Psychology Commons^™

Can A Course On Sexuality Counseling Increase Empathy When Working With Sex- And Gender-Minoritized Individuals?, Betty Cardona, Robinder P. Bedi

Journal of Counseling Sexology & Sexual Wellness: Research, Practice, and Education

This study examined whether a sexuality counseling course could increase self-perceived empathy for working with Sex and Gender minoritized (SGM)individuals. Forty-two students enrolled in a sexuality counseling course completed empathy assessments prior to starting the course and after completing it. Statistically significant increases in empathy towards gay/lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals were found (moderate to a large effect sizes). Results indicate that, at least under some circumstances, empathy levels for SGM individuals in counselors-in-training (CITs) could be increased through coursework. Increases in practitioner empathy for SGM individuals can translate into lower uniliteral termination rates and better counseling and psychotherapy outcomes.

Do Semantics Matter In Empathetic Person Perception Of Children Or Adults With Mental Illness?, Rylie Hansen, Caroline Polak, Emma Gries, Stevie Ostman, Gina A. Paganini, E. Paige Lloyd

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

Experiences of stigma, discrimination, or aggression negatively affect the well-being of people experiencing symptoms of psychopathology. However, empathy is thought to undermine prejudice and discrimination and is linked with positive outcomes (e.g., greater well-being, more social support, etc.) among those with stigmatized mental illnesses. The current work investigates the influence of target age (adult or child) and language type (person-first or identity-first) on how much empathic concern perceivers report toward individuals with a hypothetical mental health condition. This research contributes to an ongoing debate about whether person-first or identity-first language carries stigmatizing or protective effects, while also considering a novel …

Kindness In The Bardo: Empathy As A Catalyst For Healing In Victims Of Dissociation, Julia Dorothea Chopelas

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

In George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, a host of undead characters find themselves in a spiritual limbo based on the bardo. Although they won’t admit it to themselves, Roger Bevins III and Hans Vollman are most certainly dead. Despite their supernatural makeup as ghosts, Bevins and Vollman bear strong psychological resonance with the living: they are human, heartbroken, and lost. For the ghosts of Oak Hills Cemetery, the inefficient coping mechanism of dissociation perpetuates their afterlife imprisonment in the bardo. Bevins and Vollman suffer from a variety of dissociative symptoms, their minds’ psychological defense against the trauma that has …

Prediction Of Bystander Intervention Behavior In A Sexual Assault Situation: The Role Of Religiosity, Empathy, And Gratitude, John D. Foubert, Mwarumba Mwavita, Kelva Hunger, Wei-Kang Kao, Pam Pittman-Adkins

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Bystander intervention in potential sexual assault situations is a common method of helping to address sexual violence on college campuses. Although numerous variables have been shown to mediate bystander intervention behavior, the pool of potential correlates is limited. The present study used regression analysis to determine the relationship between bystander behavior and three predictors: religiosity, gratitude, and victim empathy. Consistent with prior research, both religiosity and gratitude significantly predicted bystander behavior. Contrary to prior research, the relationship between victim empathy and bystander behavior was negative. Findings are discussed relating to potential bystander intervention programs, and future research, particularly on gratitude, …

Homelessness, Dehumanization, And The Role Of Empathy, Christina Esker

Kean Quest

Dehumanization reflects a psychological process that denies individuals and groups the positive traits and attributes that make them human. Those experiencing homelessness are frequently dehumanized and perceived as social outcasts in American society. This study demonstrates the tendency of others to dehumanize individuals that are homeless and how increased empathy changes how this social outgroup is perceived. Results revealed that when exposed to information that humanizes a man experiencing homelessness, participants’ levels of empathy increased, and levels of disgust decreased. However, general attitudes and beliefs of homelessness were unchanged. The implications of increasing empathy levels for this social outgroup are …

How Music And Art Affect Compassion And Perspective Taking: A Collaboration Between Ucf Restores And Opera Orlando, Kathryn Sunderman

