A Systematic Framework for Integrating Psychological Evaluations and Interventions

A systematic framework for an integrative approach to psychological evaluations and interventions is proposed based on the executive system model of intelligence, the transactional processes of stress and coping, and the field properties of the personal domain. The executive system of intelligence is a comprehensive model that helps to explain the active components of various types of psychotherapies. We are proposing that psychotherapies facilitate clients' uses of their executive functions to develop coping strategies in their transactions with the environment and the events in their life space. A clinical case is presented to illustrate our systematic approach to psychological evaluation and intervention.     

Developing Rapport with Children in Forensic Interviews: Systematic Review of Experimental Research

The vast majority of guidelines recommend that developing rapport with children is essential for successful forensic child interviewing; however, the question remains as to whether there is a sufficient body of scientific research to generate evidence-based guidelines for developing rapport with children in legal contexts. To answer this question, we conducted a systematic review of the literature to identify experimental studies of the effects of rapport-building methods on the reliability of children's reports. Independent raters applied 12 exclusion criteria to the 2,761 potentially relevant articles located by electronic and hand searches of the literature. Experimental studies were few. Although studies to date are a beginning, the overall scientific base is weak regarding even basic issues such as how to best define rapport and the efficacy of common rapport-building techniques. This systematic review highlights what we know, what we do not know, and how much more we need to know to create evidence-based best practice. Recommendations for reshaping the research agenda are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Empathy: a physiological substrate.

The relation between empathy (defined as the ability to perceive accurately how another person is feeling) and physiology was studied in 31 Ss. Ss viewed 15-min martial interactions and used a rating dial to indicate continuously how they thought a designated spouse was feeling. Rating accuracy was determined by comparing Ss' ratings with identical self-ratings obtained previously from the target spouse. Physiological linkage between S and target was determined using bivariate time-series analyses applied to 5 autonomic and somatic measures obtained from the S during the rating task and from the target spouse during the original conversation. Accuracy of rating negative emotion was greatest when S and target evidenced high levels of physiological linkage across time. Accuracy of detecting positive emotion was related to a state of low cardiovascular around in the S, but not to physiological linkage between S and target.     

Empathy is a beautiful thing: Empathy predicts imitation only for attractive others

Research shows that we spontaneously imitate people. Moreover, empathy predicts the degree of this non‐conscious imitation. Little is known, however, if or how this expression of empathy is influenced by stable physical characteristics of our interaction‐partners. In two studies, we tested whether attractiveness of others moderated the relation between empathy and imitation. While seeing a woman performing joystick movements, participants either imitated, or non‐imitated these movements. Results showed that the higher participants empathy score, the faster they imitated an attractive person. The level of empathy did not predict the degree of imitation of unattractive targets. The findings demonstrate that the expression of empathy through imitation can be moderated by attractiveness, thereby introducing a new dimension to the conditionality of empathy.     

Impact of Neurologic Deficits on Motor Imagery: A Systematic Review of Clinical Evaluations

Motor imagery (MI, the mental representation of an action without engaging in its actual execution) is a therapeutically relevant technique to promote motor recovery after neurologic disorders. MI shares common neural and psychological bases with physical practice. Interestingly, both acute and progressive neurologic disorders impact brain motor networks, hence potentially eliciting changes in MI capacities. How experimental neuroscientists and medical practitioners should assess and take into account these changes in order to design fruitful interventions is largely unresolved. Understanding how the psychometric, behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of MI are impacted by neurologic disorders is required. To address this brain-behavior issue, we conducted a systematic review of MI data in stroke, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, and amputee participants. MI evaluation methods are presented. Redundant MI profiles, primarily based on psychometric and behavioral evaluations, emerged in each clinical population. When present, changes in the psychometric and behavioral correlates of MI were highly congruent with the corresponding motor impairments. Neurophysiological recordings yielded specific changes in cerebral activations during MI, which mirrored structural and functional reorganizations due to neuroplasticity. In this view, MI capacities may not be deteriorated per se by neurologic diseases resulting in chronic motor incapacities, but adjusted to the current state of the motor system. Literature-driven orientations for future clinical research are provided.     

