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A Multidimensional Approach to Individual Differences in Empathy
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Thesis--University of Texas at Austin. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-219).
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... Some studies to confirm the intra/inter perspective value of empathy as a problem-solving process in students doing science were also recently conducted. In order to explore the factors of empathy in science education, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI, Davis, 1980) was used as an analytical framework for scientific empathy in studies that explored the prior research of scientists' empathy (Yang and Kang, 2019) or the scientific empathy factors based on core competencies for next generations (Chun et al., 2018). Both studies addressed scientific empathy by research participants in the problem-solving process in terms of the cognitive and emotional aspects and individuals and the interrelations of others. ...
... Finally, the abovementioned "cognitive and emotional interpretation of the condition of others, " which we have classified as the fourth and fifth elements of scientific empathy, may be tentatively paraphrased as "empathetic understanding and empathetic concern for others, " synthesizing cognitive and affective demonstrations of empathy in interpersonal relationships. Empathy psychologist Davis (1980) describes it as Perspective-Taking (cognitive aspect) and Empathic Concern (affective aspect), which embody the meaning of the complex process of cognition and emotion arising from interaction with others. In fact, each facet-the cognitive process of multi-perspective thinking as well as the emotional agitation stemming from compassion-are both implicated when students face a problematic situation in a particular scientific context. ...
... In the preceding research on each element that constitutes scientific empathy, it is mentioned that the elements of scientific empathy continue to intervene in order to seek creative problemsolving methods in the scientific inquiry process (Davis, 1980;Root-Bernstein, 2002;Sawyer, 2007;Jaber and Hammer, 2016a,b;Renninger and Hidi, 2016;Davidson et al., 2020). Therefore, we can predict what role scientific empathy plays in the scientific inquiry and creative problem-solving process as follows: ...
A crucial component of disciplinary engagement for learners in science is that of scientific empathy—in other words, the metaphysical connection between the student and the object of study, as scientists embody when deeply engaged in their work. Scientific empathy is the factor that stimulates and maintains students’ desire to inquire and that elicits creative problem-solving in their “doing” science as a distinctive disposition from general empathy. As such, in this study, the scientific empathy index (SEI) was developed to measure these traits of scientific empathy. For this purpose, two-rounds of factor analyses were conducted in the preliminary and the main tests of SEI. To prove the validity of the main test, correlation and mediated analysis were additionally conducted between other problem-solving scales and Final SEI. The first-factor analysis was conducted on 1,048 elementary, middle, and high school students as a preliminary test for extracting SEI questions. Based on the preliminary test results, 956 K-12 students were newly recruited, and the validity of the main test was confirmed through a second-factor analysis. Through these analyses, it was identified that the scale comprised five factors: sensitivity, situational interest, scientific imagination, empathetic concern, and empathetic understanding of others. Each scientific empathy factor revealed both cognitive and affective process dimensions including individual and social interrelations of students’ empathy in doing science. SEI was more highly correlated than the general empathy scale in the process of creative problem-solving and science process skills. In addition, it was found to exhibit a mediating effect between creative problem-solving and scientific inquiry. These findings validate the newly developed SEI and how it contributes to providing science learners with a useful tool for quick and easy measurement of scientific empathy and its components for the empathized involvement process between the student and their research subject.
... Empathy can be defined as the ability to understand and share in others' emotions, while maintaining a self-other distinction (Davis, 1980). The concept of empathy is important in motivating attachment and prosocial behavior (Davis, 1994), and the development of empathy is purported to contribute to the inhibition of aggression and violent behaviour (Hoffman, 2001). ...
... Little work has examined how different components of trait empathy and general personality capture capacity for empathic responding in the moment. Past research has attempted to connect trait-level empathy with empathyrelated prosocial behaviors (e.g., helping others in need; Gini et al., 2007;Hojat et al., 2005;Verhaert & Van den defined as the ability to recognize what another person is feeling (Davis, 1980). An example of cognitive empathy is seeing someone crying and understanding that they are upset. ...
... An example of cognitive empathy is seeing someone crying and understanding that they are upset. Emotional empathy has been the focus of more research and is defined as sharing in others' emotions (Davis, 1980). An example of emotional empathy is seeing someone cry and feeling sad for them. ...
