Levels Of Empathy Research Articles

Evaluating empathy level amongst the dental students using jefferson scale of physician empathy- health professional students

BackgroundEmpathy is described as one’s ability to perceive and apprehend another person’s feelings, situation, emotions, and problems as their own. Empathetic behavior increases patients’ satisfaction, reduces discomfort, and helps with patient’s satisfaction.ObjectiveTo evaluate the psychometric properties of the Jefferson Empathy Scale and compare the measure of invariance within genders and amongst the public and private sector dental students.MethodThis cross-sectional study utilized JSE-HPS version for research purpose. An exploratory factor analysis was performed to detect underlying factors. Reliability of the study tool was evaluated using Cronbach alpha test. Mann Whitney U test was used to compare the differences in scores between genders and among public and private university students while Student’s t analysis compared the scores according to different domains. The level of significance was ≤ 0.05.ResultsFemales demonstrated higher empathy levels (88.52 ± 14.19) along with private institute students (88.46 ± 13.98). Perspective taking and compassionate care domain was also scored highest by the females (31.73 ± 6.49 & 29.31 ± 6.22) and among second year students (33.30 ± 7.11 & 30.50 ± 7.16). PCA analysis extracted 4 factors namely (i) Health-care-provider’s sense of humor contributed to improved outcome (ii) Health-care provider’s understanding of patients’ feelings and of their families influences treatment outcomes (iii) Understanding body language is as important as verbal communication and (iv) Patients feel better when their feelings are understood, which accounted for the 59.51% of the total variance.ConclusionThe findings revealed that students from private institute and females demonstrated higher empathy score. Moreover, the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) was found to be a reliable and validated tool for assessment of empathy in our sample population.

Features of evaluating the effectiveness of a mentor's work by company employees

Introduction. In the era of information technology, when information becomes available and narrow specialization becomes the norm, mentoring remains an important mechanism for the transfer of unique skills and knowledge. In addition, through the mentoring institute, not only structured expert knowledge is relayed, but also a significant amount of professional practice is transferred, which forms the mentee's readiness for real challenges. In this regard, the analysis of the effectiveness of mentoring in modern Russia is becoming an extremely urgent task. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of mentoring (using the example of a Russian company). An additional task of the study was the primary adaptation of M. Yukawa's English-language questionnaire on evaluating the effectiveness of mentoring. Materials and methods. The online survey was conducted in the fall of 2023, 1,356 representatives of a Russian company took part in it, the average age of respondents was 17.67 years (SD = 2.02) (40.6% were men, 59.4% were women). The toolkit included a 13-point questionnaire to assess the effectiveness of mentoring by M. Yukawa, a personality questionnaire of the ‟Big Five”, as well as a questionnaire to measure the emotional empathy of M. Mehrabyan and N. Epstein. In addition, the questionnaire was supplemented with a question to assess the effectiveness of mentoring. Motivation was also assessed: both the mentor and the mentee (self-assessment of motivation). Results of the study. Mentees refer to the most developed qualities of a mentor as the ability to listen and have experience, and to the least – the ability to find a balance between work and personal life, as well as an interest in expanding the circle of professional contacts of the mentee and advice in building a career. Women were significantly more likely to agree that their mentor was available to solve all issues. Older mentees, as well as those with more experience or a higher level of education, were more likely to rate the mentor as more effective. Mentors with a high level of empathy and openness to experience become receptive to the demonstration of professional experience by a mentor, according to the data obtained. The mentoring process as a whole is not rated very highly by the mentee, and the mentor's motivation is rated higher than the mentee's self-assessment of motivation. This indicates the hidden reserves of the mentoring mechanism. The analysis of correlations demonstrated the expected positive relationship between the subjective assessment of the effectiveness of the mentoring process with all the statements of the mentoring effectiveness assessment questionnaire. In addition, the mentoring effectiveness assessment questionnaire showed high internal consistency. Conclusion. The conducted research on the effectiveness of mentoring and the results obtained pose new challenges to clarify many aspects of the mentoring phenomenon related to the motivation and empathy of the mentored, as well as the specifics of working with young personnel who do not have work experience.