Empathy a common ground

Though empathy remains a central concept in psychoanalysis, attempts to explain the operations and functions in the empathic process have been as divergent as the various meanings associated with the term itself. Any explanation of the mechanism of empathy must include how we have access to the inner experience of others or account for the link between the empathizer and the inner state of the object.

In this paper, the authors review different models (Freud, 1921; Kohut, 1959; Basch, 1983, 1988; Buie, 1981; Schafer, 1968; Klein, 1946, 1963) of empathic understanding and note that while these models rely on imitation, identification, merger, projection, or inference as the basis of empathic understanding, each implies only an indirect understanding of the states of others. The authors propose a two‐phase model of empathy that differs from those models reviewed in that their position assumes that the perception of emotion in the other is immediately accessible through isomorphic psychological and physical processes that often result in an experience of resonance of the same emotion inthe self (Beebe, 1990). According to this view, the empathic process consists of an initial perceptual phase that generates affective resonance and a second phase in which complex cognitive‐affective operations contribute to the construction of meaning. We posit that empathic understanding affords the observer direct access to certain qualities of the other's experience. The model borrows from Wolfgang Köhler's (1947) concept of isomorphism and Rudolph Arnheim's (1949) theory of the perception of expression.

Evidence for this model is presented from experimental psychology. A discussion of a case from an earlier paper on empathy by Beres and Arlow (1974) illustrates how the operations underlying empathy contribute to understanding a patient in a clinical setting. Finally, we conclude the paper with a brief discussion of some of the clinical implications of this model.     

When Empathy Matters: The Role of Sex and Empathy in Close Friendships

Based on prior theory and research (Ciarrochi & Heaven, 2009; Eagly & Wood, 1999), we hypothesized that the link between empathy and friendship would be moderated by sex: Girls will nominate empathic boys as friends, whereas boys will not tend to nominate empathic girls. We collected measures of empathy, friendship social support, and close friendship nominations in grade 10 across 1,970 students in 16 schools (M_age = 15.70, SD = .44; males = 993, females = 977). Multilevel models revealed that boys high in cognitive empathy attracted an average of 1.8 more girl friendship nominations than did their low empathy counterparts, whereas empathic girls did not attract a greater number of opposite‐sex friends. In addition, the more friendship nominations a boy received from either boys or girls, the more they felt supported by their friends; the number of friendship nominations received by girls, in contrast, had no effect on their felt support by friends. Regardless of the quantity of friendship nominations, empathy was linked to more supportive friendships for both males and females. These results inform a contextual understanding of the role of empathy in selecting and maintaining friendships.     

认知共情和情绪共情的发展差异:元分析初探

共情的毕生发展模型表明认知共情和情绪共情两维度可能存在发展差异,本研究借助元分析技术考察个体认知共情和情绪共情的毕生发展特点。通过文献检索和筛查,获取了136项研究和178个独立效应量,共计50606名被试。发表偏差检验表明文献选取不存在发表偏差,异质性检验表明应选取随机效应模型进行分析。随机效应模型分析的结果表明,总体而言个体的共情反应以认知共情为主（Z=5.39,p<0.001）。进一步的调节效应分析表明,不同发展阶段个体的共情反应受认知共情和情绪共情的影响存在差异（Q_b=73.99,p<0.001）。具体而言,学前期儿童主要以情绪共情为主,儿童中期至成年早期主要以认知共情为主,成年中期至成年晚期主要以情绪共情为主。     

