Psychological Dynamics of Empathy Exam 3

Compassion fatigue

concept described by Joseph Stalin’s quote “one death is a tragedy, one million is a statistic”

1 vs. 8 children experiment

after hearing about the suffering of either 1 or 8 children, participants were more likely to donate to 1 child than 8 because 1 child is easier to visualize/cognitively construct

intuition regarding compassion and quantity of suffering others

we’d expect for compassion to be positively correlated with the number of people perceived to be suffering

reality regarding compassion and quantity of suffering others

this does not translate into more compassion

1 vs. 8 children study replication

results were the same even for 1 vs. 2 children

empathy burnout

not having resources left

compassion fatigue

responses to written descriptions of people suffering

empathy burnout vs. compassion fatigue

empathy burnout = clients/patients

compassion fatigue = more subtle, how people respond to statistics

compassion fatigue explanations

1. cognitive representation

2. processing systems 1 & 2

3. motivated emotion regulation

cognitive representation

single individuals likely perceived as more “concrete” (less abstract) entities

processing system 1 (automatic)

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

processing system 2 (controlled)

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

motivated emotional regulation

people anticipate that processing information about large numbers of casualties may be overwhelming, leading to down-regulation
-may be more likely to occur when people anticipate that they will be asked to help or contribute $$

motivated emotional regulation

best supported explanation for compassion fatigue

Willingness to Help Refugees in Darfur experiment 1 (Cameron & Payne, 2017)

• help request given to ½ Ps

• those who were asked to help prior were more compassionate with 1 victim vs. 8

• those who were not asked to help were more compassionate with 8 victims vs. 1

Willingness to Help Refugees in Darfur experiment 2 (Cameron & Payne, 2017)

Ps read about 1, 4, or 8 victims

Willingness to Help Refugees in Darfur experiment 2 (Cameron & Payne, 2017) results

Ps efficient at emotional regulation (pre-measured by trait scale) should show clearest evidence of partially “turning off” compassion for larger number of victims

Darfur experiment 3 (downregulation manipulation)

Experimental approach to manipulating (vs. measuring) tendency to down-regulate emotions

Darfur experiment 3 (downregulation manipulation) results

Ps showed least emotional reaction when reading about 8 victims and instructed to down regulate

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

• connection to parochial empathy effects

Obama vs. Romney voter study

both republicans and democrats showed reluctance to take the perspective of outgroup members

Crenshaw et al. 2019 results

long-term relatively stable heterosexual couples who are experiencing moderate levels of stress tend to show higher levels of empathic understanding

high levels of stress in relationships

when really stressed, people become less accurate because of high overload

low levels of stress in relationships

stakes are not super high and the need for empathy may not be relevant

Censhaw et al. 2019 trend

curvilinear relationship

2 things people do to reduce negative feelings of personal distress

1. help the other person (approach)

2. not help the other person (avoid)

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

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

why might people with high personal distress not always help others

high personal distress = highly attuned to the suffering of others

self-other distinction

without self-other distinction, sharing another’s emotions can induce personal distress

this can lead to the self-focused aversive reaction that often leads to withdrawing from the situation

Krol and Bartz (2022) researcher predictions

• high in EC: more helping

• high in PD: less helping

2 examples of low clarity used in the self-concept identity experiment

1. “even if i wanted to, i don’t think i could clearly explain what i’m really like”

2. “my beliefs about myself seem to change frequently”

do couples that resolve conflict, or not, have a better understanding of each other?

those who resolve conflict compared to those who don’t tend to develop more accurate and empathic understandings of each other

love-is-blind effect

couples in committed relationships and who are moderately empathic can be motivated to not see potentially troublesome aspects of that relationship

why is having high levels of empathy a double-edged sword in relationships?

could reveal things about your partner that you both like or don’t want to know

correlation between meditation and empathy

anecdotal evidence that meditation might improve empathy and tentativeness towards others

compassion meditation

structured attention fostered by instructor to focus on loving, kindness, and compassion

king et al meditation study (2023) results

data showed some evidence that extended meditation increased Ps spontaneous expressions of empathy when shown pictures of other people who were suffering

demand effect confounding variable in king et al meditation study

researchers used physiological, non-verbal measures of empathic responses that are more accurate/cannot be faked

Van Berkhout and Malouff (2016)

meta-analysis of whether empathy can be explicitly taught

Van Berkhout and Malouff (2016) results

on average, training programs tend to produce reliable effects

who were empathy training program meta-analyses tested on?

• health professionals vs. non-health professionals

• programs that compensate trainees for their time

• training that focuses on emotional vs. cognitive empathy

what measure of empathy had the best study results?

outcome measures that assessed the understanding of the emotions of others

cultural stereotypes of old people

vary greatly from very sweet and kind to mean and grumpy

challenges of doing research in older adults

separating the consequences of “normal aging” from the effects of dementia

implications of older adults empathy according to self-report data and in experience-sampling

older adults often report better emotion regulation abilities than younger adults

what studies test experience sampling?

beeper studies

1evidence that suggests a diminishment of older adults’ capacity for empathy

cross-sectional studies that correlate generational effects with aging effects

Gruhn et. al (2008) longitudinal study

tracked a large number of Ps of various ages over a 12-year study

Gruhn et. al results

at T1, older Ps scored lower in empathy

• Cohort effect (NOT age effect) of growing up in different generations

1Burnout impact on treatment outcomes (Delgadillo et al., 2018)

evidence that provider burnout harms treatment outcomes for patients in therapeutic settings

workload factor impacting burnout (Lent & Schwartz, 2012)

smaller caseloads, less paperwork, and more flexibility are associated with lower rates of burnout

workplace type factor impacting burnout (Lent & Schwartz, 2012)

community mental health outpatient counselors > private practice or inpatients personality

neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness factor impacting burnout (Lent & Schwartz, 2012)

lower neuroticism + higher extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness = higher personal accomplishment and lower emotional exhaustion

