Gender Differences in Empathy During Adolescence: Does Emotional Self-Awareness Matter?

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412097663
Author(s):  
Cristina Trentini ◽  
Renata Tambelli ◽  
Silvia Maiorani ◽  
Marco Lauriola
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Reactivity Index ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Personal Distress ◽  
Full Knowledge ◽  
Emotional Concern ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Tas 20

Empathy refers to the capacity to experience emotions similar to those observed or imagined in another person, with the full knowledge that the other person is the source of these emotions. Awareness of one's own emotional states is a prerequisite for self-other differentiation to develop. This study investigated gender differences in empathy during adolescence and tested whether emotional self-awareness explained these differences. Two-hundred-eleven adolescents (108 girls and 103 boys) between 14 and 19 years completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) to assess empathy and emotional self-awareness, respectively. Overall, girls obtained higher scores than boys on IRI subscales like emotional concern, personal distress, and fantasy. Regarding emotional self-awareness, we found gender differences in TAS-20 scores, with girls reporting greater difficulty identifying feelings and less externally oriented thinking than boys. Difficulty identifying feelings explained the greatest personal distress experienced by girls. Lower externally oriented thinking accounted for girls’ greater emotional concern and fantasy. These findings offer an insight into the role of emotional self-awareness–which is essential for self-other differentiation–as an account for gender differences in empathic abilities during adolescence. In girls, difficulty identifying feelings can impair the ability to differentiate between ones’ and others’ emotions, leading them to experience self-focused and aversive responses when confronted with others’ suffering. Conversely, in boys, externally oriented thinking can mitigate personal distress when faced with others’ discomfort.

The Role of Culture in Affective Empathy: Cultural and Bicultural Differences

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 309-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winnie Chung ◽  
Sherilynn Chan ◽  
Tracy G. Cassels
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Health ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Empathic Concern ◽  
Reactivity Index ◽  
Affective Empathy ◽  
Personal Distress ◽  
Social Emotional

AbstractEmpathy is essential for healthy relationships and overall well-being. Affective empathy is the emotional response to others’ distress and can take two forms: personal distress or empathic concern. In Western cultures, high empathic concern and low personal distress have been implicated in increased prosocial behaviour (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 1989) and better emotion management and peer relations (e.g., Eisenberg and Fabes, 1998). Various factors have been examined with respect to affective empathy, but the role of culture has received little attention. Previous work suggests that children from East Asian cultures compared to those from Western cultures experience greater personal distress and less empathic concern (e.g., Trommsdorff, 1995), but no work has specifically examined these differences in adolescents or individuals who identify as ‘bicultural’. The current research examines cultural differences in affective empathy using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980) in an adolescent and young adult sample (n=190) and examines how empathy relates to social-emotional health in bicultural individuals. Consistent with research on children, East Asian adolescents reported greater personal distress and less empathic concern than their Western counterparts. The bicultural individuals’ scores fell in between the East Asian and Western groups, but revealed significant differences from their ‘uni-cultural’ peers, demonstrating shared influences of community and family. Importantly, however, the relationship between affective empathy and social-emotional health in bicultural individuals was the same as for Western individuals. The current results provide an important first step in understanding the different cultural influences on empathic responding in a previously understudied population ‐ bicultural individuals.

MEANINGFUL ORIENTATIONS OF CLIENTS WITH TRENDS IN FOOD BEHAVIORS AS A SUBJECT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ACCOMPANYING

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 106-111
Author(s):  
N. Yu. LITVINOVA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Eating Style ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Food Behaviors ◽  
Self Worth ◽  
Psychological Risk ◽  
Life Work

The article discusses the psychological causes of eating disorders (and trends) (obesity and bulimia). Emo-tional needs and psycho – emotional states of a person associated with a healthy eating style / eating behavior. Psychological risk factors: diet, lifestyle, health status. The role of the analysis of the meaning of life orientations in the process of coping with this problem: I am the concept of personality, the goal of life, the process of forming the problem, typical eventuality, the result of the stage of life. Work on mistakes during the psychotherapeutic process, aimed at transforming the way of thinking: positive self-perception and self-awareness; positive attitude towards others; a stable sense of self-worth, uniqueness, self-confidence, the intention of creation, creativity in life; satis-faction with one’s physical body and physicality; control and regulation of the level of severity of the significance of experiences in traumatic situations of life, reflection of the multivariance of the development of events.