Designing, implementation and evaluation of story reading: a solution to increase general empathy in medical students

BackgroundCommunication and mutual understanding among healthcare providers is a significant concern within the healthcare system, and enhancing empathy is one way to foster effective communication and mutual understanding. The aim of this research is to evaluate and compare the impact of story reading on the level of empathy in medical students at Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences.MethodsThe study employed an intervention educational design (a quasi-experimental), with a convenience sample of 51 medical students selected as the statistical population. The process of story reading was conducted over six two-hour virtual sessions in the students' classroom, spanning six weeks. Selected stories were discussed in an online virtual class under the supervision of an instructor, focusing on story elements. To assess students' empathy in this educational program, the Davis General Empathy Questionnaire was administered before each of the six sessions, after, and one week later at the end of the course. Statistical analysis of the collected data was performed using repeated measures analysis of variance and Bonferroni's post hoc test through SPSS version 28 software, with a significance level set at 0.05.ResultsThe findings revealed that 27 participants (58.7%) were female students, with the remaining being male students, having an average age of 19.5 ± 0.86 years. The level of general empathy among the students significantly increased after the intervention compared to before the intervention (P<0.001). Furthermore, the analysis of variance with repeated measures indicated a significant effect of the story reading program on enhancing empathy in terms of emotional and cognitive transfer among students in the intervention group (P<0.001).ConclusionsThe research findings suggest that the story reading program effectively enhances the overall sense of empathy among medical students at the University of Medical Sciences. Therefore, implementing this method in universities, higher education centers, libraries, and psychology centers for teaching empathy can be valuable in fostering empathy skills and improving healthcare.

Application of empathy theory in the study of the effectiveness and timeliness of information dissemination in regional public health events

IntroductionThis study examines the role of empathy theory in enhancing the effectiveness and timeliness of information dissemination during regional public health events, with a focus on the SARS and COVID-19 pandemics as case studies. Utilizing an anthropological interview method, the research delves into the public's transformation from passive recipients to active participants in information dissemination, emphasizing the impact of empathy.ObjectiveThe study aims to evaluate the application of empathy theory in the context of public health emergencies and to determine its influence on the quality of information dissemination and public engagement.MethodsThe research involved two distinct surveys, each collecting 50 questionnaires from participants in different regions, to capture a diverse range of perspectives. The surveys assessed participants' views on information dissemination, their levels of empathy, and their behaviors in receiving and sharing health-related information.ResultsThe findings indicate that empathy plays a crucial role in facilitating the active involvement of the public in information dissemination. There is a notable difference in the public's emotional response and information sharing behaviors between regions with direct experience of the health events and those less affected.ConclusionThe study concludes that empathy theory, when applied to information dissemination during public health emergencies, can significantly improve the public's engagement and the overall effectiveness of communication strategies. The results underscore the need for empathetic communication to foster a sense of solidarity and collective action in response to public health crises.

Difference in the levels of Empathy and Psychological Well-Being between Psychology and Non-Psychology Postgraduates

Difference in the levels of Empathy and Psychological Well-Being between Psychology and Non-Psychology Postgraduates

Exploring Association of Level of Empathy with Demographic Factors among Medical and Dental Students, A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study

Exploring Association of Level of Empathy with Demographic Factors among Medical and Dental Students, A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study

Empathic responses, Sociotropy and autonomy

The study examines the relationship between sociotropy, autonomy, and empathy in interpersonal relationships among Indian adults aged 18-40. A correlational research design was used, with 225 participants meeting the criteria of high school education and English proficiency. The Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale and Interpersonal Reactivity Index were employed to measure participants' levels of sociotropy, autonomy and empathy. The findings of the study reveal no significant relationship between sociotropy, autonomy, and empathy in interpersonal relationships.

