Development of an empathy scale.

Abstract

The concept of empathy—the intellectual or imaginative apprehension of another's condition or state of mind— is central for understanding a broad range of social phenomena including, in particular, moral development. Within this latter context, an empathic disposition can be regarded as capacity to adopt a broad moral perspective, that is, to take the moral point of view. This paper discusses development of a 64-item self-report measure of empathy, constructed by comparing responses of groups with high- and low-rated empathy, using combined MMPI-CPI item pool. After providing evidence concerning scale's reliability and validity, an attempt is made to show its relevance for specifically moral conduct by relating empathy scale scores to real life indexes of socially appropriate behavior and to certain previously wellvalidated measures of personality. Some form of empathic disposition, roletaking ability, or social sensitivity is assumed by all approaches to personality which take interpersonal situation as a major focus of concern. Accordingly, most writers in role-theoretical tradition (Cottrell, 1942; Gough, 1948; Mead, 1934; Sarbin, 1968) have given careful attention to this aspect of social functioning. Mead, for example, has argued that role-taking ability is key variable in social and moral development; extending this line of reasoning he equates g factor in intelligence with social sensitivity, origins of which can be found in central nervous system. In a similar vein, Cottrell and Dymond (1949) also maintained that empathy is basic process in all social interaction. Empathy, seen as an everyday manifestation of disposition to adopt a broad moral