measuring empathy presentation at victec technical workshop 17.9.2003, iva, kloster irrsee...
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Measuring EmpathyPresentation at VICTEC technical workshop
17.9.2003, IVA, Kloster Irrsee
Dipl.-Psych. Carsten ZollInstitut für Theoretische Psychologie
Otto-Friedrich-Universität, Bamberg, Germany
Overview1. Psychological Empathy Research – Basic Concepts
2. Psychological Empathy Measures1. Self-Description (Questionnaires)2. Somatic and Psychophysiological Measures3. Empathy as an ability (picture-stories, face recognition)4. Behavioural Measures
3. Evaluation of Empathy in VICTEC Empathic processes during interaction with Demonstrator
1. Psychological Empathy Research Basic Definition from Preston (2001)
Distinctions Affective Empathy Cognitive Empathy Situation mediated Empathy Expression mediated Empathy Ideomotoric Empathy
Psychological Empathy Research – Definition of Preston (2001)
Empathy is
“any process where the attended perception of the object’s state generates a state in the subject that is more applicable to the
object’s state or situation than to the subject’s own prior state or situation”
Subject = “Observer” Object = “Target”
Distinctions – Empathic Outcome Affective Empathy
Observer feels something due to the perception of the Target
Cognitive Empathy Observer knows about the inner state of the
target
Distinctions – Empathic Process Situation mediated Empathy
Observer concludes inner state of the Target from the situation the Target is dealing with
Expression mediated Empathy Observer concludes inner state of Target from
the emotional expression of the Target Facial expression Gesture, Posture Paraverbal Cues Psychophysiological Cues (e.g. flush)
Distinctions – Ideomotoric Empathy Based on James’ (1890) ideomotoric principle:
Each Imagination of a movement inheres the tendency to perform this movement
Further Development by Prinz (1987): Not only Imagination, but also visual perception of a movement can trigger the tendency to perform the same movement
Tendency to perform Target’s movement Oberserver’s inner state changes in the direction of the target’s inner state
New type of Empathy
Experiment: Empathy in Ego-Shooter Games (Zoll, Enz & Schaub, ongoing
research)– Design
Initial DiagnosisPersonality
Questionnaires: Empathy, Neo-FFI, Aggression, a.o.
Ego-Shooter Game ISubjects randomly assigned to 1 of 4
possible opponents
Ego-Shooter Game II Free Choice of opponent
InterviewQuestions on Experiment,
Empathy…
Experiment: Empathy in Ego-Shooter Games - Opponents
Humans Box
Experiment: Empathy in Ego-Shooter Games - Opponents
CartoonRobots
Experiment: Empathy in Ego-Shooter Games (Zoll, Enz & Schaub, ongoing
research)– Design
Initial DiagnosisPersonality Questionnaires:
Empathy, Neo-FFI, Aggression, a.o.
Ego-Shooter Game ISubjects randomly
assigned to 1 of 4 possible opponents
Ego-Shooter Game II Free Choice of opponent
InterviewQuestions on Experiment,
Empathy…
Experiment: Empathy in Ego-Shooter Games - Results Ideomotoric Empathy and Success: Positive
Correlation No other correlations!
Opponent choice for second Game: No subject chose the Human opponents
Interview More subjects have scrupels to shoot on the
human opponents Most subjects think it makes a different if one
shoots at cartoon or realistic opponents
2. Psychological Empathy Measures Self-Description (Dispositional Empathy)
Questionnaires
Somatic and Psychophysiological Measures
Empathy as an ability Picture-stories Emotional Face Recognition
Behavioural Measures of Empathy
Psychological Empathy Measures -Questionnaires Principle: Subjects state whether certain
statements are appropriate for them Few existing empathy Q’naires for children Problems:
only one type of empathy No questionnaires on ideomotoric, situation and
expression mediated empathy
Self-Development
Development of Empathy Questionnaire – Scales (5) and items (39)
Affective EmpathyIt makes me sad to see a girl who can’t
find anyone to play with
Cognitive EmpathyWhen I see a boy who is feeling upset, I
think about why he might be feeling like that
Situation mediated Empathy
Kids who have no friends probably don’t want any (inv.)
