Psychological Dynamics of Empathy Exam 2

compassion

devotion towards helping people in need

2 species often looked at when trying to determine if ToM is uniquely human

canines & primates

Coco the gorilla

“friend” of Robin William who appeared to display empathy for his loss when told about his death

alternate explanations for Coco’s behavior

matching attitude of the trainer; could be responding to the word “dead” not the emotion

Danny Povinelli

famous researcher who studied ToM in apes

Povinelli’s Basic Idea 1

Would chimps still reach out for food even if the trainer cannot see them?

Povinelli’s Basic Idea 2

If both trainers are facing the chimp, the chimp is equally likely to each out to either trainer

Povinelli’s Basic Idea 3

If one trainer has their back to the chimp, which trainer will the chimp reach out to?

Povinelli’s Basic Idea 4

Can the chimp understand the perspective of the trainer? “Can the trainer see me?”

Povinelli’s Initial Hypothesis

Forward FACING hypothesis

Test of Povinelli’s Initial Hypothesis

Everything about the trainer’s body is held constant, except for whether her face is directly facing forward towards the chimp

Chimps did not perform above chance on these types of trials

Povinelli’s Second Hypothesis 1

BODY Facing Forward hypothesis; supported by tests

Povinelli’s conclusion

Chimp’s use the “Body Facing Forward” rule

Why do chimps use the BFF rule?

this rule works for them in the real world

Do chimps have ToM

no

ToM in ALL canines

Human turned toward me: approach

Human turned away from me: do not approach

ToM in pet dogs

Human has face in book: do not approach

ToM rules no canines know

human facing me with camera in front of face & human facing me with bucket over head

Why don’t shelter dogs and wolves know the book-in-front-of-face rule?

they have had no experience with this and have not had to learn this rule

Key findings from chimp and canine studies

neither have ToM, but both do what benefits them/what they have learned

history of psychoanalysis

emerged in the late 1800s as a more humane approach to treating clinical disorders

fathers of “talk therapy”

sigmund freud and josef breuer

transference relationship

client’s transfer of feelings to the clinician; essential to psychoanalysis

countertransference

clinician’s transfer of feelings that they have towards the client; NOT supposed to do this

why should clinicians avoid countertransference (according to psychoanalysis)

therapists are supposed to avoid inserting their own personal feelings/background into sessions

2 main aspects of psychoanalysis related to empathy

transference relationship & countertransference

freud’s opinions on empathy

he and his followers said almost nothing about empathy

problems with psychoanalysis

tries to explain too much; not falsifiable; doesn’t take strong stances on particular issues

Gestalt Psychotherapy

psychodynamic; Fritz Perls

Cognitive-oriented therapy

focuses on specific problems and solutions; Albert Ellis

Humanistic, “Client-Centered” Therapy

focuses on encouraging the client; Carl Rogers

behavioral approaches

inspired by B.F. Skinner; systematic desensitization, modeling, and token economy

systematic desensitization

overcoming phobias by progressively fearful stimuli

modeling

modeling behavior

token economy

people are given rewards/”tokens” to reinforce behavior

Rogerian therapy

first to incorporate empathy into clinical practices; client-centered approach

Style of Rogerian therapist

• be non-directive

• be geuine

• be accepting & show unconditional positive regard

• be empathic

“active listening” in Rogerian approach

1) summarize

2) invite clarification and elboration

3) reflect feelings

Carl Rogers key points

• no advice giving

• mirroring techniques

• non-directive but NOT directionless

• helping the individual to self-direct

arguments for Rogerian Therapy

• genuine, attentive listening

• empathic concern can be powerful and comforting

• encourages clarification of client’s goals and concerns

arguments against RT

• too passive

• therapist needs to teach appropriate skills/behaviors to overcome patient’s problems

