Psychological dynamics of empathy exam 3 content

what concept is described in Joseph Stalin's quote" one death is a tragedy, one million is a statistic"

compassion fatigue

describe the 1 vs 8 children experiment

-you hear about the suffering of either 1 or 8 children, afterwards asked about your general concern about the 1 0r 8 and whether you are interested in donating money to help the victim/s

-more likely to donate to 1 child than 8 - easier to visualize/cognitively construct 1 persons suffering

why are the findings to this experiment somewhat ironic

8 peoples suffering is in theory a greater tragedy than the suffering of 1- yet we feel less empathetic; people respond more strongly to 1

-our intuition is the more people involved, the more compassion-- not the case

are the results of the 1 v 8 study replicated with other numbers/ comparisons?

yes-- even a difference for 1 vs 2 people

contrast empathy burnout to compassion fatigue

-empathy burnout is not having resources left (clients, patients)

-compassion fatigue is about presenting written descriptions of people suffering (more subtle, how people respond to statistics)

what are 3 possible explanations/hypotheses for these types of compassion fatigue effects

-cognitive representation

-system 1 (automatic) vs system 2 (controlled)

-motivated emotion regulation

define cognitive representation in this context

-single individuals likely perceived as more "concrete" (less abstract) entities

define system 1 vs system 2 in this context

different types of processing

-processing information about single individuals more likely to automatically trigger strong feelings of support

-processing information about large groups likely to involve more controlled processes

define motivated emotional regulation in this context

-people anticipate that processing information about large numbers of casualties may be overwhelming, leading to down-regulation (shutting down emotionally)

-called down regulation in literature

-may be more likely to occur when people anticipate that they will be asked to help or contribute $$

this explanation receives the most support

describe the experiment done to test whether we down regulate more when asked for money/ anticipation of such

E1: willingness to help refugees in Darfur

1st IV: randomly assigned to read about 1 or 8 children

2nd IV: help request given to 1/2 of the Ps: "you will later be asked to rate how you feel toward the child/children you saw and how much you would be willing to donate"

-2x2 design --> # of victims ( 1 or 8) and yes r no help request

describe the results of the Darfur experiment

Ps downregulate in the help request condition when asked to help a larger # of victimes (felt more compassion for the single victim)

-not actually asking for money here, its about the compassion (anticipated request for money)

-in the non help request, people don't downgrade emotions when not expected to donate money -- not regulating compassion here because you don't need to --> more compassionate to 8 here

-complete flip/ reversal of results in terms of how much compassion

describe the 2nd experiment regarding the Darfur refugees using a 'slider'

-Ps read about 1, 4, or 8 victims

-Ps move slider over the space of 10 seconds while reading about the victims, to indicate concern/distress towards them

describe the results of the experiment

-Ps efficient at emotional regulation show the clearest evidence of partially 'turning off' compassion for larger # of victims

-strong regulators of emotion --> goes up over times, but goes up most for 1 victim --> downregulating and dampening for the 4 and 8 victim group; strong regulator reaction to 1 goes to 2.3-- able to successfully devote resources to 1 person

-weak regulators show no difference/ downregulation between 1,4, and 8 groups (not making distinctions- horrible either way). as time gos on, emotion goes up over time; weak regulator for 1 only goes to 2.1 -- dampened resources because trying to hold all 3 in head-- getting cognitively depleted

describe Darfur Refugee's experiment 3 where they looked at manipulating (rather than measuring) tendency to downregulate

2 groups:

regulators- told to adopt an unattached/objective attitude (detached and unemotional)

experiencers- let yourself feel any emotion (attached and emotional)

-2 children groups; shown 1 vs 8 children

-2x2 design

-Results: Ps showed LEAST emotional reaction to victims in one cell: Ps instructed to down regulate and who read about 8 victims

why did that cell in particular see the least emotional reaction

"double whammy" combination of more victims and objective leads to very efficient downregulation

why aren't people interested in hearing about the other person's point of view?

liberals and conservatives are similarly motivated to avoid exposure to one another's opinions. (note connection to parochial empathy effects)

describe the representative study done with Obama and Romney voters

all Ps were asked if they were interested in hearing someone reasoning as to why they voted ( both 2x-- one for their side, one for other side)

scale -100 to +100

-100 "imagine a dentist pulling out your teeth with no anesthesia"

