Technical advancements allow for embodied virtual agents to not only be increasingly human-like, but also to behave and look like particular individuals. As biases towards self-similarity have been found in human-human studies, it is of interest to explore to what extent this applies to virtual characters (VCs). This work set out to extend on previous research that has investigated the effects of facial self-similarity in VCs, and explore it in the context of empathic emotion. For this aim, a method for creating facially similar virtual characters was developed and a user study conducted where 13 participants were told autobiographical stories by a virtual character that either did or did not resemble them facially and/or in gender category. The participants' first impressions and emotional responses were measured. The results showed that even though similarity was not explicitly perceived, a bias might exist towards more positive impressions of self-similar characters, especially in terms of gender category. Regarding the emotional responses, the results did not allow for discovering any difference between conditions but pointed to some interesting differences in comparison to what was hypothesized. The immense ways in which the appearances of virtual characters can be altered provides possibilities to influence the interaction with them. However, although biases might exist on a general level, it is difficult to predict the human responses in individual cases. Virtual characters might make possible a more human-like interaction with technology, however, it might also mean that our reactions to them are influenced by more parameters and our relations to them become even more like those with other humans: complex. / Den tekniska utvecklingen möjliggör numera att virtuella agenter kan göras inte bara människolika, utan även lika specifika individer i hur de beter sig och ser ut. Då tidigare studier påvisat att människor ofta föredrar personer som i någon mån liknar dem själva, är det intressant att utforska i vilken utsträckning detta även gäller virtuella karaktärer. Detta arbete hade som mål att undersöka effekterna av visuella likheter mellan människor och virtuella karaktärer, med fokus på ansikten och genus och i en kontext där empati är betydande. En metod för att konstruera virtuella karaktärer som hade visuella likheter med specifika användare utvecklades, och en användarstudie med 13 deltagare genomfördes. I det konstruerade scenariot berättade en karaktär, som hade likheter med användaren antingen gällande ansiktets utseende och/eller genus, självbiografiska historier. Intrycket av karaktären och den emotionella responsen mättes. Resultaten visade att den visuella likheten inte uppfattades explicit. Dock fanns tendenser som pekar på att likheter framför allt när det gäller sociala kategorier som genus, kan ha en positiv påverkan på hur virtuella karaktärer uppfattas. Det gick inte att upptäcka några skillnader mellan betingelserna gällande den emotionella responsen, men resultaten påvisade intressanta avvikelser från de förväntade reaktionerna. Möjligheterna att designa och anpassa virtuella karaktärer till olika individer och situationer ökar, vilket kan utnyttjas för att försöka påverka hur människor förhåller sig till och interagerar med dem. Det är dock svårt att förutsäga hur människor kommer att reagera och relatera till en virtuell karaktär utifrån generella tendenser, vilket denna studie visar. Virtuella karaktärer kan möjliggöra en mer människolik interaktion med teknik, men det innebär också att många parametrar är inblandade och att relationerna med tekniken blir liksom relationerna mellan människor: komplexa.