Trait correlates of empathic responses to dynamic stimuli were examined in this study by combining an experimental paradigm to assess state empathy with measures of trait empathy and five-factor model traits. Undergraduate students (N = 533; 80% women) were shown a set of film clips selected to elicit empathy (i.e., individuals in distress), general negative affect, and neutral emotions; and they reported on their emotional state at baseline and following each film clip. Results showed support for the specific elicitation of empathy from the clips and the unique role of trait cognitive empathy, even above five-factor model personality traits, in explaining empathic responses to the clips. This research expands upon the limited literature on individual differences in emotional empathic responses.
... While Ahn et al. (2016) used measurements on spatial presence and body transfer, Markowitz et al. (2018) used presence as an indicator for feeling as a part of the underwater experience. Since we were also interested in underlying mechanisms of perspective-taking as a cognitive process, we tested J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f if sense of presence affects perspective-taking as a discrete construct defined by Davis (1980) as "spontaneous attempts to adopt the perspectives of other people and see things from their point of view" (p.2), which led to the second pre-registered hypothesis in our path model: ...
... Perspective-Taking was assessed using 5 items based on Davis & Davis (1980) Perspective-Taking Subscale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (11-point Likert scale from 0=not at all to 10=very much, e.g., "I tried to "put myself" in the place of the tree"). We used our own J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f translation, ensuring the validity of the translation by having different individuals back-translate it. ...
One discussion in the context of education for sustainable development centres on the importance of cognitive as well as affective processes for promoting pro-environmental behaviour. In our study, we investigate how affordances of immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) such as the virtual embodiment of a tree might provide new opportunities to achieve this goal. The aim of our study was twofold: Firstly, we investigated whether multisensory enhancement of iVR has an additional, supporting effect on mechanisms that are vital to fostering nature connectedness and pro-environmental behaviour compared to non-enhanced iVR. Secondly, we examined the relationships between mediating variables to explain the underlying mechanisms of how nature connectedness and pro-environmental behaviour can be promoted through iVR. In our experimental design (N = 82), we tested the effects of multisensory enhancement of embodying nature in immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) compared to non-enhanced iVR on the processes considered vital to promoting pro-environmental behaviour: a) embodiment, b) perspective-taking, c) reflection on the relationship between oneself and nature, and d) connectedness to nature. According to self-reported measures, participants developed a feeling of embodiment and were able to change their perspective by stepping into the tree's point of view. Users also succeeded in situating the tree's experience into the greater context, often reflecting on the role of humankind towards nature. However, we found that multisensory iVR does not lead to an additional increase in nature connectedness, but is associated with a higher level of taking action and slightly more reflective processes. We propose a preliminary path-model that summarises the observed findings. Our results contribute to the small but growing body of research that evidences the effects of taking the perspective of non-sentient beings through iVR on nature connectedness and pro-environmental behaviour.
... The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1980Davis, , 1983) is a 28-item self-report measure of empathy. Responses are given on a 5-point Likert-style scale from "does not describe me well" to "describes me very well." ...
... The IRI-PT subscale assesses one's ability to take the perspective of others and can be considered a proxy for one's tendencies to use cognitive empathy. The IRI-EC subscale assesses feelings of friendship or concern for others and can be considered a proxy for one's tendencies to experience affective empathy (Davis, 1980(Davis, , 1983. Internal consistency in our sample was good for both the IRI-PT (α = 0.77) and IRI-EC (α = 0.76) subscales. ...
Poor sleep quality has been tied to worse social cognition. Social cognitive deficits have been noted in those with high schizotypy. Yet, no study has assessed whether schizotypy moderates the relationship between sleep quality and social cognition, which may be vital to our understanding of contributors to social functioning. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of associations of sleep quality and social cognition, with potential moderation by schizotypy. Participants ( n = 906) completed self-report measures of schizotypy, sleep quality, and social cognition. Levels of schizotypy significantly moderated some of the relationships between sleep and social cognition. For participants low in total or interpersonal schizotypy, worse sleep quality was associated with worse theory of mind scores. For participants low in total, disorganized, or cognitive perceptual schizotypy, worse sleep quality was associated with worse self-reported cognitive empathy. For those high in these facets of schizotypy, worse sleep quality was associated with better self-reported cognitive empathy. These results suggest that the individual facets of schizotypy provide additional information and, therefore, are important to assess when examining social cognition and sleep.