+100 taking a walk on a lovely summer day

describe the results of the study

-obama voters slightly positive to hear about the obamas point of view (~20 but all the way down to -50 for Romney

-same for Romney, ~20 to hear about romney, but -60 for Obama group

-people show reluctance to take the perspective of outgroup members

long term, relatively stable heterosexual couples who are experiencing _______ levels of stress tend to show higher levels of empathic understanding/ accuracy

Moderate levels of stress

explain this finding

metaphorically, its like a bell going off in their heads: something's up with my partner, i better pay attention (especially true for women)

-when really stressed, people become less accurate because of high overload -- if too much going on, their stress makes you stressed, cant help as well

what kind of relationship is this?

curved linear relationship

what are the 2 things people do to reduce negative feelings of personal distress?

-help the other person (approach)

-or not help the other person (avoidance)

how does personal distress relate to empathy and helping (or not) others

-people who tend high in personal distress tend to be higher in other forms of empathy

-high personal distress- highly attuned to the suffering of others

-this suggests one reason why highly empathic people might not always help others

define the self- other distinction

for optimal empathic reasoning, we need to distinguish the self from others-- without adequate self-other distinction, sharing another person's emotions can induce personal distress, a self- focused aversive reaction that often leads to withdrawing from the situation

describe the results of the study that correlated initial assessment of how facets of Davis' empathy scale to self concept identity

participants scoring high in PD, but not other aspects of empathy, show lack of self concept clarity

(all other 3 facets of empathy studied had positive correlations, whereas PD was NEGATIVE -- 3 positive correlations, 1 negative

give 2 exmples of items tapping low clarity used in the self concept identity experiment

"my beliefs about myself seem to change frequently"

"even if i wanted to, i dont think i could clearly explain what im really like"

describe the results of this study (continuation0 testing different effects of EC and PD (through money/donations)

-high empathic concern = MORE helping

-hih personal distress = LESS helping

-EC and PD move helping in opposite directions

-personal distress has a negatvie correlation with amount of money donated, emapthic concern has a positive corrleation

do couples that resolve conflict or not have a better understanding of each other (according to some studies)

among romantic couples: some studies find that those who resolve conflict-- compared to those who don't-- tend to develop more accurate and more empathic understanding of each other

describe the love is blind effect that is supported by other studies

other studies suggest that couples who report "happy relationships" display less empathic accuracy compared to couples who are not close

-people that are committed to a relationship and who are moderately empathic can be motivated to not see potentially troublesome aspects of that relationship

-can have a sense that what the other person is going to say is something they don't want to hear, so they begin to block it out

describe the love is blind effect through this example:

-J is dating P, suppose that P mentions that another co-worker is "really good looking" and "quite sexy"; J is really empathic

-J doesn't really want to accurately perceive their partner's possible sexual desire for another person

-would try to convince themselves that there is no threat -- "haha honey, i just knew you didn't find that person particularly good looking"

why i having high levels of empathy a double edged sword in relationships

it can reveal things about your partner that you would like but could also reveal things that you dont want to know

-in these cases, highly empathic people can be motivated to see the world in a distorted way

describe the correlation between meditation and empathy

anecdotal evidence that meditation might improve empathy and tentativeness towards others

what kind of meditation is sed here, describe it.

compassion meditation

-structured attention (fostered by the instructor) to focus on loving, kindness, and compassion

describe the king et al study with mediation and the results

-researchers randomly assinged Ps to engage vs not engage in an extended period of meditation

-data showed some evidence that this training increased Ps spontaneous expressions of empathy when shown pictures of other people who were suffering

what is a confounding factor in this experiment and how was it mitigated

demand efect - know what the researchers are studying, give answer according to the 'right' answer

how to mitigate this: they used non verbal (physiological) measures of empathic responses that are more accurate, cant be faked.

describe the meta analysis results seeing if empathy can be explicitly taught

-on average, training programs tend to produce reliable effects (vs controls)

-moderators of these effects (training program more effective with) :

-health professional Ps vs non health professional Ps

-programs that compensate trainees for their time

-training that focuses on emotional (vs. cognitive) empathy

studies using what measure of empathy had better results

studies using outcome measures that assessed empathy in the narrow sense of understanding the emotions of others had significantly high effect size than studies using other outcome measures (e.g. simply being warm-hearted)

what are the cultural stereotypes of old people

vary greatly from very sweet and kind to mean and grumpy

what are the challenges of doing research in older adults

separating consequences of so called "normal aging" from the effects of dementia (Alzheimer's)

what are the implications of older adults empathy according to past research

older adults often report better emotion regulation abilities than young adults in self report data and in experience-sampling studies

what studies test experience sampling

through beeper studies

describe the evidence that suggests a diminishment of older adults capacity for empathy