<p dir="ltr">Empathic design involves two social practices – one is collaboration with users to elicit and make a meaning of user experiences, and another is intrateam collaboration to develop a mutually understood, agreed-upon interpretation of user experiences among team members. This study is focused on the latter phenomenon, conceptualizing this social practice as team learning for shared empathic understandings. Through this conceptualization, this study aimed to characterize a social mechanism underlying intrateam collaboration in empathic design in terms of how professionals interact with each other to develop and apply shared empathic understandings to design ideas within a team over a design process. For this objective, I conducted a conversation analysis to examine one professional design team’s conversations over a design journey from need-finding to initial ideation to prototyping and testing, exploring team members’ conversational behaviors revealed in conversational exchanges. More specifically, I investigated their conversational behaviors at both the team and individual levels: team learning behaviors (i.e., construction, co-construction, and constructive conflict) for team-level collective behaviors and interpersonal reactions (e.g., move, question, block, etc.) and empathy perspectives (i.e., the first, second, and third-person perspectives) for individual-level behaviors. Through this investigation, I found that a team’s design journey can be characterized by their travel among the team learning behaviors during design conversations and that each type of team learning behavior can be featured by frequently used interpersonal reactions and empathy perspective transitions at the individual level. Through this behavior-oriented, holistic view of team learning for shared empathic understandings, this study provides fresh insights into what conversational behaviors can be more used at the team and individual levels and how these behaviors can facilitate a team to arrive at team-level empathic understandings and design ideas. I discuss the research and educational implications of this study and future research ideas based on this study.</p>

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine hostility in family interaction and its impact on adolescent depression and anxiety with adolescent perspective taking and empathic concern as mediators. Gender differences were also examined. Adolescents were from 353 two-parent families in a large north-western city in the United States and on average were 13.25 years old (SD=1.01) for girls and 13.30 years (SD=.99) for boys at the beginning of the study. This study utilized data from waves 3-5. Earlier waves of data were not used because some of the measures were not available for earlier waves. Results indicated that higher levels of hostility in family interaction were directly related to higher anxiety in boys and girls and higher depression in girls two years later. Hostility in family interaction was not related to adolescent perspective taking, and adolescent perspective taking was not significantly related to anxiety for boys or girls, but it was negatively related to depression at time 5 for girls only. Adolescent empathic concern significantly mediated the relationship between observed hostility in family interaction and adolescent depression and adolescent anxiety for girls but not for boys. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.

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Listening is a fundamental and deceptively complicated component of talk therapy that has received very little specific research attention. The work of Carl Rogers and others promotes the importance of empathic listening to create safety and process client experiences, and several models identify its importance in processing and regulating client emotions (especially in couple therapy, where empathic listening can disrupt rigid conflict cycles and model coregulation skills). Much of the dysregulation and resistance we see in therapy may be related to a perceived lack of safety caused by persistent conflict or previous trauma, explained by the unconscious processes of the autonomic nervous system and polyvagal theory. Polyvagal research also supports the relationship between empathic listening and emotional safety: demonstration of genuine interest, care, acceptance, and validation are perceived as evidence of safety that encourage emotional connection. These behaviors are accessible to novice therapists who are still learning specific models and interventions. This study seeks to illustrate this relationship by conducting a task analysis on empathic listening behaviors by therapists in training in a therapy-as-usual environment. Observation of emotional inquiries in therapy leading to increased perceptions of safety demonstrate that empathic listening requires a sustained balancing of safety-promoting and exploratory behaviors. Therapist directiveness, possibly rooted in anxiety, was a common observation across segments where client safety was not achieved. Our observations also highlight the importance of therapist attunement, or neuroception, to determine whether to use safety-promoting behaviors or exploratory questioning. It is my hope that this research can lend illustration and clarity to the theoretical underpinnings of empathic listening to guide therapist interventions and training.

With this study, we attempted to answer the question Does empathic ability affect the choices made by players in decision-based games?. Nine participants were asked to complete an empathy questionnaire, play the first episode of Square Enix’s game Life Is Strange, and fill out a survey with the choices they made while playing. Five participants were then invited to an interview where further research was conducted regarding the motivations of the players and how they related to the game. We found a very weak relationship between empathic ability and the choices made (R = 0.3653), which, especially given the small group of participants, is not enough to sufficiently prove a relation. However, we found four common themes in the motivations of the players and how they related to the game: role-playing, curiosity, real life, and not real. / Med denna studie ämnade vi svara på forskningsfrågan Påverkar empatiförmåga valen spelare gör i beslutsbaserade spel?. Nio deltagare ombads fylla i ett frågeformulär om empatiförmåga, spela igenom första avsnittet av Square Enix spel Life Is Strange och fylla i ett formulär med valen de gjorde medan de spelade. Fem deltagare blev därefter inbjudna till en intervju där vidare forskning kring spelarnas motivation och hur de relaterade till spelet genomfördes. Vi hittade ett svagt förhållande mellan empatiförmåga och de val som gjordes (R = 0.3653), vilket, speciellt givet det låga antalet deltagare, inte är tillräckligt för att påvisa en relation. Vi fann dock fyra allmänna teman kring spelarnas motivation och hur de relaterade till spelet: rollspel, nyfikenhet, verkliga livet och inte verkligt.

