ABSTRACT
Interpersonal emotion regulation (ER) refers to the different processes aimed at changing the emotional states of others. Some authors have speculated about the pivotal role of empathy for interpersonal ER to happen. However, the very limited empirical evidence suggests that only cognitive empathy as opposed to affective empathy may be a necessary antecedent. As previous research only considered interpersonal affect improvement and showed mixed evidence for the regulation strategies, we aimed to address this gap in the current research. To that aim, 374 adults (M = 30.3 years, 249 female) reported their tendency to engage in cognitive (perspective-taking) and affective empathy (empathic concern and personal distress) as well as their tendency to improve and worsen others' mood, and to use different regulation strategies (situation modification, attention deployment, cognitive change, and modulation of the emotional response) to change others' feelings. Results of the regression analyses showed that while affect improvement was not significantly predicted by any of the empathy variables, affect worsening was positively predicted by personal distress. Concerning the regulation strategies, while cognitive change and situation modification were positively predicted by personal distress, attention deployment was positively predicted by perspective-taking. Overall, the obtained results highlight the need to further investigate the link between empathy and ER and to carefully consider the methods selected for that purpose.
Subject(s)
Emotional Regulation , Empathy , Adult , Female , Humans , Emotions/physiology , Affect , CognitionABSTRACT
Resumen Introducción: Evaluar la empatía es cada vez más necesario dentro de diferentes áreas de investigación. Objetivo: El presente estudio presenta un análisis de las propiedades psicométricas del cuestionario Test de Empatía Cognitiva y Afectiva (TECA) que evalúa la empatía desde una perspectiva integral; siendo uno de los pocos construidos originalmente en el lenguaje español. Método: Sé evaluó la fiabilidad y validez de constructo en 607 adultos (137 hombres/ 470 mujeres) estudiantes de población mexicana. Resultados: Los resultados muestran una adecuada fiabilidad del instrumento en general (α = .86). Sin embargo, los análisis factoriales exploratorios y confirmatorios sugiere la necesidad de revisar los ítems. Discusión: La incorporación de metodologías robustas que consideran la naturaleza ordinal de las escalas Likert, como el análisis factorial con la incorporación del intercepto aleatorio permiten mejorar el ajuste de los modelos sin alterar la estructura factorial original. Por último, la invariancia métrica no es alcanzada entre la muestra española original y la mexicana. Conclusiones: El TECA se puede aplicar en población mexicana pero se sugiere una revisión en la construcción de los ítems.
Abstract Introduction: Assessing empathy is an increasing necessity within different research areas. Objective: The present study aims to analyse psychometric properties of the Cognitive and Affective Empathy Test (TECA) questionnaire that assesses empathy from a comprehensive perspective; being one of the few originally built in the Spanish language. Method: The reliability and construct validity were evaluated in 607 adults (137 men / 470 women) students from the Mexican population. Results: The results show adequate reliability of the instrument in general (α = .86). However, the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyzes suggest the need to review the items. Discussion: The incorporation of new methodologies such as robust factor analysis for ordinal type data (i.e. like Likert scales), with the incorporation of the random intercept, allows improving the fit of the models without altering the original factorial structure. Finally, metric invariance is not reached between the original Spanish sample and the Mexican one. Conclusions: The TECA can be applied in the Mexican population but a review of the construction of the items is suggested.
ABSTRACT
RESUMO A literatura vem apontando um crescente interesse pelos estudos sobre como a empatia, em seus componentes cognitivo e afetivo, desenvolve-se em pessoas com Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA). Assim, esta revisão integrativa da literatura teve o objetivo de investigar a empatia, em seus componentes cognitivo e afetivo, em indivíduos com TEA e fatores associados. Para isso, efetuou-se uma busca por artigos científicos nas bases de dados PubMed, ERIC e PsycINFO. Adotaram-se as palavras-chave e marcadores booleanos Autism [or] ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) [and] Empathy. Como resultado, foram recuperadas 180 publicações, das quais 26 foram analisadas. Os critérios de inclusão foram estudos empíricos - correlacionais e de intervenção - que abordassem as relações entre empatia e TEA, indexados nas bases de dados aqui mencionadas entre os anos de 2005 e 2020. As categorias resultantes da análise foram: empatia afetiva e cognitiva, diferenças associadas ao gênero na empatia e diferenças associadas à idade e ao Quociente de inteligência(QI) em pessoas com TEA. Verificou-se que a empatia cognitiva, que envolve a inferência de emoção do estado mental de outra pessoa, pode ser reduzida em pessoas com TEA, enquanto a empatia afetiva, que se refere à capacidade de compartilhar a emoção dos outros, não apresenta déficit. Além disso, alguns estudos apontaram para a importância do ensino de responsividade empática em crianças com TEA. Contudo, não foram encontrados artigos em bases brasileiras sobre o tema, assinalando uma importante lacuna de pesquisas sobre a empatia em pessoas com autismo no cenário nacional.