... The participants' empathic level was measured at key moments throughout the process. Their empathic levels were documented through a mixed methods approach (interviews, observations and self documentation), see figure 2. Existing measurement techniques (Davis, 1980;Baron-Cohen-Wheelwright, 2004, Spreng et al, 2009 were deemed too disruptive for the empathy-building process. Instead, we built on full recordings of the film makers when pre-interviewing and filming participants, on field observations and on self-documentation. ...
In our densely-populated cities, fostering harmony between differing communities is an increasingly difficult art, and one in which design can provide positive contributions. This paper describes a design project which aimed to decrease tensions between youth and residents in a city neighbourhood through an empathy-building process. Individuals from both groups were guided through the process of stepping into each others’ worlds (through Virtual Reality) and developing solutions together to address points of tension. Their individual transformative processes were tracked in order to make the implicit outcomes of such design processes explicit. Throughout this process new dynamics and connections emerged, revealing grounds for structurally decreasing tensions and promoting participatory approaches for local transformation processes. This paper describes the project and presents our learnings regarding (1) the transformative impact on the involved individuals from the neighbourhood and (2) reflections on the contributing roles of the designers in social innovation projects.
... Empathy Empathy was measured using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) [41]. The IRI is a 28-item scale composed of statements about one's thoughts and feelings in a variety of situations, to which participants respond on a five-point scale. ...
Background: Childhood trauma may increase the risk of antisocial behavior in young adulthood. Our study examined the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the specific antisocial behavior of malevolent creativity (MC), the application of original ideas to purposely harm others, often to gain an unfair advantage through manipulation, threat, or harm. Methods: We surveyed college students (N = 524; 78% women) on demographics, ACEs, empathy, social support, coping, general creativity, and malevolent creativity. The data were analyzed via sequential linear regression models. Results: Reporting ≥ 4 ACEs was associated with increased MC, which remained significant when general creativity and demographics were controlled. The association between higher ACEs and MC was no longer significant when psychosocial control variables (social support, empathy, and coping) were included in the statistical model. Social support and empathy were negatively associated with MC, while coping and MC were positively associated. Conclusions: ACEs may increase the likelihood of malevolent creativity in young adulthood, but empathy and social support may disrupt this trajectory. Care should be taken that coping skills, while typically viewed as a positive addition to one’s behavioral repertoire, do not push individuals toward over-reliance on themselves, which may reduce prosocial behaviors and increase MC.
... Beyond these components, empathic motivation and compassionate empathy are reflected in behaviors and actions in response to another person's emotional state, and are likely supported by overlapping neural circuits [12,17,29]. Finally, prior studies also suggest that different aspects of empathy may be interrelated as parts of a broader construct [30][31][32][33]. ...
Empathy is at the core of our social world, yet multidomain factors that affect its development in socially sensitive periods, such as adolescence, are incompletely understood. To address this gap, this study investigated associations between social, environmental and mental health factors, and their temporal changes, on adolescent empathetic behaviors/emotions and, for comparison, callous unemotional (CU) traits and behaviors, in the early longitudinal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development sample (baseline: n = 11062; 2-year follow-up: n = 9832, median age = 119 and 144 months, respectively). Caregiver affection towards the youth, liking school, having a close friend, and importance of religious beliefs/spirituality in the youth’s life were consistently positively correlated with empathetic behaviors/emotions across assessments (p<0.001, Cohen’s f = ~0.10). Positive family dynamics and cohesion, living in a neighborhood that shared the family’s values, but also parent history of substance use and (aggregated) internalizing problems were additionally positively associated with one or more empathetic behaviors at follow-up (p<0.001, f = ~0.10). In contrast, externalizing problems, anxiety, depression, fear of social situations, and being withdrawn were negatively associated with empathetic behaviors and positively associated with CU traits and behaviors (p<0.001, f = ~0.1–0.44). The latter were also correlated with being cyberbullied and/or discriminated against, anhedonia, and impulsivity, and their interactions with externalizing and internalizing issues. Significant positive temporal correlations of behaviors at the two assessments indicated positive (early) developmental empathetic behavior trajectories, and negative CU traits’ trajectories. Negative changes in mental health adversely moderated positive trajectories and facilitated negative ones. These findings highlight that adolescent empathetic behaviors/emotions are positively related to multidomain protective social environmental factors, but simultaneously adversely associated with risk factors in the same domains, as well as bully victimization, discrimination, and mental health problems. Risk factors instead facilitate the development of CU traits and behaviors.
