Distress and Empathy: Two Qualitatively Distinct Vicarious Emotions with Different Motivational Consequences

The construct of empathy may be located conceptually at several different points in the network of interpersonal cognition and emotion. We discuss one specific form of emotional empathy--other-focused feelings evoked by perceiving another person in need. First, evidence is reviewed suggesting that there are at least two distinct types of congruent emotional responses to perceiving another in need: feelings of personal distress (e.g., alarmed, upset, worried, disturbed, distressed, troubled, etc.) and feelings of empathy (e.g., sympathetic, moved, compassionate, tender, warm, softhearted, etc.). Next, evidence is reviewed suggesting that these two emotional responses have different motivational consequences. Personal distress seems to evoke egoistic motivation to reduce one's own aversive arousal, as a traditional Hullian tension-reduction model would propose. Empathy does not. The motivation evoked by empathy may instead be altruistic, for the ultimate goal seems to be reduction of the other's need, not reduction of one's own aversive arousal. Overall, the recent empirical evidence appears to support the more differentiated view of emotion and motivation proposed long ago by McDougall, not the unitary view proposed by Hull and his followers.     

Human genetic markers associated with variation in intellectual abilities and personality

Eight commonly-used genetic markers were correlated with the Verbal Reasoning (VR), Space Relations (SR) and Clerical Speed and Accuracy (CSA) tests of the Differential Aptitude Tests (DAT) and the Psychoticism (P), Extraversion (E), Neuroticism (N) and Lie (L), scales of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). In a sample of 122 undergraduate students tongue-curling ability, light eye color and inability to taste PTC were related to high intelligence, with dominant right eye, disconnected ear lobes and near-sightedness being associated with specific DAT scales. P showed a male-female sex difference. Dark eyes were related to E and N.     

A computational model of visual analogies in design

We present an analysis of the work of human participants in addressing design problems by analogy. We describe a computer program, called Galatea, that simulates the visual input and output of four experimental participants. Since Galatea is an operational computer program, it makes specific commitments about the visual representations and reasoning it uses for analogical transfer. In particular, Galatea provides a computational model of how human designers might be generating new designs by incremental transfer of the problem-solving procedure used in previous design cases.     

Coping strategies and quality of life among liver transplantation candidates

The maintenance of self-reported quality of life (QL) among people on the liver transplantation waiting list is one of the priority objectives of transplantation teams. Although there are different determinant factors of QL, results are not conclusive. In our study, the goal was to evaluate both the influence of cirrhosis etiology (ethylic and non-ethylic) and the coping strategies used concerning QL. A sample of 93 patients was selected, divided into two groups: ethylic cirrhosis (EC) and non-ethylic cirrhosis (NEC). QL was evaluated through the SF-36 Health Survey, and coping strategies through the Medical Coping Modes Questionnaire (MCMQ). Our results indicated that subjects with EC obtained similar QL levels to subjects with NEC, on all the SF-36 and MCMQ subscales. Furthermore, negative correlations were found between avoidance and acceptance-resignation coping strategies with the SF-36 components. Consequently, the acceptance-resignation strategy was associated with a worse perception of physical functioning, general and mental health, and vitality and role-emotional. Overall, these results suggest that cirrhosis etiology is not a determinant factor of QL, whereas the acceptance-resignation coping strategy might lead to lower self-perception of QL.     

Entrevista con Klaus R. Scherer

RESUMEN

El profesor Scherer es uno de los Psicólogos Sociales más importantes de la actualidad, un importante investigador en temas de psicoacústica o de la conducta no verbal no vocal (como a él le gusta llamar a su campo). La contribución del profesor Scherer a la investigación del análisis psicológico de la voz y de las relaciones entre personalidad y los sitemas vocales no verbales de la comunicación ha sido muy importante para el desarrollo de la investigación en la dimensión no-verbal de la conducta. En esta entrevista Scherer reflexiona sobre el pasado y presente de la psicología alemana, refleja los hitos principales de su área de estudio y plantea el problema de la responsabilidad del investigador en la aplicación de sus hallazgos y productos. Se presenta, en esta entrevista, un ejemplo esclarecedor de la importancia de los factores interdisciplinarios en la génesis y apertura de nuevas áreas para la investigación.