A lack of empathy is considered to be a hallmark feature of psychopathy. However, remarkably little research has specifically examined the relationship between psychopathy and empathy, and what does exist relies solely on self-report measures, which is problematic given psychopaths' propensity for dishonesty. This research signifies an attempt to develop an objective measure of empathy, using psychophysiological indices of emotional experience as indicators of an empathic response. Specifically, corrugator and zygomatic facial muscle activity, event-related heart rate, and acoustic startle reflex responses were measured while participants viewed brief films of individuals experiencing happy and sad emotional events.Pilot investigations of the films suggest they are appropriate for eliciting happy and sad empathic emotion, and the pattern of responses by undergraduates with high and low trait levels of empathy indicates the validity of the approach, and the promise of utilizing psychophysiological indices of emotional responding to measure situational empathy in an objective manner. In particular, participants demonstrated patterns of psychophysiological responses to the empathy-inducing films which both matched their self-reported emotional experiences as well as the emotional valence of the stimuli. Moreover, several of the psychophysiological indices were able to discriminate high and low empathy individuals, whereby low empathy participants exhibited less facial expressiveness and less modulation of the acoustic startle reflex to the empathy-inducing stimuli than their high empathy counterparts.The paradigm was then extended to a sample of male undergraduates with high and low levels of psychopathic traits, as assessed by the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised. Results suggest a significant negative relationship between self-reported psychopathy and self-reported dispositional empathy, with high levels of psychopathy associated with low levels of dispositional empathy, particularly with respect to affective empathy. However, despite differences in dispositional empathy, psychopathic and non-psychopathic undergraduates were not easily discriminated on subjective or objective measures of situational empathy, with the exception of an anomalous pattern of zygomatic EMG activity exhibited by the psychopathic participants. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the nature of the empathic capabilities of psychopaths, as well as considerations of the methodological limitations of the current study and directions for future research.

En tidigare studie har visat att negativa effekter av att känna empati är övervägande på kort sikt medan positiva effekter är övervägande på lång sikt, gällande psykiatripersonal. Med den aktuella studien avsågs att undersöka huruvida liknande tendenser finns hos en generell population. 253 högskolestudenter deltog, och i en mellangruppsdesign besvarade hälften en enkät belysande upplevelser på kort sikt medan den andra hälften besvarade en likadan enkät belysande upplevelser på lång sikt. Resultatet visade att empati har olika effekter beroende på tidsperspektivet även för människor generellt, i form av mer positiva effekter på lång sikt. Denna effekt återfanns bland såväl kvinnor som män, och bland yngre såväl som äldre. En tänkbar förklaring är att intrycket blir ett annat med tidsmässig distans. / Evidence from an earlier study suggests that negative consequences of feeling empathy are predominant in the short-term, while positive consequences are predominant in the long-term, regarding psychiatry staff. This study investigated whether similar tendencies exist among a general population. 253 university students participated, and a between-subjects design was used in which half of the participants answered questionnaires illustrating experiences in the short-term, and the other half questionnaires illustrating experiences in the long-term. Also for people in general, the results showed that empathy has different effects depending on the time perspective through more positive effects in the long-term. This effect was valid, irrespective of gender or age. A possible explanation is that the impression changes with the distance that time brings.

W. Ickes, L. Stinson, V, Bisonette och S. Garcia (1990) standard stimulus paradigm är en metod för att mäta avläsning av en individs tankar och känslor. För att undersöka tjejer och killars empatiska avläsningsförmåga testades gymnasieelever med Ickes metod. Nittioåtta elever fick se en film som stannades av undersökningsledarna vid tio tillfällen. Deltagarna skulle vid varje stopp försöka läsa av kvinnan i filmens tankar och känslor och skriva ner dessa. Resultaten visade att tjejer är bättre än killar på att läsa av andra. Betyg i svenska och samhällskunskap, men inte matematik hade positivt samband med empati. Studien visade också att individer som gråter ofta har bra avläsningsförmåga. Tjejer med bra betyg och nära till gråt verkar ha de bästa intellektuella och emotionella verktygen för empatisk avläsning.

