KN Psychological Dynamics of Empathy Exam #2 Flashcards

Piaget's stages of child development

most important stage

what task do they get good at?

2 to 6 years old: PREOPERATIONAL STAGE

egocentrism -- excessive intrest in yourself

using intuitive rather than logical reasoning

kids get good at mountain task (try to draw the scene from my perspective)

theory of mind (ToM)

the understanding that others have perspectives, beliefs, desire, and intentions that are different from one's own

can i place myself in the shoes of (perspective of) another person

when does ToM come up in atypical developmental trajectories? (who doesn't have ToM)

Autism

Narcissism

Psychopathy

Contagion of empathy

does it require ToM?

If a baby hears another baby crying, they will cry too

NO doesn't require ToM

Attributive empathy

does it require ToM?

we can feel connected to another person's emotion even though you're not feeling that emotion

the ability to see the world from that other person's perspective

yes big connection to ToM

Are emotional and attributive empathy mutually exclusive?

no you can have both (neurotypical human adults)

or you can have neither (simple animals, plants, inanimate objects)

or you can have emotional contagion empathy WITHOUT attributive empathy (many animals, baby humans)

or you can have attributive empathy WITHOUT emotional contagion empathy (certain disorders)

Autism/autism spectrum disorders

Cognitive empathy

(two most important points of evidence)

problems seeing the world as another person might see it (central to ToM)

adults on the spectrum have similar deficits as neurotypical 2-3 year olds

sally/anne experiment--> autistic children fail

if you ask an autistic kid "where am i looking" they can name the object that you're looking at --> they're not just inattentive to other people

Autism/autism spectrum disorders

Motor empathy

ability to recognize, copy, or imitate motor responses

less clear if adults have this deficit

2-3 year old children DONT have this deficit

Autism/autism spectrum disorders

Emotional empathy

ability to emotionally respond when presented with or told about emotional experiences of others

can be measured with behavioral measures, self report, or brain activity

people on the spectrum SOMETIMES have deficits here

antisocial personality disorder

a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others, since age 15, as indicated by 3 or more of the following:

- failure to conform to social norms concerning lawful behaviors

- deceitfulness, repeated lying/conning for pleasure or personal profit

- impulsivity/failure to plan

- irritability/aggressiveness

-reckless disregard for safety of self or others

- consistent irresponsibility

- lack of remorse, being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another person

- must be at least 18 years old

Psychopathy

Cognitive empathy (ToM)

no ToM impairments

Psychopathy

Motor empathy

no data

Psychopathy

Emotional empathy

how'd they get the evidence

deficit does NOT include:

reduced emotional reactivity -->especially fear, sadness, and pain

evidence through fMRI studies (amygdala activation)

DOES NOT INCLUDE ANGER

Representative study of emotional empathy deficits in psychopaths

results

Put in MRI scanner

instructed to adopt either a SELF-PERSPECTIVE or an OTHER-PERSPECTIVE while viewing visual stimuli depicting right hands and fight feet of individuals in painful and non-painful situations

Emotional empathy measured by amygdala activation

results: in self-condition: low medium and high psychopaths have no differences in activation

in other-condition: low still had activation, medium and high had bars below baseline (scores below 0)

Emotional contagion

If you had a hard day and you come home and your dog licks your face because they can at least sense what you're feeling

theres some degree of connectivity between the two people or animals

Two different ToM paradigms researchers might, in principle, use to test animals

Paradigm 1: the observer (nonhuman primate) is watching real primates interacting with only other real primates (REALLY DIFFICULT YOU'D NEED TO GET TWO ANIMALS TO INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER IN THE EXACT WAY YOU WANT THEM TO)

Paradigm 2: the observer (nonhuman primate) is actually watching human beings

Danny Povinelli study of attributive empathy in apes

STUDY

- chimps reach out their arm for food

- will chimp still reach out for food if the trainer has a blindfold on? (if chimps have ToM, they won't reach out for food)

- which trainer will the chimp reach out to? the one looking at the chimp or the one facing away

VARIATIONS: reachers facing the wrong way, blindfolded covering their eyes vs covering mouth, covering eyes vs covering ears, large bucket in front of face

Danny Povinelli study of attributive empathy in apes

RESULTS

ONLY correct with the front facing vs backwards facing trainer

all others were up to chance

what is it about the front/back variation of chimp experiment that lead to high rates of accuracy?

this experiment didn't use any human props

What happens when both trainers are facing backwards but one of them turns their head to face the chimp?

chimp fails, reaches out to either by chance

what happens when both trainers are facing forward but one has their eyes closed?

chimps fail, reaches out to either by chance

summary of when chimps reach out:

do chimps have ToM skills?