Empathie wird als ein multidimensionales Konstrukt verstanden, welches kognitive Aspekte wie empathische Akkuratheit (die Fähigkeit, die Emotionen einer anderen Person akkurat zu erken-nen) als auch affektive Aspekte wie Emotionskongruenz (die Fähigkeit, die Emotionen anderer zu teilen) und Mitgefühl (die Fähigkeit, ein Gefühl von Sorge für diese Person zu erleben) umfasst (z.B. Davis, 1994; Eisenberg & Fabes, 1990). Ziel der Dissertation war es zu einem umfassenden Verständnis altersbezogener Unterschiede in diesen drei Empathiefacetten beizutragen. Ausgehend von der Überlegung, dass empathische Akkuratheit wesentlich von alterssensitiven kognitiven Prozessen determiniert wird (z.B. Adolphs, 2002), während affektive Empathiefacetten vor allem altersfreundliche emotionsregulatorische Voraussetzungen haben (z.B. Eisenberg, 2000), wurde vermutet, dass empathische Akkuratheit Altersdefizite aufweist, während Gefühlskongruenz und Mitgefühl altersbezogene Zugewinne zeigen. Da Evidenz dafür vorliegt, dass altersbezogene Defizite in unterschiedlichen kognitiven und emotionalen Leistungsbereichen reduziert werden, wenn die Aufgabe eine besondere Bedeutung für Ältere hat (z.B. Hess, Rosenberg & Waters, 2001; Kunzmann & Grühn, 2005), lag ein weiteres Ziel der Studie darin, zu überprüfen, ob Altersunterschiede in der Empathie durch die Altersrelevanz der Aufgabe moderiert werden. Grund für diese Annahme liefert das Modell der selektiven Optimierung mit Kompensation (z.B. Baltes & Baltes, 1990) sowie die Selective Engagement Theorie (Hess, 2006), die übereinstimmend po-stulieren, dass Personen mit zunehmendem Alter dazu tendieren mit den ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden Ressourcen sparsam umzugehen und diese primär in Bereichen einsetzen, die sie für relevant halten. Basierend auf diesen Überlegungen wurde vermutet, dass Altersdefizite in empathischer Akkuratheit weniger wahrscheinlich sind, wenn die Aufgabe von hoher Relevanz für Ältere ist; in der Emotionskongruenz sollten sich die Altersgewinne in den für Ältere relevanten Aufgaben sogar vergrößern. Da erste Evidenz dafür vorliegt, dass Altersunterschiede im Mitgefühl nicht durch die Altersrelevanz moderiert werden, wurde vermutet, dass Ältere ein höheres Ausmaß an Mitgefühl berichten – unabhängig von der Relevanz der Aufgabe. Zur Überprüfung der Hypothesen wurden 101 jungen und 101 älteren Erwachsenen Filmausschnitte präsentiert, in denen eine junge oder eine ältere Person ein autobiografisches, für ihre Altersgruppe relevantes oder altersneutrales Erlebnis schilderte, und dabei echte Emotionen wiedererlebte. Zur Erfassung empathischer Fähigkeiten sollten die Teilnehmer mithilfe einer Emotionsadjektivliste angeben, in welchem Ausmaß die gezeigte Person sowie sie selbst jedes dieser Gefühle erlebt haben. Erwar-tungsgemäß zeigten sich für die Filme ohne besondere Altersrelevanz negative Altersunterschiede in empathischer Akkuratheit, während Gefühlskongruenz und Mitgefühl Altersgewinne aufwiesen. Wie angenommen wurden Altersdefizite in empathischer Akkuratheit durch die Altersrelevanz der Aufgabe moderiert; Ältere erzielten die gleiche Leistung wie Jüngere, wenn das geschilderte Thema von hoher Relevanz für sie war. Hingegen zeigte sich keine Moderation der Altersunterschiede für Emotionskongruenz. Wie erwartet erlebten Ältere mehr Mitgefühl als Jüngere – unabhängig von der Aufgabenrelevanz. Zusammengenommen sprechen die Befunde dafür, dass Altersunterschiede in der Empathie multidirektional und kontextabhängig verlaufen.