Šiame darbe yra analizuojamas empatijos, kaip socialinės komunikacijos gebėjimo, ugdymas panaudojant meninį kūrinį. Tam tikslui pasitelkiama Albero Kamiu ir Jurgos Ivanauskaitės kūryba. Šio darbo naujumas yra tai, kad empatijos, kaip socialinės komunikacijos gebėjimo tyrimas, o kartu ir ugdymas yra siejamas su meniniu kūriniu, t.y. grožinės literatūros skaitymu ir interpretavimu. Tyrimo problema – tiriama filosofo Richardo Rorty hipotezė, kad literatūra ugdo empatinius gebėjimus. Iškelta hipotezė – empatija – gebėjimas įsijausti į kito žmogaus emocinę būseną, išgyvenimas to, ką jaučia kitas žmogaus (ypač nerimą, kančią ir skausmą) – yra socialinės komunikacijos gebėjimo pagrindas. Tyrimo tikslas – nagrinėjant literatūros kūrinius tirti ir kartu ugdyti socialinius komunikacinius studentų gebėjimus ir atskleisti empatijos, kaip socialinės komunikacijos gebėjimo, ugdymo galimybes, panaudojant Albero Kamiu ir Jurgos Ivanauskaitės kūrinių tekstus. Tyrimo tikslas buvo siekiamas šiais uždaviniais: aptarta ugdomoji meno kūrinio funkcija filosofiniu aspektu, apibrėžta egzistencinio nerimo ir savęs naikinimo problema filosofijoje, psichologijoje ir literatūroje, atskleista empatijos įtaka socialinės komunikacijos gebėjimo ugdymui, išanalizuotas savidestrukcijos sindromas, savižudybės alternatyva, socialinės pagalbos, mirties ir meilės sąsajos Jurgos Ivanauskaitės kūryboje. Tyrimo metodai: filosofinės, psichologinės, pedagoginės ir grožinės literatūros teorinė analizė, kokybinis... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / This thesis analyzes empathy as social communication skill development using art creation. For this purpose the creation of Albert Camu and Jurga Ivanauskaitee are dealt with. The novelty of this thesis is that empathy asocial communication skill survey as well as its development is associated with art creation, fiction and its interpretation. The paper survey problem is Richard Rorty’s hypothesis that literature develops empathy skills. The hypothesis is that empathy as the ability to feel another person’s emotional state, the feeling what other person feels (anxiety, suffer or pain is the basis of communication ability, the aim of the survey is by literature survey to assess literature creation as well as to educate social communication student’s abilities and to reveal empathy as social creation abilities using creation of Albert Camu and Jurga Ivanauskaitee the aim of the survey was to achieve the following targets: to discuss development art function in psychological aspect, to define existence worry and self- desctruction problem in philosophy, psychology and literature. Self – destruction syndrome is analyzed as well as suicide alternative, social care, death and love link in the creation of Jurga Ivanauskaite. Research methods were as follows; analysis of philosophical, psychological, pedagogy and fiction theory, quality phenomen decal research and education pedagogy experiment. Theoretical part reveals developing function of an art creation, art and morale conception... [to full text]

The aim of this thesis is to overview studies examining the effect ethnicity has on the neural and physiological responses associated with empathy and the underlying mechanisms behind this effect.  It has been revealed that ethnicity can modulate the empathic responses in that faster physiological arousal and greater sensorimotor resonance occurs during the perception of own ethnic members in suffering. A reduction and even total absence of activity in empathy-associated brain regions such as anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, temporo partial junction and medial prefrontal cortex has further been seen during the perception of other ethnic members in pain. There have however been studies where ethnicity has not had an effect on empathic responses, indicating that it might not be ethnicity per se but instead other underlying mechanisms that causes the difference in empathic responses. There is an ongoing debate on which these mechanisms might be. It has been suggested that it might be attitudes, similarity and familiarity with the target, general ingroup bias, differences in perceptual processes and culture. The thesis will end with a discussion on how the results can be interpreted, the implications of the results, proposals for future research directions and a conclusion.

The aim of this study was to investigate what empathy means to Swedish social workers and to discover in which ways empathy may be used within social work practice in Sweden. The phenomenon of empathy has already been investigated in several areas such as; social science, psychology and neuroscience and it remains as a growing subject in academic research. In this study, the subject of empathy was investigated within the context of Swedish social work practice. A qualitative study was conducted by using the methodology of a phenomenological approach. The research questions were formed to obtain substantial information about the description of empathy, as well as to discover how empathy has been used by a sample of Swedish social workers when working with people from vulnerable groups. The chosen theory in this study was symbolic interactionism and it was employed in the analysis along with different previous research. The results in this study indicated that the respondents found it important to show empathy towards the clients as a part of being a professional social worker. Empathy still appeared to be a contextually dependent phenomenon and the positive outcomes of showing empathy may be affected negatively due to distressful factors.    Key words: social work, empathy, symbolic interactionism

