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