ABSTRACT Literature has shown a growing interest in studies on how empathy, regarding its cognitive and affective components, can be developed in people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Thus, this integrative literature review aimed to investigate empathy, in its cognitive and affective components, in individuals with TEA and associated factors. For this, a search for scientific papers was carried out in the PubMed, ERIC, and PsycINFO electronic databases. The keywords and Boolean operators Autism [or] ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) [and] Empathy were adopted. As a result, 180 publications were found, and 26 were analyzed. The inclusion criteria were empirical pieces of research - correlational and intervention - that addressed the relationship between empathy and ASD, indexed in the databases already mentioned between 2005 and 2020. The categories resulting from the investigation were: affective and cognitive empathy, gender differences in empathy, and differences related to age and Intelligence Quotient (IQ) in individuals with ASD. The studies showed that cognitive empathy, which involves the inference of emotion from another person's mental state, can be reduced in people with ASD, while affective empathy, which refers to the ability to share the emotions of others, does not suffer the same deficit. In addition, some studies have pointed to the importance of teaching empathic responsiveness in children with ASD. No studies were found in Brazilian databases on the topic, signaling an important research gap on empathy in people with autism on the national scene.
ABSTRACT
Life aspirations are considered one of the most relevant components for human beings to give meaning and purpose to their existence. Different studies emphasized the relevance of intrinsic life aspirations to promote life satisfaction. However, few studies analyze the specific role of the intrinsic aspirations that have been recently categorized as self-transcendent. Self-transcendent aspirations are focused on helping others and improving society and, consequently, are considered aspirations whose purpose transcends oneself. In this sense, the objective of this study is to observe how self-transcendent aspirations are related to life satisfaction through dispositional gratitude. Additionally, we aim to study the moderating role of cognitive and affective empathy. There were 1,356 students (mean age = 21.5, standard deviation = 2.35 years) who took part in a scholarship program funded by the Education Ministry of Peru (PRONABEC), of which 57.7% were men and 42.3% were women. Results show a strong relationship between self-transcendent aspirations, gratitude, and cognitive and affective empathy. In the mediation analysis, an indirect effect of self-transcendent aspirations is observed on life satisfaction via gratitude. However, the moderated mediation showed that the addition of cognitive and affective empathy conditions the mediation effect. In this way, cognitive empathy has a significant interaction in the relationships between self-transcendent aspirations and gratitude, and between self-transcendent aspirations and life satisfaction. Results are discussed to emphasize the relevance of the mediating and moderating mechanisms considered in this study for the understanding of how self-transcendent life aspirations may promote life satisfaction.
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Objective: Fetal testosterone (fT) has organizational effects on the developing human nervous system and can be reliably estimated by the ratio between the length of the second and fourth digits - 2D:4D. Previous studies reported altered patterns of fT in some developmental disabilities (e.g. ASD) relative to typically developing individuals (TD). Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by exacerbated empathy and social approach and heightened anxiety. Recent reports also highlight the co-occurrence of significant levels of autistic symptoms. Despite constituting an interesting model to study androgenic contributions to social behavior, no studies have sought to explore fT in WS. The main aims of this preliminary study were two-fold: (a) to compare 2D:4D in WS and TD; (b) to analyze the pattern of associations between 2D:4D and hypersociability, affective and cognitive empathy, anxiety and autistic symptoms in WS. Methods: 2D:4D were measured from digital scans of the ventral surface of the right hand. Hypersociability, empathy, anxiety and autistic symptoms were obtained from parental reports. Results: There were no significant differences in 2D:4D between WS than TD. In WS lower fT (higher 2D:4D) was significantly associated with hypersociability and affective empathy, as well as marginally associated with anxiety/depression scores. In contrast, cognitive empathy was marginally and negatively associated with 2D:4D, while levels of autistic symptoms were unrelated with this measure. Conclusion: Our results suggest that fT may be implicated in the emergence of several cardinal features of WS, namely hypersociability, affective empathy and anxiety, but not in ASD symptoms.