认知共情和情绪共情的发展差异:元分析初探

共情的毕生发展模型表明认知共情和情绪共情两维度可能存在发展差异,本研究借助元分析技术考察个体认知共情和情绪共情的毕生发展特点。通过文献检索和筛查,获取了136项研究和178个独立效应量,共计50606名被试。发表偏差检验表明文献选取不存在发表偏差,异质性检验表明应选取随机效应模型进行分析。随机效应模型分析的结果表明,总体而言个体的共情反应以认知共情为主（Z=5.39,p<0.001）。进一步的调节效应分析表明,不同发展阶段个体的共情反应受认知共情和情绪共情的影响存在差异（Q_b=73.99,p<0.001）。具体而言,学前期儿童主要以情绪共情为主,儿童中期至成年早期主要以认知共情为主,成年中期至成年晚期主要以情绪共情为主。     

Empathy as a hermeneutic practice

This essay will argue for the centrality of empathy in the doctor-patient relationship — as a core of ethically sound, responsible therapeutics. By “empathy,” I intend an explicitly hermeneutic practice, informed by a reflexive understanding of patient and self. After providing an overview of the history of the concept of empathy in clinical medicine, I discuss current definitions and the use of Balint groups in residency training as a way to develop empathic competence in novice physicians.     

Emotional Empathy in a Courtroom Simulation: A Person-Situation Interaction1

A pair of experiments were conducted using a simulated courtroom trial of a criminal case. In Experiment I subject-jurors were asked by defense counsel either to imagine themselves as the defendant (empathy-inducing appeal) or to pay close attention to evidence (nonempathy appeal). Later the judge delivered only general instructions or, in addition, charged jurors to give consideration only to the facts presented. When there was no Fact-focused judge's charge, juror-subjects who heard the empathy-inducing appeal rated the defendant's actions as more lawful and attributed less of the cause for the incident to his personality than did their counterparts in the nonempathy condition. Experiment II included individual differences in the tendency to empathize as an additional mediating variable. The original pattern of effects found for the manipulated variables in Experiment I appeared again, but were overshadowed by the stronger effects of the individual difference variable and of subject sex. Subject-jurors who scored high on the empathy individual difference measure rated the defendant less guilty, assigned less cause to him, and showed corresponding mood shifts when they heard the empathy-inducing appeal. In addition, male subjects empathized more strongly with the male defendant and viewed him more favorably.     

Improving Empathy in Children: Interactive Read-Aloud as a Counseling Intervention

ABSTRACT

The authors describe interactive read-alouds as an effective counseling strategy to improve empathy levels in school aged children. The importance of reading development and empathy development were considered as well. Results of the literature review indicate reading development is an essential building block in school aged children’s future academic development. Furthermore, empathy development in students was deemed important. A lesson plan was created to provide school counselors with a means of implementing the interactive read-aloud as a counseling strategy.     

The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire: Scale Development and Initial Validation of a Factor-Analytic Solution to Multiple Empathy Measures

To formulate a parsimonious tool to assess empathy, we used factor analysis on a combination of self-report measures to examine consensus and developed a brief self-report measure of this common factor. The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) represents empathy as a primarily emotional process. In 3 studies, the TEQ demonstrated strong convergent validity, correlating positively with behavioral measures of social decoding, self-report measures of empathy, and negatively with a measure of Autism symptomatology. Moreover, it exhibited good internal consistency and high test–retest reliability. The TEQ is a brief, reliable, and valid instrument for the assessment of empathy.     

作为政治实践的“同情”:同情、审议民主与社会结构

在关于审议民主的讨论中,情感被认为:有损于认知,影响人们的判断;是主观的、个体的,难以形成普遍性的道德规范;会阻碍共识的达成。但关于情感的新的理解,为我们重新看待情感在政治生活中的意义提供了契机。本文关注的是同情在审议民主中的意义,在现有研究的基础上,将同情视为一个过程和一种实践,而不仅仅是一种心理机制。同情能够影响个体的判断,是健全理性的必要构成部分。情感有助于"角色承担",形成普遍化的立场和规范。同情也为我们重新设想"多元公众"提供了视角。但不平等的社会结构、距离、心理机制等因素都有可能阻碍同情的发生。"他者"的问题是政治实践所处理的重要议题。随着"他者"问题的凸显,作为政治实践的同情在未来的政治生活中将会扮演更为重要的角色。