scholarly journals Discursive Narrative Analysis: A Study of Online Autobiographical Accounts of Self-Injury

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Sutherland ◽  
Andrea Breen ◽  
Stephen Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Extreme Case ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Self Injury ◽  
Autobiographical Accounts ◽  
Insight Into

This article offers an innovation in narrative analysis afforded by incorporating analytic concepts from discourse analysis. We share some examples from our study of online autobiographical accounts of non - suicidal self - injury (NSSI) to illustrate the various aspects of a discursive narrative approach to research. We show how the participants construct events and experiences as sequentially linked and temporarily related using a range of discursive practices and devices, including producing contrasting descriptions of emotional states, using figurative language, vivid or vague descriptions, and extreme case formulations. The specific way in which experience was constituted as sequentially and causally linked allows narrators to attribute relief from suffering to NSSI and to present NSSI as a reasonable and justifiable behavior to those who may read these autobiographies. This study offers insight into what may be missed when interpretation is focused solely on the content or broad structural elements of stories, as in much narrative analysis, and suggests the critical role of narrators’ social or interactive orientation and their reliance on the micro - details of language in the construction of stories. Methodological and theoretical implications are discussed.

Empathic Correlates of Witnessing the Inhumane Killing of an Animal: An Investigation of Single and Multiple Exposures

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Morton ◽  
Beth Daly
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Defense Mechanism ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
Reactivity Index ◽  
Personal Distress ◽  
Humane Education ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Multiple Exposures ◽  
Emotional Concern ◽  
Animal Violence

AbstractSeventy-five adults who reported witnessing at least 1 animal being killed inhumanely participated in a study of 5 measures of empathy from the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) (Davis, 1980) and the Animal Attitude Scale (AAS) (Herzog, Betchart, & Pittman, 1991): Perspective Taking (PT), Fantasy (FS), Emotional Concern (EC), Personal Distress (PD), and Animal Attitudes (AA). Females showed greater sensitivity (4 of 5 scales) on a 2-way MANOVA with Sex (male, female) and Witnessing Killing (never, once, multiple) as independent variables. Individuals who witnessed multiple killings were higher on PT and lower on PD scales. Lower PD for those who witnessed multiple killings suggests hardening or habituation related to exposure. Alternatively, they may lack resistance to involvement in situations leading to animal violence. Higher PT scores related to multiple killings may indicate a natural leaning toward the cognitive—rather than affective—or dissociation between cognitive and affective. A shift to the cognitive, as a defense mechanism, suggests a dissociation hypothesis. Implications extend to the need for refined research in the developmental sequence of animal abuse and empathy, and humane education.

Exploring an autoethnographic stance with poetry in children’s nursing

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 465-476
Author(s):  
Marie Clancy
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Coping Mechanisms ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Reflective Narrative

An autoethnographic stance has been taken in this paper as this methodology can be particularly useful when exploring complex feelings and unique lived experiences. The purpose of this paper is to use this stance to holistically explore a nursing journey writing poetry during times of personal and professional difficulty, with cathartic benefits. It is hoped this will provide an example and tool for other nurses to expand their learning, insight and understanding. Poems will be used as data in this paper, and data analysis and a reflective narrative and literature exploration described to help analyse their meaning. This may stimulate an empathetic understanding in the reader and give an in-depth insight into the challenging role of the children’s nurse. Poetry will be used to explore some of the typical features of autoethnography, namely self-portrayal, context, and culture with self-reflection, and by providing poetry that encourages reader exploration. Poetry has the potential to benefit nursing, including enhanced self-awareness and coping mechanisms as well as the development of empathy to support patients, families and colleagues. The use of personal poetry with reflective narrative provides an illuminating expansion of the experiences described, which may encourage readers to explore their own emotions and reflect in new and different ways.

scholarly journals PERAN KEPALA DESA DALAM MENINGKATKAN KINERJA APARAT DESA MOPUYA KECAMATAN BULAWA KABUPATEN BONE BOLANGO

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Muh Firyal Akbar
Keyword(s):  
Research Approach ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
And Training ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Lack Of Knowledge ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

