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PSYC 333 > Empathy > Flashcards

Empathy Flashcards

1
Q

Definitions of Empathy

A
  • “An affective response more appropriate to someone else’s situation
  • From the German “einfuhlung” : feeling into than to one’s own”
  • “The drive to identify another person’s emotions and thoughts, and to respond to these with an appropriate emotion
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2
Q

Affective Empathy

A

Sharing another person’s emotional state (can be -tive or +tive)

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3
Q

Emotion contagion

A

the spontaneous spread of emotions from one person to another

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4
Q

Assessing Affective Empathy - Most commonly assessed via

A

self-report

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5
Q

The Basic Empathy Scale - Limitations

A

Socially desirable to report higher empathy

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6
Q

Mimicry

A

Reflexive mirroring another person’s behaviour
* Facial expressions
* Body posture

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7
Q

Emerges in

A

infancy and apparent throughout life

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8
Q

In humans, mimicry contributes to emotion contagion by eliciting

A

corresponding emotions associated with the mimicked behaviour

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9
Q

STUDY: Facial Expressions Influences Humor Judgments
TEETH VS LIPS RESULTS

A

Participants in the teeth condition found the cartoons funnier

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10
Q

STUDY: Botox VS Restylane RESULTS (watching video clips pre and post cosmetic procedure) RESULTS

A

Botox group reported decreased emotional intensity, but only to mildly positive videos

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11
Q

Partially supports the idea that facial expressions influence

A

emotions

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12
Q

Neural Resonance

A

The same neural systems are activated when we experience an affective state as when we simply observe another person experiencing that same affective state

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13
Q

Shown for

A

motor intentions, physical, and disgust

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14
Q

Simulation Theory - To understand others’ “minds”, we use our

A

own motor, neural, and mental processes as a model to “simulate” the experiences of others

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15
Q

Simulation Theory - Low-level/ bottom-up simulation

A

automatic and rapid

ex: mimicry, neural resonance

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16
Q

STUDY: Blocking Mimicry Impairs Emotion Recognition

Botox Study

A

Botox impaired recognition of positive and negative emotional facial expressions, compared to control group

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17
Q

STUDY: Blocking Mimicry Impairs Emotion Recognition

Blocking facial expressions (pen)

A

Blocking facial muscle mimicry by biting on a pen impaired recognition of emotional expressions, specifically happiness and disgust

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18
Q

Simulation Theory - High-level/ top-down

A

controlled, slow

Mentally putting oneself in someone else’s situation

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19
Q

Cognitive Empathy

A

Understanding another person’s mental/emotional state

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20
Q

Can be accomplished via:

A
  • Emotion contagion
  • Perspective-taking: Explicitly imagining oneself in another person’s situation
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21
Q

Development of Cognitive Empathy: In children, assessed using

A

false-belief tasks (Sally Ann Task)

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22
Q

Emerges around

A

4 years old

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23
Q

Across countries, most

A

3 year olds fail(14%pass rate) and most 5 year olds pass (85%) false belief tasks

24
Q

Assessing Cognitive Empathy - Self Report Example

A

The Basic Empathy Scale

25
Limitations
* Social desirability issues * How do we know they’re accuracy?
26
Behavioural measures assessing
Empathic accuracy * Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test
27
Mind in the Eyes Test: Issues + what do they use now?
too easy static when in real life emotions evolve over time - so they used Empathic accuracy task
28
Empathic Accuracy Task - Target
* Target is filmed while talking about an emotion event * Watch video and continuously rate how they were feeling
29
Empathic Accuracy Task - Perceiver
Watches target’s video and continuously rates how they think the target was feeling
30
Empathic accuracy
time-series correlation between the target’s emotions and the perceiver’s inference of the target’s emotions
31
Empathic accuracy has been associated with a variety of positive relationship outcomes
* Targets feeling understood * Better support provision * Greater romantic relationship satisfaction * Better quality friendships
32
There is more variability in
target’s ability to accurately express themselves than in perceiver’s ability to accurately “read” targets’ emotions
33
Characteristics of Empathic Perceivers - Trait affective empathy
Self-reported affective empathy is positively correlated with empathic accuracy, but only when for expressive targets
34
Characteristics of Empathic Perceivers - Alexithymia
* Difficulties describing and recognizing emotions within one self * Associated with lower cognitive AND affective empathy
35
Characteristics of Empathic Perceivers - Emotion regulation skills
* Perspective-taking is more accurate when emotional arousal is modulated rather than overwhelming * Associated with increased personal distress when confronted with another’s arousal
36
Gender Differences in Empathy Women consistently self-report higher
higher affective and cognitive empathy
37
On behavioural measures, women tend to show .... BUT .....
higher affective empathy but there are no gender differences on cognitive empathy
38
Possible explanations:
* Biologically based * Socialization of gender roles
39
Situational and State Moderators of Empathy - Knowledge of the target
* More emotion sharing and empathic accuracy for close others * Easier to accurately simulate what a person is feeling when we are familiar with them
40
Situational and State Moderators of Empathy - Similarity to the target
* More emotion sharing and empathic accuracy for in-group vs. out-group members * Use of self as a model to simulate others’ experience is more likely to be accurate when the target is similar to us
41
Situational and State Moderators of Empathy - Motivation to empathize
* Less empathy when it is perceived as costly, e.g.cognitive effort, experiencing distress * More empathy when it is perceived as beneficial to the perceiver, i.e.,socially rewarding
42
Prosocial Motivation - Empathic concern:
An other-oriented response inducing motivation to help * Synonyms: Sympathy, compassion * Generally considered the desired outcome of empathy * Help either via emotional support or instrumental support
43
Personal distress
Self-focused, aversive reaction, often leading to withdrawing from the situation to alleviate one’s own discomfort * A form of emotion contagion
44
Self-Other Merging
Psychological overlap in the mental representation between the self and other common in close relationships The outcome/basis of empathy
45
BUT, too much seems to be problematic - High self-other merging is associated with
Personal distress
46
STUDY: SCC, Self-Other Merging, and Empathy (Donate to Katie) Lower SCC was associated with less
empathic concern which in turn was associated with less money donated to Katie
47
Lower SCC was associated with more
personal distress which was associated with less money donated to Katie
48
Lower SCC was associated with more
self-other merging which in turn was associated with more personal distress
49
Empathic concern, resulting from empathy, motivate us to
help others in distress
50
Although empathy involves some level of “self-other merging”, maintaining a clear distinction between
the “self” and “other” is important for mature empathic responding
51
Having a clear sense of self may help with
maintaining adequate self- other distinction in empathy
52
Many mental health disorders linked to difficulties in
either affective or cognitive empathy
53
Psychopathy: often conceptualized as a deficit in
affective empathy ,although not always related to changes in cognitive empathy
54
Autism Spectrum Disorder often linked to difficulties with
cognitive empathy, but not always related to changes in affective empathy
55
High cognitive, low affective empathy
* Will understand partner’s emotional reaction, but not feel it themselves * More likely to analyze feelings, rather than be emotionally connected with it * Struggle to provide emotional support
56
High affective, low cognitive empathy
* Could become overwhelmed with personal distress leading to withdrawing * Could misread partner’s emotional reaction (missing the mark)

PSYC 333 (21 decks)

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