Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / The theories ot empathy in the visual aesthetic experience as propound by Theodor Lipps, Vernon Lee and Hugo Munsterberg attempt to explain cognition ar qualities that do nat correspond to any specific sensations due to an object, but are nevertheless attributed to the object just as the specific sensations (e.g. of red or blue) are attributed to it. Pleasure felt as a result of experiencing the aesthetic object is not felt as occurring in the observer's body but as tied up with the object. The empathists discussed haw different explanations for the way that this attribution ot what seem to be "illusory qualities" is achieved. For Theodor Lipps empathy is a more complex process than it is for the other empathists. According to his view the observer, on one hand, participates in the life and activity of the object, and, on the other hand, attributes these "illusory" qualities to the object. [TRUNCATED]

Lo Emily Hoi Yee. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-58). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter CHAPTER 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Figure 1 --- p.3 / Direct Aggression and Indirect Aggression --- p.4 / Emotion Regulation --- p.6 / Empathy --- p.10 / Social intelligence --- p.14 / The Present Study --- p.21 / Chapter CHAPTER 2. --- METHOD --- p.23 / Participants and Procedures --- p.23 / Instruments --- p.23 / Chapter CHAPTER 3. --- RESULTS --- p.28 / Descriptive Statistics --- p.28 / Table 1 --- p.29 / Correlations and Partial Correlations --- p.29 / Table 2 --- p.31 / Table 3 --- p.32 / Path analysis --- p.32 / Figure 2 --- p.34 / Figure 3 --- p.35 / Chapter CHAPTER 4. --- DISCUSSION --- p.37 / The Hypotheses --- p.37 / Gender --- p.40 / Culture --- p.42 / Limitations --- p.43 / Developmental Implications --- p.45 / Clinical Implications --- p.46 / Future Direction --- p.47 / REFERENCES --- p.49

Empathy is vital for relationships in the social world. Although definitions vary, theory and research has delineated empathy into cognitive and affective components. Recent ideas propose there are further aspects that are important to empathy, such as the ability versus the drive to empathise within both the cognitive and affective components. Various self-report indexes have been developed to measure empathy, yet current measures do not reflect all theories about empathy. The aim of this thesis was to develop and validate a new empathy questionnaire that included further components more consistent with recent ideas and theories about empathy. This thesis further aimed to use this questionnaire to investigate the components of empathy in autism, which is characterised in part by empathy deficits. The first study investigated the structure of empathy in the commonly-used Empathy Quotient (EQ) short-form to examine which empathy components it indexes. Results showed cognitive, affective and social skill components were extracted from the EQ-short, but also revealed ability and drive aspects captured within affective empathy but not within cognitive empathy components. This suggested items of the EQ-short incorporates some, but not all, components proposed to be important to empathy. Consequently, a new self-report empathy questionnaire called the Empathy Components Questionnaire (ECQ) was developed in order to fully capture all components of empathy. A five-factor solution was developed and confirmed for the ECQ across multiple independent samples in studies two through five, revealing five components of cognitive ability, cognitive drive, affective ability, affective drive, and affective reactivity. A final study revealed individuals with autism had lower self-reported cognitive empathy, affective drive and affective reactivity compared to controls, but comparable scores between groups for affective ability. This thesis produced a new measure of empathy more in-line with recent theories, which provided understanding about empathy and how it differs in autism.

Empati förknippas i regel med medkänsla för andra. Forskning har visat att omvårdnad av andra utvecklar förståelsen för andras situation och ger högre empati. Studiens syfte var att undersöka om det finns samband mellan empati i relation till någon eller något utanför sig själv. Empatin mättes med Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index i relation till om man har husdjur, vårdar andra, har levande växter, växte upp med syskon, följer en vegetarisk/vegankost, har barn, lever ensam och har blivit utsatt för mobbning. 180 deltagare var av 107 kvinnor, 60 män samt 13 icke benämnda kön rekryterades genom en kombination av strategiskt och tillgänglighetsurval.Resultaten visade att de som vårdade andra hade lägre empati än de som inte vårdade andra, de utan barn hade högre empati än föräldrar, yngre hade högre empati än äldre och kvinnor hade högre empati än män. Ett varierat urval och ett reliabelt mätinstrument var några av studiens styrkor.