A Comparison of Virtual Reality and Traditional Audio-Recorded Hearing Voices Simulations: Their Impact on Empathy in Health Care Students.

Empathy is essential to the development of communication skills. Simulating psychosis to develop empathy for mental health patients is complex; we hypothesized that virtual reality (VR) would be effective in increasing empathy in health care students. This experimental study compared the effectiveness of a VR simulation with a traditional hearing voices simulation as measured by the Kiersma-Chen Empathy Scale-Revised. Twenty-five health care students were randomized into two groups. The results indicated that both simulated experiences increased empathy levels, supporting the study's hypothesis. A 10-minute VR simulation is an effective teaching strategy for developing empathy in health care students.

COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION ON INTENTIONS OF STUDENTS IN SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The capacity to affect change on a local and global scale about a range of political, social, environmental, and economic challenges is known as social entrepreneurship (SE). Young exposure to theory and practice of social entrepreneurship at postsecondary educational institutions is thought to influence this change. In this study, we examine the intentions of students in social entrepreneurship. This study's objective is to assess the degrees of social and entrepreneurial entrepreneurship. For the study, 150 college students served as the sample. This study examines empathy, moral duty, social support, self-efficacy, social impact, and educational level as principal motivators for social entrepreneurship intentions. The SPSS is a software program used to analyse the data and perform statistical analyses. The findings indicate that the only factors that were statistically correlated with the desire to engage in social entrepreneurship were empathy, self-efficacy, and psychological support. The association between social support and the ambitions for social entrepreneurship was shown to be unfavourable. In conclusion, the study provides insightful information for practitioners and educators who aim to foster a vibrant environment for student social entrepreneurship.

Individual differences in representational gesture production are associated with cognitive and empathy skills.

Substantial individual variation exists in the frequency of gestures produced while speaking. This study investigated the associations between cognitive abilities, empathy levels, and personality traits with the frequency of representational gestures. A cartoon narration task and a social dilemma solving task were used to elicit gestures. Predictor variables were selected based on prior research on individual differences in gesture production and the cognitive and communicative functions of gestures in speech. Our findings revealed that an increased frequency of representational gestures was associated with higher empathy levels in the cartoon narration task. However, in the social dilemma solving task, a higher frequency of representational gestures was associated with lower visuospatial working memory, spatial transformation, and inhibition control abilities. Moreover, no significant relationships were found between verbal working memory, personality traits, and the frequency of representational gestures in either task. These findings suggested that predictor variables for representational gesture production vary depending on the nature of the gesture elicitation task (e.g., spatiomotoric vs. abstract topics). Future research should examine the relationship between individuals' cognitive abilities, empathy and gesture production with across a broader range of topics and in more ecologically valid contexts.

Does Medical Curriculum Impact on Empathy? A Longitudinal Study in a Sample of Undergraduate Medical Students

AbstractEmpathy in medical students is receiving increasing attention as it is fundamental to build and develop a functional patient-physician relationship. When looking at its determinants, demographic and academic factors seem to concur in shaping empathy in this population. Although data show strong gender differences and changes in empathy throughout medical school, it is not clear the direction of these changes and whether gender and curriculum features modulate them. This longitudinal study examined changes in empathy and explored gender differences throughout the medical school. Four consecutive cohorts of Italian medical students (N = 336) completed the Jefferson Scale of Empathy – Student (JSE-S) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) in their second year of study (before any clinical clerkship and communication skills courses) and fifth year of study (after a 2-year clinical clerkship and communication skills courses). Analysis of variance for repeated-measures revealed that, beyond the effect of gender, JSE-S total score and IRI Perspective Taking increased, whereas IRI Personal Distress and IRI Fantasy significantly decreased throughout medical school. No significant change in IRI Empathic Concern emerged over time. Student’s t-tests showed that female students displayed significantly higher mean scores than their male counterparts for all empathy measures in both their second and fifth years of medical training. The findings suggest that the medical curriculum affects self-reported empathy dimensions among undergraduate medical students. Further research is needed to deepen the understanding of the educational factors that promote the changes in empathy levels during medical training.