abstract: Empathy is a critical component of high-quality healthcare. When present in the clinical encounter, empathy is important to physicians (empathy is correlated with reductions in physician anxiety and burnout) and to patients (empathy is correlated with better medical decision making, enhanced trust, and improved treatment adherence). Unfortunately, there is an empathy gap in healthcare–physicians often miss opportunities to demonstrate empathy to their patients. This leaves patients feeling unheard, less likely to bring up details important to their care, and less likely to follow treatment guidelines from physicians, thus disrupting the physician-patient relationship. Luckily, communicating with empathy is a skill that can be taught and learned. With the right tools, learners can strengthen their empathic muscle and become better prepared for responding in difficult situations. The present thesis aims to validate a new tool for teaching empathy to medical trainees. This tool, an empathic communication guide, is drawn from social work as well as medical expertise. It is catered specifically to how medical trainees are accustomed to learning and provides the actual words to say in order to respond with empathy in difficult situations. A group of 8 palliative care fellows at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas received a copy of this guide and participated in an accompanying communication workshop. To gauge empathic responding ability, fellows completed pre- and post- surveys and patient simulations. These data were analyzed using a combination of novel and established methods for quantifying empathic behaviors. Fellows’ empathic communication skill significantly improved after exposure to the guide opening avenues for future study and application. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Work 2020

As a Rogerian mental health therapist, a personal journey was taken that establishes my practice ethics as an applied theatre practitioner. What was undertaken was the unpacking of a practice ethics gained through my training as an actor and therapist. This thesis examines the role of codes or standards of practice in humanistic counselling, applied theatre and a synthesized practice between both. Standards of practice shape these practices through the specific ideologies relevant within the institutional cultures in which the practice is applied. This is especially problematic when the institutional setting understands care delivery as practice shaped by problem identification, interventions and expected outcome goals. Further, the ideology that underpins the standard, becomes self-reinforcing and tends to exert influence over what type of practice is culturally relevant or considered best practice within the institutional setting. This is of concern for practitioners who practice from a different or multiple ideological base from the institutional setting in which they work. A shaping goal of the research was to test-out, through critical evaluation, if the American Counseling Association's (ACA's) standards of practice was relevant and applicable to a synthesized practice between humanistic counselling practice and applied theatre practice. The results posed by the critical evaluation suggest that the ACAs standard is not applicable because it promotes empirical, or rather, evidenced-based models of practice over humanist ones. Because of its limited scope of application, the ACAs model is not applicable to synthesized or dual practices that bridge particular fields. Through lines of valuing within bridged fields, usually represent multiple ideological drivers. It was found that as a standard of practice the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP) standard is a better fit. It is compatible with social construction. Within the research Carl Rogers' humanistic, client-centered and non-directive therapy is contrasted with Joseph Chaikin's brand of experimental theatre exemplified in his The Presence of the Actor. Chaikin's book is used as a tool to reconstruct examples of what I came to understand as ethical practice while attending drama school in the UK. The understandings gleaned by the juxtaposition impacts how I understand the ACAs utility as a practitioner.