• where is the line drawn for unconditional positive regard

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy overview

• no single theory

• emotions are not completely ignored

• focused on cognition and how thoughts influence behaviors & emotions

• future oriented

• therapists play an active role

Gloria tapes

met with 3 different therapists to see the differences in various kinds of psychoanalysis

who did gloria meet with

carl rogers, fritz perls, and albert ellis

how do carl rogers, fritz perls, and albert ellis differ from freud?

focus on the present, not the past

arguments for CBT

• therapists offer clear guidance

• disruption of dysfunctional behavior/thought

arguments against CBT

• lack of true compassion felt by client

• sometimes effective therapy needs additional elements

Gold Standard of medical practice (besides psychotherapy)

fully randomized double-blind design with placebo

problem with randomly-assigned studies to evaluate therapy effectiveness

unethical, pragmatic challenges, confounding factors, and no placebo group

Waitlist Control

study done to evaluate psychotherapy effectiveness; half the patients receive therapy and half are placed on waitlist; allows you to test whether patients tended to get better on their own; not as definitive as Gold Standard

Smith and Glass, 1977

famous attempt to compare the effectiveness of different therapies

results of Smith and Glass

few, if any, difference between different types of therapies; some evidence that empathic orientation of the therapist was a good predictor of success

Smith and Glass study caveat

patients "self-selected” themselves to different types of therapies

empathy burnout/compassion fatigue

potential downside to clinical empathy; can leave the clinician vulnerable

three dimensions of empathy burnout

emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, decreased sense of personal accomplisments

emotional exhaustion

emotional (and physical) depletion; feeling over-extended; unable to offer emotional support to others

depersonalization

impersonal response towards recipients of one’s care

decreased sense of personal accomplishments

increasingly negative view of oneself, particularly in relation to one’s work with service users

what type of physician/clinician is most likely to experience empathy burnout?

no answer yet

depersonalization

possible consequence of burnout; neurological down-regulation of pain responses

dehumanization study 1 (Chinese)

doctors show stronger down-regulation of empathic responses

dehumanization study 2

how doctors respond when listening to patients talk about their own pain: doctors are downregulating

Cogoni et al. 2022

participants showed dampened neurological responses to pain experienced by outgroup members and sexualized female targets

situations in which humans are capable of neurological downregulating their empathic responses

1) when responding to outgroup members

2) when responding to people (women) portrayed in an objectified manner

3) when the perceiver is in a profession (i.e. doctor) that requires frequent downregulation

4) psychopaths

Agreeableness

Big 5 Trait most conducive to being a good empathic listener (Sims, 2017)

active listening

practice of paying full attention to what someone is saying in order to demonstrate unconditional acceptance and unbiased reflection

Gottman’s negative Four Horsemen

• criticism

• contempt

• defensiveness

• stonewalling

Gottman’s constructive Horsemen

• gentle start-up

• build culture of appreciation

• take responsibility

• physiological self-soothing

Gottman’s soft/gentle start-up (1999)

the first 60 seconds of conflict between married couples was a reliable predictor of whether they would stay together or divorce; avoid negative, harsh, overly general, or critical start-ups

Zaki et al. (2008)

tested one explanation for why highly empathic perceivers are more accurate when inferring feelings of others; HEP can be accurate only if the social target is sufficiently expressive

perspective taking

essentially guessing what someone is feeling/thinking

perspective getting

asking someone what they’re feeling/thinking

Eyal et al. (2018)

trying to imagine how someone else feels is not enough, and can marginally increase inaccuracy; the solution is to ask them

behavioral immersion

cultivate curiosity about strangers’ lives; walk a mile in someone’s shoes, don’t just try them on

roadblocks to empathy

• not paying attention

• feeling the emotion of the other person but not knowing how or when to communicate empathically

• knowing intellectually that you need to communicate empathically, but not feeling the other person’s emotion

empathy in romantic relationships

IRI for couples was moderately correlated with their own relationship satisfaction; missing predictive satisfaction rating of the partner data

female empathy in romantic relationships

positively correlated with female and male’s reported satisfaction with the relationship

male empathy in romantic relationships

positively correlated with male but NOT related to female satisfaction with the relationship