... The instrument has also been used by Raza et al. (2021) in their study. The ten items of empathy (␣ = 0.847) were adopted, which were first developed by M. H. Davis (1980), and further modified by Dietz & Kleinlogel (2014). ...
BACKGROUND: The macro-level corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been researched widely in recent years, however, micro-level CSR has recently gained attention. Employees are more influenced by employee related internal CSR initiatives than the external CSR activities. Internal CSR ensures favorable behavior of employees towards their employer which leads towards better organizational performance. OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the impact of internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) on public sector employees’ engagement through Organizational Pride (OP). Further, the study considers moderating role of empathy between internal CSR and employee engagement (EE) METHODS: Quantitative research design was developed and theoretical framework was investigated through a survey of 430 employees of public sector in Pakistan. SmartPLS was used and partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for hypothesis testing RESULTS: The results showed that the internal CSR directly influences EE. Secondly, the mediation of OP between internal CSR and EE is also supported. However, the results do not significantly support moderation of empathy between internal CSR and EE. CONCLUSIONS: Public sector organizations should actively contribute in employees well- being through internal CSR activities especially on skills development, work-life balance and employment stability. Public sector organizations lack in emotional and cognitive attachment with employees, and should pay attention to pride over organization through employee focused CSR activities
Educational leadership combines transformational and transactional leadership. Yet this combination is not equal, instead favouring transformational leadership which is focused on an individual's social interactions and their ability to identify and react empathetically to others. Many leadership theorists suggest the ability to have and display empathy is an important part of leadership. Until recently the focus of determining an individual's ability to recognise emotions has been through self-reporting questionnaires. These can only be used to report manifestations in our body, picked up by self-awareness, such as anger, sadness, and joy. Therefore, individuals are reporting their awareness of and externalising of the sensation based on what they perceive the emotion to be. This chapter explores the use of neuroscientific techniques to better understand empathy. What this chapter highlights are that these techniques are more accurate at measuring an individual's ability to recognise emotions than the traditional self-reporting questionnaire.
Three studies (N = 1988) describe the development and validation of the Emotional Contagion (EC) Scale, a 15-item unidimensional measure of susceptibility to others' emotions resulting from afferent feedback generated by mimicry. Study 1 assesses the EC Scale's reliability (Cronbach's α = .90). Study 2 finds susceptibility (a) positively related to reactivity, emotionality, sensitivity to others, social functioning, self-esteem, and more associated with emotional than cognitive modes of empathy, (b) negatively related to alienation, self-assertiveness, and emotional stability and, (c) unrelated to masculinity and approval motivation. Study 3, an experiment, finds that EC Scale scores reliably predict biases in participants' evaluations and are correlated with a measure of responsiveness to afferent feedback and self-reports of emotional experience following exposure to emotional expressions.