Expression mediated Empathy
I can tell by the look on my parents’ faces whether it’s a good time to
ask them for something
Ideomotoric Empathy I am very quick at reacting
Development of Empathy Questionnaire – Pilot Study 3 Language Versions
Pilots in 3 countries Germany: 234 subjects
Age 8-13, Mean 9,62 109 boys / 125 girls
Portugal: 21 subjects UK: 31 subjects
Development of Empathy Questionnaire – Pilot Study German Results
95
100
105
110
115
120
boys , 8-9
boys , 10-13
girls , 8-9
girls , 10-13
Overall Empathy
Psychological Empathy Measurement – Somatic and Psychophysiological Measures
1. Presentation of protagonist in emotion-evoking story
2. Measurement of observer’s emotion via
• Somatic indices
• Physiological indices
3. Empathy scored for adequate observer’s emotion
Observer (Subject)
Protagonist (Target)
Somatic indices
Facial
Gestural
Postural
Paraverbal
Physiological Indices
Skin conductance
Heart rate
Palm sweating
Skin temperature
Vasoconstriction
Electromyographic procedures
Psychological Empathy Measurement – Empathy as an Ability
Emotional Face recognition
Which emotion is the person on the photo currently experiencing?
Very small part of empathy
Psychological Empathy Measurement – Empathy as an Ability
Picture-storiesPrinciple: Subjects watch picture-
story and are asked questions
Psychological Empathy Measures – Picture-story What is happening in the story?
How bad is what the 2 girls do?
At the following list of emotions, please check the ones which might be experienced by the victim/bully/yourself! Anger Sadness Fear Happyness …
Psychological Empathy Measures – Picture-story Pilot Study N = 90, age 8-13
“How bad is what the 2 girls do?” correlation with Overall Empathy (r=.35**) Affective Empathy (r=.39**) Cognitive Empathy (r=.17*) Situation Mediated Empathy (r=.31**) Expression Mediated Empathy (r=.35**) Ideomotoric Empathy (r=.13 n.s.)
List of Emotions: Similarity of emotions assigned to victim and self correlates with dispositional empathy
Behavioural Measures
Empathy is concluded from observable behaviour, e.g. Kobayashi: Painting aquarelle
Expression of Emotion /Prosocial Behaviour
Bischof-Köhler: Eating dessert Prosocial Behaviour
Problem: Relation between Behaviour and Empathy
3. Evaluation of Empathy in VICTEC
Evaluation of Empathy while Playing the VICTEC Demonstrator
Does Empathy change after working with the Demonstrator?
Does Bullying change after working with the Demonstrator? Does Empathy mediate the effect of the Demonstrator on
Bullying? Does Empathy correlate with behavioural measures during
interaction with the Demonstrator? Empathy and Satisfaction: Who likes the Demonstrator
best: Empathics or Non-Empathics?
Main Research Questions
Empathy and Bullying Unclear Relationship
Positive Effect: Low negative correlation between empathy and
aggressive behaviour (Miller & Eisenberg, 1988)
Affective Empathy? Negative Effect:
Bullies are often described as socially skilled “cool planners” (Sutton & Smith, 1999)
Cognitive Empathy?
Hypothesis: Affective Empathy negative correlation with Bullying Cognitive Empathy positive/no correlation with Bullying
Evaluation of Empathy during interaction with the Demonstrator
Pretest Bullying-QuestionnaireEmpathy-QuestionnairePicture-storyTeacher Rating of student Bullying
Application Demonstrator
Students work with DemonstratorVideographing
Posttest See Pretest
Evaluation Plan4 school classes in each participtating country