Task 7 - Compassion and Empathy Flashcards
socio-affective route and socio-cognitive route
Explain dissociation and interaction, brain regions.
SOCIO_AFFECTIVE ROUTE
empathy: process of sharing feelings with someone else, associated with shared network hypothesis
brain regions: anterior insula and aMCC
compassion: feeling of warmth and concern for others, associated with reward and affiliation networks
brain regions: VS, Nucleus accumbens, VTA, mOFC. ACC
SOCIO-COGNITVE ROUTE
theory of mind: taking another person’s perspective to gain a cognitive understanding of someone else’s thought or intentions
brain areas: TPJ, STS, temporal lobes. MFC, PCC
- both routes are dissociated but can be recruited together in complex social situations. For example, the socio-affective route can inhibit the socio-cognitive route
self-other distinction
self-other distinction critical for empathy and ToM
- tempo-parietal regions seem to be involved in self-other distinction
- failure might result in egocentricity bias (TPJ) or altercentric bias
Prosocial behaviour and brain regions, emotion regulation strategies involved
AI activity predicted donations when subjects reported empathic feelings for charity’s goal
TPJ activity predicted donations when subject took perspective of organisation’s goal
Emotion regulation strategies:
- compassion: up-regulation of positive affect
- reappraisal: down-regulation of negative affect
dark side of empathy
empathic distress: when you are affected yourself by the emotions the other person feels; associated with psychiatric disorders
empathy-altruism hypothesis
empathic concern -> altruistic behaviour
Individual differences in emotion regulation moderate the associations between empathy and affective distress (POWELL)
Explain the emotion regulation strategies in this paper and why they are important here.
Cognitive reappraisal: reinterpreting things in a way that alters their affective impact -> linked to positive outcomes
Suppression: inhibiting emotional expression -> linked to negative outcomes
Why are they interested in these concepts?
They assume that individual differences in emotion regulation moderate the effect of empathy on affective disorders.
Individual differences in emotion regulation moderate the associations between empathy and affective distress (POWELL)
What is the hypothesis?
What are the variables?
Hypothesis: individual differences in emotion regulation (reappraisal vs. suppression) moderate the effect of empathy on affective disorders.
Variables
- empathy
- emotion regulation strategies (ERQ)
- affective distress (depression, anxiety and stress)
Individual differences in emotion regulation moderate the associations between empathy and affective distress (POWELL)
Explain the results using the figure.
Main effects:
- cognitive empathy is negatively associated with affective distress
- affective empathy is positively associated with affective distress
- No quadratic relationship between empathy and affective distress (except for cognitive empathy on stress)
- reappraisal negatively associated with affective distress
- suppression positively associated with affective distress
Moderating Effects:
- reappraisal positively moderates effects of empathy on distress
- by reducing the affective distress of high affective empathy - suppression negatively moderates the effects of empathy on distress
- by reducing the positive effect of cognitive empathy - Surprise: suppression had a positive effect on depression and stress in those with higher affective empathy
Bottom line: differences in ER influence whether empathic behaviour increases the risk for affective distress
Individual differences in emotion regulation moderate the associations between empathy and affective distress (POWELL)
Explain the interaction between emotion regulation strategies and empathy.
Affective empathy predicts greater distress
- effect absent when people were high on reappraisal
- reduced effect in people who used suppression (?)
Cognitive empathy predicts lower distress
- but not when people are high on suppression
Empathy avoidance paper (CAMERON)
Explain the main findings of CAMERON and explain why he thinks empathy might be avoided by people.
What is their experimental paradigm?
-suggests that empathy is effortful and costly; associates it with a cost-benefit analysis wich is the reason for its avoidance
paradigm: empathy selection task
- measures empathy avoidance via situation selection
Main findings:
- Subjects avoid empathy over a range of studies and associate it with effort, aversion and less efficacy -> cog. costs
- This avoidance might be overridden by a sufficient external reward
- Implicates that reducing cognitive costs might increase the willingness to empathize
Empathy and its Discontents (BLOOM)
What are negative consequences of empathy? Give examples.
1- Empathy clashes with moral views
- Empathy is spotlight nature and vulnerable to biases:
- inherently innumerate: we cannot emphasize with thousands of people
- identifiable victim effect: 1 picture of 1 sick child is more efficient in terms of donations than saying 10 children are in need
- ingroup bias - Empathy can motivate bad actions
- harm others to defend a friend
- aggression to outgroups (e.g. facism)
Empathy and its Discontents (BLOOM)
What does he say about compassion?
Compassion can explain why we disapprove people who cheat on taxe even though we do not emphasize with anybody; we comfort a child afraid of a dog even though we aren’t
COMPASSION IS GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!