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

The ability of music and art to impact emotions and behavior is well understood based on studies conducted in a laboratory. However, research in a laboratory setting does not always generalize well to a natural environment. In this pilot study, we investigated how attending an opera that portrayed a wartime Christmas truce affected the audience’s levels of empathic concern and perspective-taking. Paired samples t-tests were conducted on data from 63 adult participants (M = 52.17 years). The results indicated that attendance at this operatic performance positively changed both empathic concern and perspective-taking, suggesting that even in a naturalistic setting, music …

Empathy And Fairness In Nonhuman Primates: Evolutionary Bases Of Human Morality, Colt Halter

Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology

Darwin offered an evolutionary perspective on the origins of human morality, suggesting that humans share a biological foundation with nonhuman primates. This paper reviews the current literature on moral and prosocial behaviors of nonhuman primates, specifically examining whether nonhuman primates exhibit behaviors that are typical of empathy and fairness. The literature documents that nonhuman primates exhibit empathetic behaviors regarding emotional contagion and sympathetic concern. There is also evidence that nonhuman primates have a sense of fairness, seen in their reciprocal behaviors and aversion to inequity. Taken together, this suggests that there are evolutionary roots of morality, lending empirical support to …

It Does Not Cost The Earth To Be Kind, Svetlana Feigin

Animal Sentience

The COVID-19 crisis is a wake-up call on a global scale. What lessons we learn from this crisis will determine our survival as a species. The global health crisis calls for individual and collective changes in our agricultural practices and our consumption habits. Most important, it is a call for us as a species to move towards an empathic way of living and interacting with nature.

Psychosocial Impact Of Pet Keeping On Schoolchildren In China, Yanxia Song, Toshiya Hirose, Naoko Koda

People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice

Studies in Western countries have demonstrated the benefits of pets for humans. However, there are not many studies on human-pet relationships in different cultures and societies; for example, few in Asia. This questionnaire survey demonstrated that attachment to pets benefits the psychosocial development of schoolchildren aged 9 to 16 years (n = 599: 340 boys and 259 girls, 284 rural students and 315 urban students) in Hunan Province, central south China. Children with higher attachment to their pets scored higher on the scales of self-efficacy and empathy than those with lower attachment and those who had no pets. Moreover, girls …

The Empathetic Leader, Sarah Romney

Marriott Student Review

Research shows that “empathy” is an important quality in a leader and improves one’s ability to resolve group needs, obtain followers, perform prosocial behaviors, and get positive results. However, many business students do not recognize the value of empathy. Business schools can help improve this by teaching the importance of empathy and giving students the opportunity to develop it.

Personal And Educational Differences In College Students’ Attitudes Toward Social Justice, Michael Di Bianca B.A., Perrin Robinson M.S., Mary Jo Coiro Ph.D

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Many colleges and universities encourage students to engage with social justice issues in their education and career discernment. However, a variety of individual attributes and life experiences may predict how college students develop an awareness of and attitudes toward social justice, perhaps including ways in which students relate to their own challenging life experiences and encounter others’ experiences of injustice. This study explored the relationship between individual attributes, educational experiences and social justice attitudes among a sample of 347 college students who completed self-report surveys. Specifically, this study examined a) help-seeking attitudes, b) self-compassion, c) prior experience receiving mental health …

Mirror Neurons And Humanity’S Dark Side, Gisela Kaplan

Animal Sentience

The last two decades have revealed brain mechanisms in birds and primates showing that, contrary to earlier prejudices, some birds can do things (cognitive and affective) on par with or even better than great apes and humans. The old dichotomies are breaking down; but the dark side is that these insights come at a time in the Anthropocene when humans have caused and continue to cause mass extinctions.

Mobilizing Heads And Hearts For Wildlife Conservation, Valérie A. M. Schoof, Simon L'Allier

Animal Sentience

Highlighting the shared evolutionary relationships between humans and animals — and recognizing that all species, including humans, are unique in their own way — may facilitate caring for and conserving animals by tapping into a human emotion: empathy.

