COGNITIVE/AFFECTIVE EMPATHY TRAINING PROGRAM

OVERVIEW

A cognitive/affective empathy training program was developed for aggressive females at a residential treatment center.  Research indicates that empathy includes understanding the perspective of others (a cognitive process) as well as vicariously sharing in the emotions of others (an affective or emotional process).  For this reason, the intervention was designed to teach both affective and cognitive empathy skills.

Students assigned to receive this empathy training scored significantly higher on a measure of affective empathy than did students assigned to the control group.  Treatment students did not score significantly higher than control students on a measure of cognitive empathy, however.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Adolescents in need of increased empathy levels

This affective/cognitive empathy training program consisted of four 1.5-hour sessions.  The first session dealt with identifying affective states in others.  The second session focused on improving subjects’ role-taking abilities.  The third session assisted subjects in sharing in the emotional states of others.  The fourth, and final, session helped subjects to develop objective procedures for observing and inferring possible causes of behaviors and affective states.  All sessions presented concepts in visual, auditory, and kinesthetic ways and frequently involved role-plays.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Pecukonis, E.V.  (1990).  A Cognitive/Affective Empathy Training Program As A Function Of Ego Development In Aggressive Adolescent Females.  Adolescence, 25(97), 59-74.

Evaluated population: 24 aggressive females aged 14 to 17 from a residential treatment center served as the subjects for this study.  These females were all of low-to-middle socioeconomic status and of normal intelligence.  Four subjects were lost to attrition, but attrition rates were identical between treatment and control groups.

Approach: All subjects completed measures assessing empathy and ego development.  The top 50% of scorers on the ego development measure were identified high ego development scorers and the remaining subjects were identified as low ego development scorers.  The high scorers were randomly assigned to either the treatment group or the control group and then the low scorers were randomly assigned; thus both groups contained six high scorers and six low scorers.

Subjects assigned to the treatment group received empathy training in four 1.5-hour sessions spaced out over two weeks.  Subjects assigned to the control group were put on a waiting list.

10 weeks after baseline measures were completed, subjects completed measures assessing empathy again.

Results: Subjects assigned to the treatment group scored significantly higher on a post-test measure of affective empathy than did subjects assigned to the control group.  Treatment subjects did not score higher on a measure of cognitive empathy, however.  Researchers had predicted that subjects with high levels of ego development would be better able to profit from the empathy intervention, but this hypothesis was not supported; the extent to which the empathy training program impacted treatment subjects was not related to pre-test scores on a measure of ego development.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Program materials are not available for purchase.

References:

Pecukonis, E.V.  (1990).  A Cognitive/Affective Empathy Training Program As A Function Of Ego Development In Aggressive Adolescent Females.  Adolescence, 25(97), 59-74.

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: 14-17

Program age ranges in the guide: Adolescence, Youth

Program components: Clinic/provider-based

Measured outcomes: Social and Emotional Health

Program information last updated on 5/24/07.

© Child Trends 2003