L16 - Empathy

Question 1

Definitions of Empathy

Answer 1

an affective response more appropriate to someone else’s situation than to one’s own

the drive to identify another person’s emotions and thoughts, and to respond to these with an appropriate emotion

Question 2

What is cognitive empathy?

Answer 2

empathic accuracy
mentalizing: reasoning about others’ mental states (thoughts, desires, intentions, etc.)
perspective taking

humans deliberately attempt to reason about others’ mental states and attribute mental states to others

Question 3

What is empathic accuracy?

cognitive empathy

Answer 3

an individual’s ability to accurately infer another person’s thoughts/emotions
- behavioural measure of cognitive empathy

Question 4

Why is empathic accuracy important?

Answer 4

better provision of social support

greater romantic relationship satisfaction

better quality friendships and experiencing less victimization

important for positive social functioning

Question 5

Describe the study on empathic accuracy in friendships

Answer 5

empathic accuracy = comparison between perceiver’s inference of target’s thoughts/emotions and target’s report of own subjective thoughts/emotions

Question 6

Describe the study on empathic accuracy and social support

Answer 6

romantic partners participate in a supportive interaction

empathic accuracy
- watch the video of themselves in the interaction, and indicate when they had a particular thought/feeling
- watch the video of their partner, and try to infer their partner’s thoughts/feelings

supportive behaviours
- emotional support provision (reassures, encourages expression of feelings, provides genuine encouragement)
- instrumental support provision (offers specific plan or assistance, gives helpful advice)
- negative support provision (criticizes, minimizes problem, is inattentive, offers unhelpful advice)

Results:
- male support providers who were more empathically accurate provided more emotional support
- support providers who were more empathially accurate provided more instrumental support
- male support providers who experienced more personal distress provided more instrumental support

Question 7

What is affective empathy?

Answer 7

vicariously experiencing another person’s emotions

emotion contagion: the spontaneous spread of emotions from one person to another

personal distress: aversive, self-focused emotional reaction

empathic concern: reactive emotions which seem to motive and facilitate helping behaviours

Question 8

What is mimicry?

affective empathy

Answer 8

mirroring what another person is feeling
- reflexive
- apparent throughout lifespan

Question 9

What are zygomatic and corrugator muscles responsible for?

affective empathy

Answer 9

zygomatic muscles = smiling

corrugator muscles = frowning

Question 10

What are the two affective empathy processes?

Answer 10

Simulation theory: we simulate others’ observed emotional experiences by recreating similar mental processes

Neuronal resonance: we “parallel” others’ emotions by engaging overlapping neural systems to experience one’s own vs. others’ emotions

Question 11

What is prosocial motivation?

Answer 11

the motivation to act empathically on behalf of others

emotional support: showing care and compassion for another person

instrumental support: providing someone with practical assistance or help

this isn’t necessarily altruistic - it could be to make ourselves feel better

having clear boundaries between the “self” and the “other” is important for mature empathic responding

Question 12

What is self-other merging?

prosocial motivation

Answer 12

we project ourselves into others, and merge our representations of “self” and “other” often

Question 13

How do self-concept clarity, self-other merging and empathy relate to each other?

Answer 13

self-concept clarity
- -self-other merging
- -personal distress
- + empathic concern

self-other merging
- + personal distress

Personal distress
- -helping behaviour

Empathic concern
- +helping behaviour

Question 14

Describe the self-concept clarity, self-other merging, and empathy study

(“Katie”)

Answer 14

Induced empathic repsons with “Katie Banks” paradigm
- “Radio broadcast” about Katie Banks - plea for financial help from “Katie”

Ps rate their empathic response & self-other merging
- empathic concern (compassionate, sympathetic, moved, warm, soft-hearted, tender)
- personal distress (worried, alarmed, grieved, troubled, distressed, perturbed, upset, disturbed)
- immersion of other in the self scale
- self-concept clarity scale

given a small bonus payment, can choose how much to donate

Results:
Self-concept clarity
- -self-merging
- -personal distress
- +empathic concern
- +money donated

Self-other merging
- +personal distress

Personal distress
- -money donated

Empathic concern
- +money donated

Question 15

What is the Three-Part Model of Empathy?

Answer 15

cognitive empathy, prosocial motivation and affective empathy all influence each other

cognitive empathy affects affective empathy:
- informs a more accurate simulation
– share the correct emotion

affective empathy affects cognitive empathy
- provides information
– you’re feeling what they are feeling

cognitive empathy affects prosocial motivation:
- what am I helping with?
– more effective support/help

Affective empathy affects prosocial motivation:
- why should I help?
– make myself feel better

Question 16

How will someone’s prosocial motivation be affected if they are low in cognitive empathy, but high in affective empathy?

Answer 16

could become overwhlemed with personal distress –> withdraw instead of helping

could misread partner’s expressed emotions –> ineffective support

Question 17

How will someone’s prosocial motivation be affected if they are high in cognitive empathy, but low in affective empathy?

Answer 17

could be less motivated to help –> “I recognize that you’re upset, but I don’t get what the big deal is”