For some of the children in our classrooms today, having a connection to someone or something can be the key to improving their overall well-being, sense of self worth, and indirectly have a positive impact on their academic success. This study, through qualitative research methods, and the use of grounded theory and narrative as methods of analysis, aimed to shed light on the interconnectedness and relationship between the themes of a caring classroom, emotional intelligence, and the presence of a dog in a classroom. A total of six individuals participated in this study, over the course of a three month period. Individual interviews and a focus group discussion were conducted and allowed the emergence of six themes. These themes are; emotional connection, love and care, empathy, risk taking in a non-threatening environment, calm, and self esteem. A personal narrative, and the inclusion of several stories from the participants were included in the analysis. While this is an area of study that warrents further research and educating of colleagues prior to bringing a dog into a classroom environment, it is also an area of study that is full of possibilities and promise.

This study explored the relation between dispositional empathy and environmental concern by examining the mediating role of nature relatedness. Undergraduate students (n = 125) from the University of Victoria completed a series of questionnaires measuring dispositional empathy, three types of environmental concern, nature relatedness, proenvironmental behaviour and social desirability. Bootstrapping procedures were used to evaluate the meditational model. Perspective taking (a cognitive facet of empathy) appears to relate to biospheric environmental concern indirectly through nature relatedness. Empathic concern (an affective facet of empathy) predicted altruistic environmental concern, but this effect was not mediated by nature relatedness. Proenvironmental behaviour was only related to biospheric concern. These results suggest that the relation between empathy and environmental concern is multifaceted and that proenvironmental behaviour is not consistently an outcome. Possible explanations for this pattern of results are explored. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, and suggestions are made to guide future research. / Graduate

Homelessness is associated with poor health and premature death. Individual’s experiencing homelessness face multiple barriers when accessing health care. Barriers to health care are not limited to administrative issues such as lack of a valid health card or clinic hours but include feeling stigmatized, not respected or marginalized when attempting to access services. These experiences can impact homeless individuals’ willingness to engage with health care providers in the future and have the potential to negatively impact the development and maintenance of a relationship with a provider. Nurses are a point of access into the health care services available to individuals experiencing homelessness and can play a key role in facilitating access to health care. In this research, the experiences of individuals experiencing homelessness when seeking health care were explored. The approach used to guide the research was interpretive description. Interpretive description can have the effect of making one suddenly “see” something in a way that enriches one’s everyday understanding of the lived experiences (Thorne, 2008). Interpretive description while reflecting more traditional aspects of grounded theory as themes are identified and developed during research also utilized the constructivist paradigm. The constructivist paradigm with its’ focus on truth and knowledge coming from the participant supported the interactive link of the relationship between the researcher and the focus of the research on the experience of individuals who are homeless during interactions with community nurses. This study involved in-depth tape recorded conversations with eleven men who had experienced homelessness while seeking health care in the community. The transcribed conversations were analyzed utilizing interpretive description. Each of the participant’s stories are described followed by identification of shared experiences or themes, giving insight into the phenomena of engaging with health care providers, specifically community based nurses, while experiencing homelessness. The intent is to share the lived experience and perspectives embedded in the experiences participants shared, with nurses and health care professionals in the community. The hope is that, through these stories, health-care providers, in particular nurses may develop insights and understanding that can inform both practice and education. / Graduate

This dissertation explores how transformative spaces and agency provide opportunities in everyday lives for transformative shifts from the dominant culture towards a culture of ecological decision-making. Stories about transformative change and system shifts, told by forty people involved in Canada’s Gulf Islands, form the basis for the findings. Their stories demonstrate how personal transformation leads to changed lifestyles and system shifts that reflect the interconnectedness between all living organisms. Two elements of the shift to ecological thinking are increased understanding of the natural world, and willingness to hear and empathise with other people’s realities. Change in communities is cumulative and unpredictable, mirroring personal transformation. Community self-governance is at the core of cultural shifts – the extent to which community members, with various purposes and realities, engage in empathetic dialogue. When interacting with governments and corporations, those who have shifted to ecological-thinking mode exercise their agency and respond according to their inner values. Factors that increase the likelihood of cultural shifts include: a) a multiplicity of different realities in the same space that create the opportunity for people to rethink their cultural box and see the arbitrariness of dominant norms, b) people exercising their agency rather than looking to government as authority, c) collective, non-hierarchical processes, and d) support and links to others in a network of symbiotic ecological-thinking nodes. The power in d) is the power of an accumulation of localisms that creates cultural shifts, arising from communities, which shifts society’s norms and behaviours. / Graduate / 0329 / 0615 / fayweller@shaw.ca