As alterações ocorridas no ambiente de prestação de serviços médicos nos últimos anos são profundas. Como em outras áreas profissionais, a pressão por produtividade, o aumento do volume de informações, a interferência de novas tecnologias, a elevação do custo dos serviços e a concomitante redução do orçamento das fontes pagadoras causam um profundo impacto na relação entre o profissional e seu cliente, o paciente. Esta relação é fundamental para uma boa evolução do tratamento, e para a satisfação e recomendação dos serviços por parte do paciente. Diante do cenário de mudanças sem precedentes nessa delicada relação, a presente dissertação teve por objetivo apresentar formas de aprimorar a relação médico-paciente através da melhora da comunicação entre ambos durante os instantes em que ocorre a interação entre eles, por ocasião da consulta. Para tanto, realizou-se uma revisão teórica e um trabalho de campo exploratório. Na bibliografia consultada, foram apresentados alguns fatores com impacto negativo no atual exercício da profissão médica junto ao paciente, e sua importância foi discutida. A revisão teórica também explorou as expectativas dos pacientes quanto ao atendimento, e o impacto de tais expectativas na percepção do paciente sobre o serviço recebido e no seu comportamento após o atendimento. Com base nos artigos pesquisados, foram apresentados alguns conceitos importantes para a melhora desta relação e da comunicação entre médico e paciente. O trabalho de campo foi realizado por meio de uma pesquisa exploratória e qualitativa, que utilizou como método o estudo de caso único com confrontação teórica. A organização estudada foi o Instituto Dante Pazzanese de Cardiologia, e a unidade de análise estudada foi o processo de comunicação médico-paciente dentro do contexto da organização, e seu impacto na satisfação dos pacientes atendidos. As evidências foram colhidas paralelamente junto a um grupo de médicos residentes e um grupo de pacientes. Em seguida, cada grupo teve suas evidências analisadas individualmente. Foi também realizada a comparação das evidências colhidas de ambos os grupos com a revisão teórica, e identificação dos gaps. Verificou-se que embora o atendimento no Instituto Dante Pazzanese de Cardiologia seja muito bem avaliado, a maioria de seus pacientes menciona a existência de graves problemas em outros centros de atendimento, relacionados à falta de comunicação empática durante a interação médico-paciente, com importantes consequências. Os médicos residentes, por sua vez, mencionaram vários fatores estressores com impacto para médicos, pacientes e seus familiares. A pesquisa concluiu que o paciente se sente satisfeito quando se sente acolhido, quando o médico olha nos seus olhos e fala o seu nome, quando percebe o interesse dele por seu estado de saúde, recebe atenção e informações honestas - adequadas ao seu nível de compreensão. Os conceitos e propostas apresentados na revisão teórica, bem como as conclusões obtidas com este trabalho, podem contribuir para o desenvolvimento de estratégias e treinamentos práticos para os profissionais médicos desenvolverem uma abordagem mais empática com seus pacientes, aumentando o potencial terapêutico da interação. A pesquisa mostrou aplicação prática e impacto social, uma vez que corrobora para o efetivo aumento da intenção de adesão às recomendações médicas. / Changes that have taken place in the medical service environment in recent years are profound. As in other professional areas, the pressure for productivity, the increase in the volume of information, the interference of new technologies, the increase in the cost of services and the concomitant reduction of the budget of paying sources have an essential impact on the relationship between the professional and his client, the patient. This relationship is fundamental for a good evolution of the treatment, and the satisfaction and recommendation of the services by the patient. Given the unprecedented scenario of changes in this delicate relationship, the present dissertation aimed to present ways of improving the doctor-patient relationship through better communication between both during the moments in which the interaction between them occurs. For that, a theoretical review and exploratory fieldwork were carried out. In the bibliography researched, some factors in the current medical profession exercise with a negative impact on patients were presented, and their importance was discussed. The theoretical review also explored patients\' expectations regarding medical service, the impact of such expectations on the patient\'s perception of the service received, and their behavior after that. Based on the articles researched, we presented some important concepts for the improvement of this relationship and the communication between doctor and patient. The fieldwork was carried out through exploratory and qualitative research, which used a single case study method, with theoretical confrontation. The organization studied was Dante Pazzanese Institute of Cardiology, and the unit of analysis studied was the physician-patient communication process within the context of the organization, and its impact on the satisfaction of patients attended. Evidence was collected in parallel with a group of resident physicians and a group of patients. Then, each group had its evidence analyzed individually. The evidence collected from both groups were compared with the theoretical review, and gaps were identified. Although the medical care in Dante Pazzanese Institute of Cardiology is very well evaluated, most of its patients mention the existence of severe problems in other care centers, related to lack of empathic communication during doctor-patient interaction, with significant consequences. Resident physicians mentioned several stressors that had an impact on physicians, patients, and their families. The research concluded that the patient is satisfied when he feels welcomed, when the doctor looks into his eyes and speaks his name, when he realizes doctor\'s interest in his health, and receive honest information and attention - appropriate to his level of understanding. The concepts and proposals presented in the theoretical review, as well as the conclusions obtained with this work, can contribute to the development of strategies and practical training for medical professionals to develop a more empathic approach with their patients, increasing the therapeutic potential of the interaction. This research has practical applications and social impact, as it contributes to increase the intention to adhere to medical recommendations