not associated with any empathy deficit. Emotional deficits in clinical HD are thus not limited to basic emotion decoding but extend towards complex interpersonal abilities. The dissociation between impaired cognitive and preserved emotional empathy in clinical HD reinforces the proposal that empathy subtypes are sustained by distinct processes. Finally, these results underline the extent of distinct affective and social impairments in HD and the need to grasp them in clinical contexts.

Extending decision making competence to special populations: a pilot study of persons on the autism spectrum.

The area of decision making has much to offer in our effort to understand special populations. This pilot study is an example of just such a project, where we illustrate how traditional decision making tools and tasks can be used to uncover strengths and weaknesses within a growing population of young adults with autism. In this pilot project we extended accounts of autistic behavior such as those derived from “theory of mind” to predict key components of decision making in high-functioning young adults on the autism spectrum. A battery of tests was administered to 15 high-functioning college students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), focusing on decision making competence (DMC) and other aspects of decision making related to known deficits associated with autism. Data from this group were compared to data from unselected college students receiving the same measures. First, as a test of a key social deficit associated with autism, the target group scored much lower on the Empathy Quotient scale. Traditional elements of decision making competency such as Numeracy and application of decision rules were comparable across groups. However, there were differences in thinking style, with the ASD group showing lesser ability and engagement in intuitive thinking, and they showed lower levels of risk taking. For comparisons within the ASD group, autobiographical reports concerning individual lifestyles and outcomes were used to derive a scale of Social Functioning. The lowest scoring individuals showed the lowest levels of intuitive thinking, the lowest perceived levels of others’ endorsement of socially undesirable behaviors, and the lowest ability to discriminate between “good” and “bad” risks. Results are discussed in terms of interventions that might aid high-functioning young adults with ASD in their everyday decision making.

Age Moderates the Mediational Role of Empathy in the Association Between Gender and Forgiveness

Researchers have suggested that empathy may serve to explain, at least in part, the relationship between gender and forgiveness. Some findings in the literature have supported this claim, while other studies have not. Accounting for the variable of age might help to explain these inconsistencies, as age has been found to influence the expression of empathy across gender. As such, in the present study we examined whether age might exert a conditional indirect effect on the relationship between gender and forgiveness as mediated by empathy. Participants were recruited from the community (N = 62) and on a college campus (N = 94). Within the community sample the average age was 74.8, while on the college campus the average age was 20.7. Participants were given a survey packet that included the Heartland Forgiveness Scale and the Empathy Quotient Scale, among other instruments. A moderated-mediational analysis showed that while gender was related to empathy and empathy was associated with forgiveness, empathy served as a significant mediator only for those younger than 62 years of age. This finding suggests that empathy serves as an important mediator in the relationship between gender and forgiveness for adults aged 61 and younger, because younger women are more likely to respond empathetically to a transgressor as compared to younger men. Older women also tend to be more forgiving than older men, but in the present study empathy was not as important of a factor in explaining this relationship for individuals 62 years and older. These findings help to address the inconsistencies in the literature with regard to the relationships among gender, age, empathy, and forgiveness.

Dispositional Forgiveness and PTSD Among Iranian Veterans of the 1980–1988 War

The relationship between dispositional forgiveness, empathy, and hope, on the one hand, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), on the other hand, was examined among Iranian veterans of the Iran-Iraq 1980–1988 conflict. Participants were administered the Forgivingness Questionnaire (measuring lasting resentment, sensitivity to the circumstances of the offense, and unconditional forgiveness), the Empathy Quotient Scale (assessing cognitive empathy, social skills, and emotional reactivity), the Hope Scale (assessing personal feelings of agency and ability to find pathways), and the Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. It was found that the higher the PTSD score, the higher the lasting resentment score and the lower all of the other scores, particularly agency and sensitivity to circumstances. The association between forgivingness and PTSD was still significant once empathy and hope levels were controlled for.

Psychometric properties of the Serbian version of the Empathy Quotient (S-EQ)

In the present study we examined psychometric properties of the Serbian translation of the Empathy Quotient scale (S-EQ). The translated version of the EQ was applied on a sample of 694 high-school students. A sub-sample consisting of 375 high-school students also completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), another widely used empathy measure. The following statistical analyses were applied: internal consistency analysis, explanatory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) factor analyses, and factor congruence analysis. Correlation with IRI and gender differences were calculated to demonstrate validity of the instrument. Results show that the Serbian 40-item version of EQ has lower reliability (Cronbach?s alpha = .782) than the original. The originally proposed one factor structure of the instrument was not confirmed. The short version with 28 items showed better reliablity (alpha= .807). The three-factor solution (cognitive empathy, emotional reactivity, and social skills) showed good cross-sample stability (Tucker congruence coefficient over .8) but the results of CFA confirmed the solution proposed in the reviewed literature only partially. The mean scores are similar to those obtained in the other studies, and, as expected, women have significantly higher scores than men. Correlations with all subscales of IRI are statistically significant for the first two subscales of EQ, but not for the ?social skills.? We concluded that the Serbian version of the ?Empathy Quotient? is a useful research tool which can contribute to cross-cultural studies of empathy, although its psychometric characteristics are not as good as those obtained in the original study. We also suggest that a 28-item should be used preferably to the original 40-item version.