Moral Relevance Of Cognitive Complexity, Empathy And Species Differences In Suffering, John Lazarus

Animal Sentience

I qualify two criticisms made by commentators on Chapman & Huffman’s target article. Responding to the view that differences between humans and other animals are irrelevant to deciding how we should treat other species, I point out that differences between any species in their capacity to suffer are morally relevant. And in response to the claim that suffering is the sole criterion for the moral treatment of animals, I argue that cognitive complexity and a capacity for empathy also have moral relevance to the extent that they influence suffering.

A Clean, Green New Zealand? An In-Depth Look At The Personal Experiences Of Animal Rights Activists, Svetlana Feigin, Richard Glynn Owens, Felicity Goodyear-Smith

The Qualitative Report

This study explored personal experiences of animal rights and environmental activists in New Zealand. The stories of participants provided insight into the challenges activists face in a country where the economy is heavily dependent on animal agriculture. A qualitative methodology was utilised and several major themes emerged: (1) emotional and psychological experiences, (2) group membership, (3) characteristics of activism and liberation, (4) the law and its agents, and (5) challenge to society. Participants of the study represent a group of individuals engaged in acts of altruistic offending triggered by exposure to the suffering of non-human animals. Their moral philosophy and …

Empathy Institutionalized: Sociocultural Dialogue As A Strategic Peacebuilding Initiative, Emily Owens

Bridge/Work

A common adage used in psychological exploration tells us that “If you want to know the end, look at the beginning.” While typically employed to emphasize the importance of upbringing and environment on personal outcomes, this phrase can be equally applicable in examining the ways in which society has developed over time to produce our polarized sociopolitical culture of today. This work explores from an integrative psychosocial perspective the potential that exists in working to define a new “end” by shaping a new “beginning,” through going directly to the institutions that comprise our own beginnings— schools. Through a combined research …

Human-Like Behavior And Cognition: Not A Good Starting Point, Magnus Helgheim Blystad

Animal Sentience

Chapman & Huffman make use of observations and studies that show how humans may not be as unique in our behaviour and cognition as previously thought. I wholeheartedly agree that our uniqueness might be small and that if it exists, it should not give our species any right to act cruelly towards other animals. However, this kind of logic can be problematic. I present a few of the issues in this commentary.

Situating The Study Of Jealousy In The Context Of Social Relationships, Christine E. Webb, Frans B. M. De Waal

Animal Sentience

Whereas the feelings of other beings are private and may always remain so, emotions are simultaneously manifested in behavior, physiology, and other observables. Nonetheless, uncertainty about whether emotions can be studied adequately across species has promoted skepticism about their very presence in other parts of the animal kingdom. Studying social emotions like jealousy in the context of the social relationships in which they arise, as has been done in the case of animal empathy, may help dispel this skepticism. Empathy in other species came to be accepted partly because of the behavioral similarities between its expression in nonhuman animals and …

Empathy And Its Effect On Religious Opinion Regarding Homosexuality, Melissa Borah

The Eastern Illinois University Political Science Review

This article examines shifts in opinion, and the reasoning behind these shifts, among Christian-identified Americans regarding their views of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. After conducting interviews with several Christian-identified Americans, the author finds that when a family member or close friend “comes out” as LGBT, individuals are more likely to change their opinion of those who identify as LGBT, and their change in opinion is more likely to be dramatic. Moreover, the author finds that empathy is the most powerful factor that facilitates an individual’s change in opinion.

The Effects Of Restorative Justice Programming On Juvenile Offender Empathy, Mike Tapia, Nicholas D. Natividad, Crystal Vasquez

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

No abstract provided.