The impact of empathy on medical students: an integrative review

IntroductionEmpathy is considered the ability to understand or feel others emotions or experiences. As an important part of medical education, empathy can affect medical students in many ways. It is still lacking a comprehensive evaluation of the existing articles on empathy’s impact on medical students, despite the existence of many articles on the topic.ObjectivesTo summarize the impact of empathy on medical students during medical education from four perspectives: mental health, academic performance, clinical competence, and specialty preference.MethodsThe search terms used for retrieval were “empathy”, “medical student”, “mental health”, “depression”, “anxiety”, “burnout”, “examinations”, “academic performance”, “clinical competence”, “specialty preference” on PubMed, EBSCO, and Web of Science before January 2024. The search was carried out by two reviewers. Titles and abstracts were screened independently and reviewed based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. A consensus was drawn on which articles were included.ResultsOur results indicated that high empathy was a positive factor for mental health, However, students with high affective empathy were more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and burnout. Empathy was found to be unrelated to academic performance, but positively correlated with clinical competence, particularly in terms of communication skills. Medical students with high levels of empathy tended to prefer people-oriented majors.ConclusionsMedical students who score higher on the self-reported empathy scales often have better mental health, better communication skills, and tend to choose people-oriented specialties. But empathy is not related to academic performance. Additionally, the different dimensions of empathy have different impacts on medical students. It is necessary to design targeted courses and training for medical students to enhance their empathy.

Realization of Empathy Capability for the Evolution of Artificial Intelligence Using an MXene(Ti3C2)-Based Memristor

Empathy is the emotional capacity to feel and understand the emotions experienced by other human beings from within their frame of reference. As a unique psychological faculty, empathy is an important source of motivation to behave altruistically and cooperatively. Although human-like emotion should be a critical component in the construction of artificial intelligence (AI), the discovery of emotional elements such as empathy is subject to complexity and uncertainty. In this work, we demonstrated an interesting electrical device (i.e., an MXene (Ti3C2) memristor) and successfully exploited the device to emulate a psychological model of “empathic blame”. To emulate this affective reaction, MXene was introduced into memristive devices because of its interesting structure and ionic capacity. Additionally, depending on several rehearsal repetitions, self-adaptive characteristic of the memristive weights corresponded to different levels of empathy. Moreover, an artificial neural system was designed to analogously realize a moral judgment with empathy. This work may indicate a breakthrough in making cool machines manifest real voltage-motivated feelings at the level of the hardware rather than the algorithm.

Managing design innovation challenges in a digital environment

ABSTRACT The post-pandemic transition pushes in-person design innovation to the digital environment, requiring a new approach that fosters team engagement and facilitates collaborative work. This paper discusses managing design innovation challenges in the ever-changing digital environment. Building on design innovation literature and a rich-data case study, it proposes a conceptual framework to help organizations effectively manage digital innovation challenges. The framework comprises three theory-based aggregated dimensions: digital empathy, resources and capabilities, and workflow. The paper provides practical insights and recommendations for managing the innovation challenge and how organizations can commit to and engage their teams, involving higher levels of collaboration, guidance, and empathy. Empirical study findings also shed light on what needs to be improved in online interaction. Despite all the advantages of digital technology, organizations should provide mechanisms to encourage more creative and spontaneous collaboration and cultivate proper digital empathy with all stakeholders. Digital empathy will be particularly relevant whenever there is a lack of human agency, such as developing new solutions with the support of artificial intelligence.