This research aimed to know the role of the head of village in improving the performance of officials Mopuya village in sub district of Bulawa, Bone Bolango regency, to know the factors that impede improvement performance of officials Mopuya village in sub district of Bulawa, Bone Bolango regency. While the benefits of research for academics, are expected to be the brainstorming of knowledge and information that can be used as a reference or grounding in any steps strategy of head village, the practical benefit, that is to increase the knowledge and training to think systematically and bringing insight into the role of head of village in improving the performance of officials village. The research approach used in this research is the phenomenological approach implies that an approach where the researchers trying to understand the meaning of the events of research and its relation to officers who investigated the ordinary people in a particular situation, or the type of research is used descriptive qualitative research.The result of research showed that is the role of the head of village in improving the performance of officials Mopuya village than do the good role with through 4 roles that already been implemented by the head of village. While the factors that impede improvement performance of officials Mopuya village that is the terms of attendance is not on time, lack of knowledge about computers, lack of communication and lack of self-awareness of the officials that not active.

scholarly journals No feelings for me, no feelings for you: A meta-analysis on alexithymia and empathy in psychopathy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Burghart ◽  
Daniela Mier
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Emotional Awareness ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Reactivity Index ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Sample Type ◽  
Personal Distress ◽  
Random Effects Models ◽  
Negative Relationships

Introduction: Psychopathy is characterized by extensive emotional impairments. However, the current empirical literature on empathy and emotional awareness in psychopathy provides heterogeneous results. Methods: Multiple random-effects models were performed on studies examining the association between psychopathy and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index as well as Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. In total, 72 articles providing 716 effect sizes and representing 15,016 participants were included in the analyses. Furthermore, differences among psychopathy factors and the role of potential moderators were assessed. Results: We found negative relationships between psychopathy and empathy (r = -.31), empathic concern (r = -.29), perspective taking (r = -.22), and personal distress (r = -.14). In addition, our results yielded positive relationships between psychopathy and alexithymia (r = .21), difficulty describing feelings (r = .20), difficulty identifying feelings (r = .16), and externally-oriented thinking (r = .15). The results varied by psychopathy factors and were partly moderated by sample type (correctional/clinical vs. community) and gender.Conclusion: These findings contribute to a better understanding of impaired emotionality in psychopathy. We show that psychopathy is associated with profound deficits in affective and cognitive empathy, personal distress, and emotional awareness.

Self-Awareness as a Strategy for Self-Improvement? The Role of Self-Construal

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristy K. Dean ◽  
Wendi L. Gardner ◽  
Swathi Gandhavadi
Keyword(s):  
Self Awareness ◽  
Self Construal

Plasminogen Activation In Vivo upon Intravenous Infusion of DDAVP

1992 ◽  
Vol 67 (01) ◽  
pp. 111-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Levi ◽  
Jan Paul de Boer ◽  
Dorina Roem ◽  
Jan Wouter ten Cate ◽  
C Erik Hack
Keyword(s):  
Monoclonal Antibodies ◽  
Plasminogen Activator ◽  
Plasma Levels ◽  
Fold Increase ◽  
Fibrinolytic System ◽  
Plasminogen Activation ◽  
Plasminogen Activator Activity ◽  
Insight Into

SummaryInfusion of desamino-d-arginine vasopressin (DDAVP) results in an increase in plasma plasminogen activator activity. Whether this increase results in the generation of plasmin in vivo has never been established.A novel sensitive radioimmunoassay (RIA) for the measurement of the complex between plasmin and its main inhibitor α2 antiplasmin (PAP complex) was developed using monoclonal antibodies preferentially reacting with complexed and inactivated α2-antiplasmin and monoclonal antibodies against plasmin. The assay was validated in healthy volunteers and in patients with an activated fibrinolytic system.Infusion of DDAVP in a randomized placebo controlled crossover study resulted in all volunteers in a 6.6-fold increase in PAP complex, which was maximal between 15 and 30 min after the start of the infusion. Hereafter, plasma levels of PAP complex decreased with an apparent half-life of disappearance of about 120 min. Infusion of DDAVP did not induce generation of thrombin, as measured by plasma levels of prothrombin fragment F1+2 and thrombin-antithrombin III (TAT) complex.We conclude that the increase in plasminogen activator activity upon the infusion of DDAVP results in the in vivo generation of plasmin, in the absence of coagulation activation. Studying the DDAVP induced increase in PAP complex of patients with thromboembolic disease and a defective plasminogen activator response upon DDAVP may provide more insight into the role of the fibrinolytic system in the pathogenesis of thrombosis.

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