Proposes a 2-stage model of empathic mediation of helping behavior, which holds that taking the perspective of a person in need increases empathic emotion; this in turn increases helping. Ss in 2 experiments learned of another person's need from taped radio broadcasts and were subsequently given an opportunity to offer help to that person. The experiments used different strategies for manipulating empathic emotional response to the other's plight. In Exp I, using 44 male and female undergraduates, the empathic emotion of some Ss was experimentally reduced by a misattribution of arousal technique; in Exp II, using 33 female undergraduates, the empathic emotion of some Ss was experimentally increased by a false feedback of arousal technique. Results of each experiment support the proposed model. Ss who experienced the most empathic emotion also offered the most help. Results of Exp I indicate that perspective taking did not directly affect helping; it affected helping only through its effect on empathic emotion. Motivational implications are discussed. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In view of the increasing number of factor analytic studies, investigators are urged to plan such studies prior to collecting the data, to formulate a hypothesized factor structure, to develop several relatively pure measures of each factor expected, and to select an appropriate sample of at least 200 cases. Continuous rather than dichotomous variables should be used wherever possible. Programmatic series of studies are preferred over one-shot investigations. Putting unities in the diagonals and rotating all factors with eigenvalues of one or more is discouraged, because this procedure tends to give communalities that are too high, produces too many factors, and distorts the rotational solution, especially when analytic rotational programs are used. In some situations, a computer-assisted hand rotational solution is most likely to give satisfactory results. Mathematical algorithms designed to approximate simple structure work well only in situations properly designed for their application. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
According to the prevailing cultural stereotype as well as various psychological theories, empathy (the vicarious affective response to another person's feelings) is more prevalent in females than in males. A review of the research indicates that females do indeed appear to be more empathic than males. They do not appear to be more adept at assessing another person's affective, cognitive, or spatial perspective, however. There is also evidence to suggest that empathy in females may be part of a prosocial affective orientation that includes the tendency to experience guilt over harming others, but it does not, at least in early childhood, appear to be part of a larger interpersonal sensitivity that includes egocentric concerns about the feelings of others toward the self. It is suggested that females may have greater tendency to imagine themelves in the other's place, whereas males have more of a set toward instrumental ameliorative action. (71 ref)
• The four parts of which this work consists, though intimately related to each other as different views of the same great aggregate of phenomena, are yet, in the main, severally independent and complete in themselves. The General Analysis is an inquiry concerning the basis of our intelligence. Its object is to ascertain the fundamental peculiarity of all modes of consciousness constituting knowledge proper—knowledge of the highest validity. The Special Analysis has for its aim, to resolve each species of cognition into its components. Commencing with the most involved ones, it seeks by successive decompositions to reduce cognitions of every order to those of the simplest kind; and so, finally to make apparent the common nature of all thought, and disclose its ultimate constituents. The General Synthesis, setting out with an abstract statement of the relation subsisting between every living organism and the external world, and arguing that all vital actions whatever, mental and bodily, must be expressible in terms of this relation; proceeds to formulate, in such terms, the successive phases of progressing Life, considered apart from our conventional classifications of them. And the Special Synthesis, after exhibiting that gradual differentiation of the psychical from the physical life which accompanies the evolution of Life in general, goes on to develop, in its application to psychical life in particular, the doctrine which the previous part sets forth: describing the nature and genesis of the different modes of Intelligence, in terms of the relation which obtains between inner and outer phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
• The four parts of which this work consists, though intimately related to each other as different views of the same great aggregate of phenomena, are yet, in the main, severally independent and complete in themselves. The General Analysis is an inquiry concerning the basis of our intelligence. Its object is to ascertain the fundamental peculiarity of all modes of consciousness constituting knowledge proper—knowledge of the highest validity. The Special Analysis has for its aim, to resolve each species of cognition into its components. Commencing with the most involved ones, it seeks by successive decompositions to reduce cognitions of every order to those of the simplest kind; and so, finally to make apparent the common nature of all thought, and disclose its ultimate constituents. The General Synthesis, setting out with an abstract statement of the relation subsisting between every living organism and the external world, and arguing that all vital actions whatever, mental and bodily, must be expressible in terms of this relation; proceeds to formulate, in such terms, the successive phases of progressing Life, considered apart from our conventional classifications of them. And the Special Synthesis, after exhibiting that gradual differentiation of the psychical from the physical life which accompanies the evolution of Life in general, goes on to develop, in its application to psychical life in particular, the doctrine which the previous part sets forth: describing the nature and genesis of the different modes of Intelligence, in terms of the relation which obtains between inner and outer phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCI--Philosophy. Typewritten. Abstract: leaves vi-viii. Vita: leaf v. Bibliography: leaves 354-362. Microfilm-xerography. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International, 1979.--21 cm.
A selective review of various conceptual positions within a historic framework is used to address four issues: whether an empathic response is an understanding or sharing of affect; whether an empathic response is a response to an object, another’s affect, and/or circumstance; which mechanisms explain empathy, and is self-other differentiation required by various definitions. This discussion is related to an examination of representative, predictive and situational measures. Comments are made regarding the reliability and construct validity of certain measures. The implications of this evidence for the use and the development of measures are advanced. A cognitive theoretical perspective is applied, in which variables that influence empathic learning are discussed with several applications of data, to assist in our understanding of empathy.Copyright © 1975 S. Karger AG, Basel