Empathy Levels and Burnout in Medical Students: An Analytic Cross-Sectional Study in a Thai University Hospital

Objective: In medical education, empathy is an essential element of professionalism; however, medical students are sometimes advised to limit empathy. Excessive empathy might be linked to burnout and trigger negative consequences such as low mood and quality of life. Due to limited data regarding the association between empathy and burnout, this study aimed to examine the relationship between levels of empathy and burnout with their respective subscales, among medical students.Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the clinical level of medical students currently undergoing medical training at the Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, at the end of the 2020 academic year. Medical students aged more than 20 years who completed the questionnaires were included. The questionnaires comprised 1) demographic data, 2) The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire, 3) The Maslach Burnout Inventory (Thai version), and 4) The Thai Mental Health Indicator-15. Associations between empathy and burnout including emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and personal accomplishment subscales were investigated using linear regression analysis. Results: From the three-year clinical level, 91.9% (466 of 507) of medical students completed the questionnaires, with a mean age of 23.1±1.4 years. In the linear regression analyses, empathy scores were positively associated with emotional exhaustion and negatively associated with depersonalisation and low personal accomplishment (Adjusted coefficient 0.18 (0.02, 0.33), -0.09 (-0.18, -0.01), and -0.42 (-0.52, -0.31), respectively). Among the empathy subscales, altruism was significantly correlated with personal accomplishment (r=-0.41, p-value&lt;0.001).Conclusion: The study revealed a negative correlation between empathy and overall burnout. While a high level of empathy was found to prevent depersonalisation and enhance personal accomplishment, it did not significantly hinder the emotional exhaustion associated with burnout. Empathy, particularly altruism, was related to personal accomplishments. Our findings suggest that empathy is a crucial determinant of burnout prevention; therefore, optimal levels of empathy should be taught to medical students during medical training to prevent emotional exhaustion. However, the evaluation of further causal explanations is recommended.

Individual differences of white matter characteristic along the anterior insula-based fiber tract circuit for pain empathy in healthy women and women with primary dysmenorrhea

Pain empathy, defined as the ability of one person to understand another person's pain, shows large individual variations. The anterior insula is the core region of the pain empathy network. However, the relationship between white matter (WM) properties of the fiber tracts connecting the anterior insula with other cortical regions and an individual's ability to modulate pain empathy remains largely unclear. In this study, we outline an automatic seed-based fiber streamline (sFS) analysis method and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to predict the levels of pain empathy in healthy women and women with primary dysmenorrhoea (PDM). Using the sFS method, the anterior insula-based fiber tract network was divided into five fiber cluster groups. In healthy women, interindividual differences in pain empathy were predicted only by the WM properties of the five fiber cluster groups, suggesting that interindividual differences in pain empathy may rely on the connectivity of the anterior insula-based fiber tract network. In women with PDM, pain empathy could be predicted by a single cluster group. The mean WM properties along the anterior insular–rostroventral area of the inferior parietal lobule further mediated the effect of pain on empathy in patients with PDM. Our results suggest that chronic periodic pain may lead to maladaptive plastic changes, which could further impair empathy by making women with PDM feel more pain when they see other people experiencing pain. Our study also addresses an important gap in the analysis of the microstructural characteristics of seed-based fiber tract network.

Interpretation bias for ambiguous scenarios among individuals with high and low levels of empathy

AbstractEmpathy is the ability to understand and resonate with the emotions of others, typically requiring individuals to infer others' emotional status through the information around them. However, this information is often ambiguous and it is unknown whether individuals with high empathy have a bias in interpreting contextual information. Therefore, this study investigated how individuals with low and high empathy interpret other‐relevant scenarios in Study 1 (N = 98) and self‐relevant scenarios in Study 2 (N = 95), by using the scenarios task and the Sentence Word Association Paradigm (SWAP) separately. Study 1 observed that, for interpretations of other‐relevant scenarios, the high‐empathy group showed greater likelihood ratings for negative interpretations than those with low‐empathy in both social and non‐social scenarios. Study 2 found that, for interpretations of self‐relevant scenarios, the high‐empathy group differed from the low‐empathy group only on non‐social scenarios but not on social scenarios. Specifically, individuals with high empathy were more likely to report a relationship between a negative word and an ambiguous scenario compared to those with low empathy in self‐relevant non‐social scenarios. The study first revealed a bias for highly empathetic individuals to regard the ambiguous scenarios as negative in other‐relevant and self‐relevant scenarios, except for self‐relevant social scenarios.