- most of this work has been done in cross sectional studies, however, this correlates generational effects with aging effects

ishows older adults capacity mildly diminished

(longitudinal approaches offer more powerful evidence in this domain, but relatively few have been done)

describe the Gruhn et. al longitudinal study

researchers tracked a large number of Ps of various ages over a 12 year period

-a tthe beginning of the study (T1) Ps ranged from 18 to 75; 2 years later (T2), same Ps measured again, everyone is 2 years older, etc.

-there tended to be attrition (drop off rate) for the older Ps (mortality)

describe the results of the longitudinal study

at T1, older Ps scored lower in empathy;

-researchers determined this was a cohort effect (not age, but GROUP-- older adults grew up in a generation that didn't talk much about empathy much, therefore tend to be less empathetic)

-for younger generations, may be more acceptable to talk and think about their own and others' feelings than for individuals who grew up during an earlier era

describe the experiment done to examine whether individuals who identify as bicultural differ from individuals who identify with one culture

western- 32, east asian-74, bicultural-84

-researchers focused only on empathic concern and personal distress

main finding of interest- PD differs by culture

other results:

-western Ps scored notable lower in PD than bicultural and asian Ps

one interpretation: not resonating with misfortunes of others

what is a problematic finding in this study

even though western folks scored lower on PD, they scored higher on EC-- makes interpreting difficult

describe the results of the compare/contrasting between specific countries

63 countries, results difficult to interpret; hard to interpret similarities between top empathic and lower empathic countries- not a clear identifiable trend in similarities

we can meet the goal of understanding scientific constructs of empathy by examining ______

how professionals employ their empathy skills in other areas ( first we did psychologists and doctors, now actors)

what skills are important in acting

theory of mind skills

good acting involves _____

suspension of disbelief

(as if it is actually the person)

what is a downside to suspension of disbelief

people will believe whatever you are doing, can come off wrong way or people will begin to believe things that are not true (will believe what you are performing)

describe the differences between old acting and modern acting

old acting is more fake, dramaticized

newer- made popular by james dean method acting

describe method acting

emotionally driven, greater complexity, internalized variations of the same method across time for different people

describe one of the earliest viewings of method acting

1898 russia-- popular categories had a broad category style- grandiose, symbolic fashion-- storytelling bigger than life

-physical embodiment of emotion

describe the 'art of experiencing"

focuses on actor as heightened emotional animal that aspires to go forget that they are playing a character

-emotional TRUTHFUL experience

-not about transparent representation, but compex shades of vulnerability

how do actors get into charecter?

-use the excitement

-get to emotional reality rather than the setting you are in

-play characters that feel real-- you love them because of their flaws

-taking chances, feel it out; ground characters to some reality

-ask what your characters motivations are

-try to convince people that you are the character

describe some of the advice that was given by the professional acting coach

-parts need to suit you

-you cant act or pretend sometimes, it has to be realistic

-if you are faking, the audience might think/see that

-some parts just don't suite certain people

-great acting is a paradox: they are pretending to be someone, but they are so good that it seems like they arent pretending- you believe they aren't acting, but actually the person they are embodying

-must understand emotions of character, embody them, convey to audience

describe the process, objectives, challenges, etc. of the student project on perspective taking

process: objectives-- what does the character want or need from this experience? love, power etc. How does that character move or talk? mimic energy, what does the character think? what are the goals, actions, motivations?

-acting isn't about losing yourself in the character, but finding yourself within the character

-you learn to empathize with the characters

challenges: hard to transform into characters that are dissimilar personality wise

-must separate the want to judge your character- try to understand their motivations and where they are coming from.

-in a character that is completely different, its hard to know when to turn on and off of the character- what emotions would they portray here? try to stay truthful to the character- don't rely on stereotypes or cheap ideas

-sometimes its hard to convey to an audience if you dont believe- right thing to do in that scenario is the turn down the role if you really cant get into it.

is there acting among other animals

no-uniquely human-- universal human activity, meant for enjoyment, not to deceive

-as humans, we act in many 'roles' throughout our lives

how does an actor be convincing throughout drastically different roles?