Franco Paparo: LUDA

Listening

Understanding

Deep

Appreciation (NOT ACCEPTING)

Goldstein, 2009

Actors are likely to have strong ToM skills, either as part of their innate makeup or as learned from acting training (or both)

method acting

actors make use of their personal experiences to bring them closer to the experiences of their character

• involves recall of sensations involved in past experiences

method acting connection to empathy

no strong connection to empathy

partial imagination

actor does not necessarily have to have experiences the sensations/feelings/perspectives of the character

• imagines what the character would be feeling

Can “Acting Training” Increase Skills Related to Empathy?

By enrolling in a class on acting, people’s scores on empathic concern were increased 

complicating factors from carlyn’s lecture

• probation

• mental health diagnosis

• experiencing the same barriers to wellness

• the nature of what brought them into therapy

factors that could have prevented prison (from insider perspective)

• Psychiatric counseling

• Health insurance 

• Transportation 

• Rehab/substance abuse programs

insider perspective key takeaway

mental health treatment is a bipartisan issue

therapy wheel of empathy

both therapists and clients can be in one of the high/low arousal states

partial imagination connection to empathy

connection to empathy is more evident

Panero et al: to what extent can people be hypnotized

actors can be more easily hypnotized

actors did differ from musicians and non-artists in three different markers of hypnotizability

Cassels et al. Crosscultural differences in empathy

personal distress difference by culture

Attempts to compare and contrast specific countries

yes, but results are difficult to interpret

Crosscultural difference in empathy results

Western individuals were lower in personal distress

physical symptoms of empathy overload

sweating, shaking, nausea

emotional symptoms of empathy overload

overwhelmed and devastated

cognitive symptoms of empathy overload

losing boundaries, can’t focus

empathy overload in providers

maladaptive, prohibits the productive improvement of clinician and patient relationships

physical symptoms of high levels of empathy

low arousal, eye contact, appropriate body language

cognitive symptoms of high levels of empathy

boundaries intact, deep listening

emotional symptoms of high levels of empathy

strong connection

high levels of empathy in providers

adaptive and productive to the client/patient relationship

discordant empathy

a difference between the levels of empathy between client and patient at the start of the session and direction of arousal (one going up vs. one going down)

• occurs in instances of antagonism

concordant empathy

similarity between the levels of empathy between client and patient, and mutual decrease in arousal

survey of prison inmates, 2016

history of mental health problems
- 43% of all state
- 23% of all federal
serious psychological distress (SPD)
- 13% positive
self-reported study

prison vs. real world rates of mental illness (Prins et al., 2014)

28 studies that represented prevalence of mental health issues in US prisons

results of prison vs. real world rates of mental illness (Prins et al., 2014)

current and lifetime prevalence of mental illnesses are higher among those currently incarcerated

therapy effects within the criminal justice system (Yoon et al., 2017)

• behavioral and cognitive based therapy and mindfulness therapies are seen to be productive for depressive and anxiety symptoms

• limited affect in addressing trauma treatment

• participation type (group vs. individual) did not vary widely in their effectiveness

therapy effects within the criminal justice system (Morgan et al., 2014)

• manualized treatment

  Reduction in 3 areas

• mental health symptoms

• mental health distress

• reactionary style of thinking

insights from carlyn’s personal experiences

1. reward client insights

2. collaborative development of goals

3. take a holistic view

4. recognition and awareness of your own biases and feelings

parochial empathy (paul bloom)

in-group vs. out-group empathy tendancies

anterior cingulate cortex

region of the brain that becomes activated in the context of experiencing and/or perceiving pain (self and others)

ingroup/outgroup processing is

automatic

clinical psychologists, doctors, and actors

facilitated by examining how professionals employ empathy within their crafts

suspension of disbelief

good acting must employ the avoidance of critical thinking and logic in understanding something that is unreal or impossible in reality

actor and ToM skills (Goldstein, Wu, and Winner, 2009)

made an attempt to distinguish between:

• ability to infer the emotional state of another person based on indirect cues = definition of ToM in this study

• ability to feel another person’s emotion (positive or negative) = definition of empathy in this study

actor and ToM skills (Goldstein, Wu, and Winner, 2009) results

actors (vs. non-actors) performed significantly better in ToM skills, but there was no difference between groups in self-reported empathy

individual absorption measures

TAS actors score higher in the ability to pretend/imagine you are someone else

TAS

Tellegen Absorption Scale

Children and Acting (Goldstein and Bloom, 2015) results

• children can tell the difference between truth and pretense except in cases of realistic acting

• children are more capable of recognizing “fake” acting in the nonrealistic condition, with the physical being more recognizable than the emotional

Children and Acting (Goldstein and Bloom, 2015)

four participant groups:
- 3 year olds
- 4 year olds
- 5 year olds
- adults
watched videos of another person (the "actor") claiming to feel various emotions and acting out these emotions either in a reasonably realistic way, or in a very unrealistic way
participants were then asked whether the person really experienced that emotion

active listening

paying full attention to what someone is saying in order to demonstrate unconditional acceptance

imagine-other perspective taking (IOPT)

thinking about how a suffering other feels

imagine-self perspective taking (ISPT)

imagining oneself experiencing the suffering of others

IOPT vs. ISPT

ISPT is relatively automatic and easier than IOPT, but has it’s downsides