chimps use the body facing forward rule

no they do not have ToM skills

what happens when one trainer faces backwards with their head turned looking at the chimp vs the other facing forward with their eyes closed

chimps choose the ones whos bodies face them regardless of their face or eye contact

ToM research on canines

results: pet dogs vs shelter vs wolves

summary

canines choose between an attentive "seer" vs non-attentive human "blind" whose visual attention was blocked in one of four ways (like having their back turned vs not turned)

results: all dogs ran toward person facing them. pet dogs ran towards the one without the book in front of their face. (they've seen their owners read books before)

summary: canines don't have theory of mind skills

trapanning

drilling holes in people's heads to cure mental disorders

western europe:

madhouses began to proliferate

shift from asylums to mental hospitals

Transference relationship

you're a therapist. your client has a lot of issues/anger towards her mother. therapist encourages them to transfer those feelings onto the therapist. sometimes the patient will get really angry at the therapist as if its their parent. A good therapist can use this in a productive and healthy way

countertransference

when therapist starts transferring their feelings onto the patient

this is BAD you aren't supposed to do this

ex. working with a client older than you who reminds you of your father so you start getting annoyed

freud therapy positioning

patient lies down on couch facing away from freud. freud sits on the arm of the couch. NOT CONDUCIVE TO HAVING EMPATHIC CONCERN

did freud talk about empathy at all?

no even though it feels like he should have

Gestalt psychotherapy

more present oriented than Freud

ex. Fritz Perls

early break from orthodox tenets of psychoanalysis

Cognitive oriented therapy

Albert ellis

Humanistic, client-centered therapy -- most related to empathy

4 things to do as the therapist

Carl rogers

1) Be non-directive (goals come from the client)

2) Be genuine (no therapist facade)

3) Be accepting; show unconditional positive regard (help client learn to accept themselves despite weaknesses)

4) be empathic

Behavioral approaches

directly inspired by concepts from ____

systematic desensitization

modeling

token economy

B.F. Skinner

results for chimps and all canines are similar to each other in ONE RESPECT

all pass the forward-backward trials

is being nice the key to being an effective therapist

no

Carl Rogers

Fritz Peals

Albert Ellis

lots of agreeing & validation, kept saying he can't give her answers, he's not really speaking

harsh, mean, focused on body movements

specific questions to get her to the answers

some key points about carl rogers

- no advice giving

- lots of mirroring techniques

- non-directive but not directionless -->help the individual self-direct

- you take on their world but know its not happening to you --> STEP INTO THEIR WORLD

necessary and sufficient conditions for effective therapy

- Client: state of incongruence

Therapist: state of congruence

criticisms for rogers and rogerian therapy

acceptance of clients feelings without offering suggestions for healthy change? really?

Most modern therapists want to see integration of Rogerian principles with approaches more focused on cognition and behavior.

what do we call this

CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy)

CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy)

THOUGHTS (what we THINK affects how we feel and act)

BEHAVIORS (what we DO affects how we think and feel)

EMOTIONS (what we FEEL affects how we think and act)

largely focused on cognition and how thoughts drive behavior

future oriented

therapists play very active role in helping client find new/more adaptive ways of thinking and acting

therapeutic empathy system (the four aspects)

- Empathic ATTUNEMENT

- Empathy COMMUNICATION skills

- Empathic ATTITUDE/stance

- Empathy KNOWLEDGE

Empathic Attunement

therapist's ability to accurately understand thoughts/feelings of client

Empathic attitude/stance

is the therapist successful at making the client feel comfortable? does the client feel welcomes?

Empathy communication skills

is the therapist able to communicate understanding of the specific problems to the client? does the client believe they are being understood?

(successful paraphrasing)

Empathy knowledge

general training in the dynamics of empathy

Deficits in EMPATHIC STANCE / ATTITUDE of the therapist

- appears empathic but other behavior may suggest therapist using relationship for own ends (seeing clients as objects)

- at worst, psychopathic

Deficits in EMPATHIC ATTUNEMENT of the therapist

- Authentic and warm, fine with simple emotions, but struggle with complex/mixed emotions (guilt, shame)

Deficits in EMPATHIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS and KNOWLEDGE of the therapist

- tuned in and authentic

- lacks skills to communicate empathic understanding as well as emotion

- assumes their empathy is automatically felt by client -- needs to learn importance of explicitly communicating empathy

Deficits in ATTUNEMENT, SKILLS, and KNOWLEDGE of the therapist

- amateur

- glosses over, changes subject, relates personal stories

Deficits in ATTUNEMENT and SKILLS in the therapist

- understands empathy intellectually

- can't tune into emotional content and respond appropriately

- finds it difficult to tune into own emotions and reflect appropriately