-actors are individuals who likely have strong ToM skills, either as part of their innate makeup or as learned from acting training (or both)

-actors must repeatedly become different characters, and this requires an understanding and analysis of characters' inner thoughts to create a realistic portrayal of that other person

describe the study and findings of the study that tried to distinguish between ToM and empathy

Ps choose from 4 adjectives as to which one best describes mental state expressed in their eyes. ex. joking, amused, etc.

results: actors vs non actors performed slightly better in their ability to imagine the mental states expressed by the picture of peoples eyes (ToM)

-However, NO difference between groups in self reported empathy

describe the experiment that asked to what extent can people be hypnotized

compared 3 groups: actors, musicians, non-artists

-actors have both acting and public performance

-musicians only have public performance

-non-artists have neither

-used 3 different but related markers for hypnotizability

Main finding: actors DID differ from musicians and non artists in at least 3 different markers of hypnotizability

-they can imagine a state of being that is different from the one they are experiencing particularly well

what are the 3 markers for hypnotizability

tellegen absorption scale

creative imagination scale

creative experiences sclae

can children tell when something is fact from fiction

yes- Jim vs spiderman

why does realistic acting posee a problem

special case of pretense pervasive in everyday life-- confuse actor's and character's characteristics

describe the experiment done to test whether kids can tell if someone is acting

3 4 and 5 year old

watched videos of another person claiming to feel various emotions and acting these emotions either in a reasonably realistic or in a very unrealistic way

-in both cases, actor explicitly says they are tired -- either body language matches well or doesnt

-question: was she really tired?

note in all conditions, TOLD the target was ACTING

results: adults immediately got it

3 and 4 year olds and to some extent 5 year olds had trouble distinguishing between realistic acting and what the actor was really feeling

3 and 4 show a lot of trouble

5 year olds do better but not nearly as close as adults

in every day life, is emotional experience considered part of system 1 or 2

system 1 -- automatic, natural

how is acting different

actors are often asked on demand and with pin point timing to generate real ( not 'faked' ) emotions

what are 2 broad possibilities as to where these emotions come from

"method acting"

actors make use of experience from their OWN LIVES to bring them closer to the experience of their characters. involves recall of sensation -- does not appear to have strong connection to empathy

"(Partial) imagination"

actor does not NECESSARILY have to have experienced the sensations/ feelings/perspective of the character they are portraying

they IMAGINE what their character WOULD be feeling

-here, connection to empathy is more evident

can acting training increase skills related to empathy? describe the study

children 12-14 who enrolled in 2 types of classes" acting classes or visual arts classes

representative findings: DV: score on davis scale of empathic concern

-acting class showed relatively higher skills on EC at T2

-non actors showed no change on EC from T1 to T2

define anti-hero

lacks conventional heroic qualities/ attributes, such as idealism and morality. although they sometimes perform morally correct actions, its not always for the right reasons, acting primarily out of self interest or in ways that defy conventional ethical codes

how do anti heroes connect to empathy

How, when, and why do we ( as audience members) end up empathizing with these flawed characters?

describe the chart of the 4 types of charecters

x axis -- unheroic inner attributes (L) to heroic inner attributes (R)

y axis -- unheroic goals/objectives (bottom) to heroic goals/objectives (top)

describe a classic hero

both heroic goals and attributes and heroic inner attitudes (wonder woman, harry potter)

describe classic villains

unheroic goals and unheroic inner attitudes (lord Voldemort, Thanos)

describe Anti-hero type 1

heroic GOALS but unheroic INNER attitudes;

insecure heroes with lots of inner demons who usually but not always try to do the right thing (Dexter)

describe Ant hero type 2

heroic INNER attitudes, but unheroic GOALS;

mostly but not entirely likeable character who ends up doing mostly wrong things (Breaking Bad)

Good narratives ______

pair conventional hero with anti-hero

why we enjoy watching/reading about anti-heroes

-we can appreciate their ability to do good despite-- or perhaps because-- of their flawed character

-establishes tension and drama

-redemption (arc from bad to good)

why is heroism flexible

-correlated with ideals of society

-determined by cultural landscape

-heroic traits can lead to unheroic actions- sometimes the person doesn't change, but the landscape and context does, changing someone from hero to antihero

anti hero charecteristics

-frequently haunted by past and use trauma to give reason/motivation

-anti hero is about winning, but maybe not being the strongest