The Role of Acute Pain in the Elicitation of Empathy Öffentlichkeit
Meyer, Allison Elizabeth (2011)
Abstract
Abstract
The Role of Acute Pain in the Elicitation of Empathy
By Allison E. Meyer
Empathy is the capacity to understand vicariously the physical or
emotional or emotional
experiences of another person and is crucial to human
relationships. It comprises three
components: an affective response, cognitive perspective-taking and
regulation of vicarious
emotion. A high degree of empathy for others' pain may result in
pain for oneself, and evidence
suggests that the affective component of empathy may be related to
pain at a neural level. It was
hypothesized that participants assigned to the pain condition would
report stronger feelings of
empathy for another person than those assigned to the control
condition. It was also hypothesized
that dispositional empathy and emotion regulation skills would
relate to reports of state empathy
and personal distress. To test these hypotheses, adult females (n =
30) were randomly assigned to
either the pain or no-pain condition. Pain was induced using the
cold pressor task, in which
participants are asked to submerge their hand in a cold-water bath
for thirty seconds after they
first report feeling pain. After participating in the experimental
conditions, the participants
viewed a brief video clip of a character experiencing physical
pain, all participants reported
feelings of empathy and personal distress. Results did not support
the hypotheses. There were no
significant differences in empathy between condition, and
participants assigned to the pain
condition reported significantly lower levels of personal distress.
Regression analyses did not
provide support for the notion that dispositional empathy or
emotion regulation skills impact
state empathy or level of personal distress following participation
in the experimental conditions.
Attention processes may account for the differences in personal
distress across the conditions.
Findings, study limitations, and implications are discussed.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Methods 8
Results 12
Discussion 13
References 18
Tables 24
About this Honors Thesis
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