Observer Multidimensional Empathy And Anxiety In Response To Expresser Anxiety.

Bailyn, Lisa A.

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Observer Multidimensional Empathy And Anxiety In Response To Expresser Anxiety. Open Access Deposited

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Date Uploaded: 03/26/2018
Date Modified: 03/26/2018

Empathy was investigated as a multidimensional construct, including affective, cognitive, and communication processes. Observer subjects, who were administered the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1983), and the Social Skills Inventory (Riggio, 1989), rated the level of Expresser nervousness in anxious and comfortable videotapes. Those Observers reporting high affective empathy and high cognitive empathy also reported higher skill in nonverbal communication decoding and interpretation. However, highly empathic Observers did not report higher verbal communication decoding and interpretation skills. Contrary to previous research, those Observers low in affective empathy and high in trait anxiety showed significant increases in their state anxiety level after watching the anxious Expressers' videotape. The Observers, regardless of their reported level of cognitive empathy and trait anxiety, were able to differentiate anxious versus comfortable Expresser videotapes. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for empathy theory.

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