Research on empathy in schizophrenia has relied on dated self-report scales that do not conform to contemporary social neuroscience models of empathy. The current study evaluated the structure and correlates of the recently-developed Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) in schizophrenia. This measure, whose structure and validity was established in healthy individuals, includ...

Dehumanization is endemic in medical practice. This article discusses the psychology of dehumanization resulting from inherent features of medical settings, the doctor-patient relationship, and the deployment of routine clinical practices. First, we identify six major causes of dehumanization in medical settings (deindividuating practices, impaired patient agency, dissimilarity, mechanization, ...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate whether a patient's preference for a doctor's face is associated with better assessments of relational empathy in the patient-doctor relationship after the first clinical consultation. METHODS A total of 110 patients enrolled in a traditional Korean medical clinic participated in the study. Patients' preference for doctors' faces was assesse...

There is now a societal and cultural expectation that doctors and nurses should feel, and display, empathy for their patients. Many commentators argue that medical and nursing students should be taught empathy. Empathy, however, is difficult to define: it is not the same as kindness, as it implies a degree of psychological insight into what the patient is thinking or feeling. Empathy is seen by...

The common factors have a long history in the field of psychotherapy theory, research and practice. To understand the evidence supporting them as important therapeutic elements, the contextual model of psychotherapy is outlined. Then the evidence, primarily from meta-analyses, is presented for particular common factors, including alliance, empathy, expectations, cultural adaptation, and therapi...

Medication adherence usually refers to whether patients take their medications as prescribed (eg, twice daily), as well as whether they continue to take a prescribed medication. Medication non adherence is a growing concern to clinicians, healthcare systems, and other stakeholders (eg, payers) because of mounting evidence that it is prevalent and associated with adverse outcomes and higher cost...

BACKGROUND   Empathy dysfunction is one of the hallmarks of psychopathy, but it is also sometimes thought to characterise autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Individuals with either condition can appear uncaring towards others. This study set out to compare and contrast directly boys with psychopathic tendencies and boys with ASD on tasks assessing aspects of affective empathy and cognitive perspe...

BACKGROUND Empathy plays a key role in social understanding, but its empirical measurement has proved difficult. The Empathy Quotient (EQ) is a self-report scale designed to do just that. This series of four studies examined the reliability and validity of the EQ and determined its factor structure. METHOD In Study 1, 53 people completed the EQ, Social Desirability Scale (SDS) and a non-verba...

Theorists from diverse disciplines purport narrative fiction serves to foster empathic development and growth. In two studies, participants’ subjective, behavioral, and perceptual responses were observed after reading a short fictional story. In study 1, participants who were more transported into the story exhibited higher affective empathy and were more likely to engage in prosocial behavior....

In 1872, Charles Darwin published The Expression of the Emotion in Man and Animals (1). In it, he sought to link certain movements, such as humans raising their eyebrows when surprised, to the concept of evolution and a link to common animal ancestry. Darwin’s impact on the psychology of the emotions continues to be felt to this day and his book is still considered a classic. One of the problem...