Individuals feel more empathy for those in their group (i.e., ingroup members) and less for those who are not (i.e., outgroup members). But evidence suggests that empathy is not merely selective to the other’s group, rather it fluctuates according to how the other’s group is perceived by the individual. This project was developed to investigate whether individuals truly differentiate between outgroups when it comes to empathy. Across several studies, I presented participants with images depicting others receiving physically painful stimulations. The other person in each case was a member of the ingroup or one of two outgroups, one of which was more of a competitive threat to the ingroup. In Study 3, I found that participants exhibited an ingroup bias, that is, greater levels of empathy to images of ingroup pain, compared to outgroup pain. In Study 4, I found that empathic responses also varied between the two outgroups: Empathy was significantly lower when targets were from the outgroup that was perceived as more of a competitive threat to the ingroup, than the other outgroup. This provided the first evidence that beliefs about outgroups, and not merely the ingroup-outgroup distinction, modulates empathic processing. I also investigated the extent to which threats that are incidental to the ingroup context affect empathy. Across two studies I showed reliable evidence that priming incidental feelings of fear was sufficient to elicit intergroup bias in self-reported empathy, specifically against the outgroup, i.e., reduced empathy for outgroup targets, rather than increased empathy for ingroup targets. Finally, I investigated the extent to which my findings could be accounted for by individual differences. In a series of ‘mini meta-analyses’, I provide evidence that in an intergroup context a shared group membership confers an empathic advantage when responding to a target’s pain, regardless of one’s sex or their scores on a measure of trait empathy.

The quality of our lives can be characterized, in part, by the emotions we experience. Feeling a preponderance of negative emotions is characteristic of a range of psychological and affective disorders. As such, the ability to regulate emotions has been recognized as critical for maintaining mental health. While definitions of emotions abound, they have been primarily conceptualized as intrapersonal responses to one’s environment. Yet, while our social interactions are an inseparable aspect of our emotional lives, relatively little emphasis has been placed in prior research on the social bases of emotional experiences. This dissertation presents three bodies of research that investigate the role of social processes in experiencing and regulating negative emotions. In the first body of research, I present four studies that investigate how empathy, the ability to experience another person’s emotions, is involved in experiencing anxiety. In the second body of research, I transition to investigating the social bases of emotion regulation. Here, I present two multi-phase studies that investigate how social emotion regulation may be best implemented to help others experiencing different kinds of negative emotions. The third body of research investigates the neural bases of social emotion regulation. The results of these studies highlight how social processes are an inherent part of emotional experiences and emotion regulation.

Empathy is an important human trait that we need to communicate with other individuals. According to the research found in this paper, the lack of empathy in children leads often to developing of aggressive behavior that causes communication difficulties with the children. Research has also shown that children attending preschool has more empathic development.The purpose of this paper is to provide knowledge about how teachers in preschool work with empathy in the pedagogical practice and in preschool education.  By interviewing six different preschool teachers at two different preschools around the Växjö area in Småland, Sweden. The analysis showed that different factors such as size of the child group and the age of the children influence how the preschoolers choose to shape their pedagogy.  The result shows that the preschool teachers have worked with different conversation technique, they have tried to act as good role models for the children and they teach the children that different feelings can be felt and displayed in different ways. In the discussion it shows that the paper could be done differently if there was more time and more preschools to interview. Finally, the effect of empathy on preschool teachers is taken into account and the consequences of empathically charged situations.