Inferring Emotion Without Language: Comparing Canines And Prelinguistic Infants, Stefanie Hoehl

Animal Sentience

Research on canine emotions has to deal with challenges quite similar to psychological research on social and emotional development in human infants. In both cases, verbal reports are unattainable, and behavioral and physiological methods have to be adjusted to the specific population. I will argue that both regarding empirical approaches and conceptual work, advances in research on social-cognitive development in human infants can inform the study of canine emotions.

Media Detectives: Bridging The Relationship Among Empathy, Laugh Tracks, And Gender In Childhood, Sruti Kanthan, James A. Graham, Lynne Azarchi

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Empathy in college-age students is decreasing at unprecedented rates. Understanding empathy in children can act as primary prevention in tackling the problem. This study considers laugh tracks’ capacity to bias reality, foster empathy, and investigate differences across time and gender in 181 fifth grade students. The results from this quasi-experimental study suggests that students’ perceptions of the relationship between empathy and canned laughter changed significantly from pretest to posttest survey questions. Statistically significant differences were present for gender, as well. Theoretical and practical implications of using laugh tracks to increase empathy in middle and late childhood are discussed.

What Dimensions Of Empathy Predict Prosocial Helping Behavior In Emerging Adulthood? The Relationships Between Volunteering To Help And Perspective-Taking Ability, Experience Of Empathic Concern, And Self-Report Empathic Inclinations, Wyntre Stout

Journal of Interdisciplinary Graduate Research

Empathy, defined as the ability to experience the world from the other’s point of view, is believed to play an important role in motivating acts to meet the needs of others, as in prosocial behavior (Batson, Eklund, Chermok, Hoyt, & Ortiz, 2007). The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend past work that highlights empathy’s role in prosocial behavior by examining the relative importance of specific components of empathy in relationship to prosocial helping behavior. The role of perspective-taking ability, experience of empathic concern responses, and self-report empathic inclinations were examined in a model predicting prosocial helping behavior. …

Animal Sentience: The Other-Minds Problem, Stevan Harnad

Animal Sentience

The only feelings we can feel are our own. When it comes to the feelings of others, we can only infer them, based on their behavior — unless they tell us. This is the “other-minds problem.” Within our own species, thanks to language, this problem arises only for states in which people cannot speak (infancy, aphasia, sleep, anaesthesia, coma). Our species also has a uniquely powerful empathic or “mind-reading” capacity: We can (sometimes) perceive from the behavior of others when they are in states like our own. Our inferences have also been systematized and operationalized in biobehavioral science …

The Effect Of The Induced Compliance Paradigm On Emotions During Inter-Group Conflict, Roi Edelstein, Yigal Rosen

Peace and Conflict Studies

The existence and intensity of a conflict are dependent in part on the attitudes and emotions of an individual. Previous studies demonstrated the effectiveness of creating cognitive dissonance in order to change attitudes towards out-group members. The current study examines the ability to decrease negative emotions and to increase the empathy in a conflict situation through the induced compliance paradigm. An experiment was performed on 60 Jewish students in Israel regarding the context of the conflict between Jewish and Arab-Israeli citizens in Israel. Some of the participants (n=43) performed an induced-compliance task focused on writing an essay as an Arab-Israeli …

Connecting The Spiritual And Emotional Intelligences: Confirming An Intelligence Criterion And Assessing The Role Of Empathy, David B. King, Constance A. Mara, Teresa L. Decicco

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

A viable model and self-report measure of spiritual intelligence were previously proposed

and supported by King and DeCicco (2009). Despite such advances, evidence is needed

demonstrating significant associations with other intelligences. The current study sought to

test this criterion in relation to emotional intelligence. Among a sample of 420 Canadian

adults, results demonstrated significant associations between spiritual intelligence and two

self-report measures of emotional intelligence. Due to the suggestion by some theorists

that empathy be included in a model of spiritual intelligence, associations with empathy

were also investigated. Results bode well for the inclusion of a spiritual ability set in …

Empathy And Political Psychology: Problematic Contributions To Security Issues, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes potential contributions of the empathy construct to political psychology as well as problems hindering this potential from being realized.