Empathy in Patient Care among Undergraduate Nursing Students

Introduction: Empathy is a quality that is more cognitive than affective or emotional. It involves the cognitive ability to understand the patient’s perspective, amount of suffering, and ability to communicate this understanding and a desire to assist in the patient’s treatment. Hence, the study was conducted to assess the empathy in patient care among undergraduate nursing students of selected nursing colleges of Pokhara. Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken using the paper-based version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. A purposive sampling technique was used for selecting colleges. Seventy-nine students participated in the research study. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used to generate descriptive statistics, t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were used to assess differences in empathy mean scores according to Demographic and previous work-related variables. Results: A total of 79 students participated in this study. Overall, respondents reported a good empathy score (i.e. mean±SD 111.076±13.29) as measured by the JSE-HPS The difference in empathy mean scores according to demographic and previous work-related variables i.e. age group (P= 0.373), academic year of study (P= 0.37), relationship status (P= 0.059), religion (P= 0.241), ethnicity (P= 0.486) and years of experience (P= 0.691) were not statistically significant. Conclusion: The undergraduate nursing students’ level of empathy tends to be satisfactory. The study also concludes that none of the demographic and previous work-related variables tends to influence the empathy among undergraduate nursing students.

The Effect of Affective Empathy on Prosocial Behavior among College Students

Affective empathy is the response and feeling to others’ emotions, it includes empathic concern and personal distress. In the real situation, empathy always occurs under certain specific circumstances and can develop into an individual’s prosocial behavior. In this experiment, the relationship between the empathy state and prosocial behavior of college students was discussed using specific emotional materials. Batson’s Empathy Adjective Scale and the revised Prosocial Behavior Scale were used. The results show that viewing specific emotional materials can stimulate different levels of emotional empathy. In a state of high emotional empathy, people have higher levels of prosocial behavior. Different emotional empathy states can only have a significant impact on some dimensions of prosocial behavior, including three dimensions of openness, compliance, and emotion. However, the three dimensions of anonymity, altruism, and urgency do not have a significant impact.

Observing heroic behavior and its influencing factors in immersive virtual environments

Studying heroism in controlled settings presents challenges and ethical controversies due to its association with physical risk. Leveraging virtual reality (VR) technology, we conducted a three-study series with 397 participants from China to investigate heroic actions. Participants unexpectedly witnessed a criminal event in a simulated scenario, allowing observation of their tendency to physically intercept a thief. We examined situational factors (voluntariness, authority, and risk) and personal variables [gender, impulsivity, empathy, and social value orientation (SVO)] that may influence heroism. Also, the potential association between heroism and social conformity was explored. In terms of situational variables, voluntariness modulated participants' tendency to intercept the escaping thief, while perceived risk demonstrated its impact by interacting with gender. That is, in study 3 where the perceived risk was expected to be higher (as supported by an online study 5), males exhibited a greater inclination toward heroic behavior compared to females. Regarding other personal variables, the tendency to engage in heroic behavior decreased as empathy levels rose among males, whereas the opposite trend was observed for females. SVO influenced heroic behavior but without a gender interaction. Finally, an inverse relationship between heroism and social conformity was observed. The robustness of these findings was partly supported by the Chinese sample (but not the international sample) of an online study 4 that provided written descriptions of VR scenarios, indicating cultural variations. These results advance insights into motivational factors influencing heroism in the context of restoring order and highlight the power of VR technology in examining social psychological hypotheses beyond ethical constraints.