Patients who are treated empathically tend to be more satisfied and have better health outcomes. Many instruments for measuring empathy in different health contexts have been developed for postgraduate and to a lesser extent undergraduate health professional use. This thesis presents the results of three studies. The first is a systematic review of the literature describing empathy measures for use in the health professional context. The review was conducted to find the best measure specifically designed for and evaluated in the clinical context that assessed empathy reliably and preferably from a patient perspective. The Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) measure was selected from the 12 potential empathy measures available. This instrument was developed and tested in general practice consultations in Scotland, and its usefulness for assessing physicians’ empathy has been demonstrated. The second study, which forms the main research component of the thesis, is an evaluation of the utility of the CARE measure in assessing medical undergraduates on general practice placements. This study aimed to establish whether the CARE measure offers a reliable, valid, and practical means of assessing certain aspects of senior clinical medical students’ consultation skills. Fifth-year students who performed a two- or three-month GP attachment in academic years 2009–2010, 2010–2011, and 2011– 2012 were invited to participate. In 2011 participation in the study became a course requirement. Consulted patients were invited to complete a modified CARE questionnaire ‘on the student’. The form initially included 11 questions answered on a five -point scale; from the academic year 2010–2011, the form also included a free-text comment option. Patients completed questionnaires anonymously. Forms were collated xvi and forwarded to the principle investigator. A minimum of 25 forms were required for each student in order to minimise potential selection bias in the analysis. In the first year of the study the response rate was 56 %. During the next two academic years, this rate improved to over 95%. The total number of the CARE measure forms returned was 2,145, with 1,808 adequately completed. The average score of the students recruited was 4.57 (standard deviation = 0.19), which is higher than average scores for general practitioners. Generalisability theory calculations showed that the CARE measure had high internal consistency, with 25 patients per student delivering an overall reliability coefficient of 0.74. Using the CARE measure with students significantly correlated at a moderate level with relevant outcome assessments such as the mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mini-CEX), Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) at the end of the GP block, and tutor scores (r = 0.38, r = 0.33, r = 0.33, respectively; P < 0.05). The findings suggest that the CARE measure is a useful tool for assessing senior medical students’ consultation skills, at least in the context of extended general practice attachments. In addition, the measure provides students with valuable and authentic patient feedback for their training. The third study was a ‘mapping exercise’ designed to establish the role of current assessment tools at the University of Dundee in relation to Tomorrow’s Doctors outcomes, and specifically where/how CARE might fit in. Dundee medical faculty staff, block leaders, undergraduate medical educators, and others who engaged directly with assessments and with experience of the existing exams were invited to ‘map’ the value of each aspect of the medical school’s 11 assessment tools against General Medical Council (GMC) attributes. Data was collected electronically from 17 staff xvii members. The results of the exercise revealed both gaps in assessment and over-testing of specific GMC attributes. These findings offer Dundee Medical School an opportunity to optimise their approach to assessment and achieve a broader coverage of GMC outcomes. Thus, the CARE measure offers a logical extension to aspects of the OSCE assessment. The results show that the CARE measure is a feasible, acceptable, reliable, and valid measure for the assessment of students. In addition, as it incorporates authentic patient feedback into training, this measure can offer unique utility to the medical school’s curriculum and assessment as it incorporates the rarely employed patient voice.

Nonprofit organizations face a unique challenge in communicating their messages in a marketing saturated world. The author of this research studied how nonprofit organizations used fear, disgust and empathy in their marketing campaigns to see if the use of these emotions would have an effect on six different factors. The results of this study showed how the use of distress can be used to amplify the feelings people have when they see images that contain both fear and disgust.

Compassion is an important tenet of nursing care delivery. When compassion is compromised, such as with compassion fatigue (CF), not only is patient care compromised, but also caregivers can be physically and psychologically affected, resulting in stress and burnout. The purpose of this project was to create a web-based educational toolkit focused on prevention of CF, establish the content validity of the elements in this toolkit, and make recommendations regarding its implementation and sustainability. Watson's theory of human caring guided this project. Ten experts with at least 10 years of experience and CF knowledge, a bachelor's degree in nursing, and certification or leadership experience validated the toolkit content using a content validity index. Ten toolkit elements were evaluated on a scale of 0 to 1, with a score of 0.79 or greater indicating relevance to content. Items meeting the score included the definition of CF, signs and symptoms, resources to prevent CF, the CF pledge, tools and links, and the goal and mission of the toolkit. A toolkit on CF might impact social change by providing resources for nurses to recognize and prevent CF, thus improving patient care.