Empathy and Conversational Enjoyment in Younger and Older Adults

Gould, Odette N.; Gautreau, Sylvia

doi:10.1080/0361073x.2014.857559

Cited by 18 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Although the existing literature on age-related increases in emotional empathy is controversial ( May and Alligood, 2000 ; Bailey et al, 2008 ; Grühn et al, 2008 ; O’Brien et al, 2013 ), the observed positive age effect on emotional empathy in our study is consistent with the results of Gould and Macneil Gautreau (2014) , who found higher empathic concern in older as compared to younger adults. The increase of emotional empathy with advancing age and its importance for moral decisions can be interpreted in the light of the socioemotional selectivity theory ( Carstensen et al, 1999 ; Carstensen, 2006 ) which posits that with increasing age – and with the increasing awareness of the finiteness of the own life – there is a motivational shift toward more affective and especially more positive stimuli (also called the “positivity effect”), whereas negative affective information is actively avoided (e.g., Charles et al, 2009 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Accordingly, older people more often try to de-escalade interpersonal conflict situations ( Grossmann et al, 2010 ) and show greater acceptance of negative emotions than younger adults ( Shallcross et al, 2013 ). Evidence for age-related changes of emotional empathy has been reported, with controversial results concerning the question whether emotional empathy increases ( Gould and Macneil Gautreau, 2014 ), declines ( May and Alligood, 2000 ), or remains stable with advancing age ( Bailey et al, 2008 ), or both variables show an inverse- U -shaped relationship ( O’Brien et al, 2013 ). Despite these controversial findings, it was recently shown that emotional empathic reactions more strongly motivates older than younger adults to exhibit prosocial behavior ( Beadle et al, 2015 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Empathy Mediates the Effects of Age and Sex on Altruistic Moral Decision Making

Rosén

Brand

Kalbe

2016

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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Moral decision making involves affective and cognitive functions like emotional empathy, reasoning and cognitive empathy/theory of mind (ToM), which are discussed to be subject to age-related alterations. Additionally, sex differences in moral decision making have been reported. However, age-related changes in moral decision making from early to late adulthood and their relation to sex and neuropsychological functions have not been studied yet. One hundred ninety seven participants (122 female), aged 19–86 years, were tested with a moral decision making task comprising forced choice “everyday life” situations in which an altruistic option that favors a socially accepted alternative had to be considered against an egoistic option that favors personal benefit over social interests. The percentage of altruistic decisions was analyzed. A structural equation model (SEM) was calculated to test the hypothesis whether age and sex predict altruistic moral decision, and whether relevant neuropsychological domains mediate these hypothesized relationships. A significant relationship between age and moral decision making was found indicating more frequent altruistic decisions with increasing age. Furthermore, women decided more altruistically than men. The SEM showed that both age and sex are significant predictors of altruistic moral decision making, mediated by emotional empathy but not by reasoning. No cognitive empathy and ToM scores were correlated to age and moral decision making at the same time and thus were not included in the SEM. Our data suggest that increasing age and female sex have an effect on altruistic moral decisions, but that this effect is fully mediated by emotional empathy. The fact that changes of moral decision making with age are mediated by emotional empathy can be interpreted in the light of the so-called “positivity effect” and increasing avoidance of negative affect in aging. The mediated sex effect might represent both biological aspects and socialized sex roles for higher emotional empathy leading to more altruistic decisions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathy Mediates the Effects of Age and Sex on Altruistic Moral Decision Making

Rosén

Brand

Kalbe

2016

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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“…Items address facets of empathy including emotion comprehension in others, sympathetic physiological arousal, and altruistic behaviour on a scale from 0 (never) to 4 (always) with higher average values indicating higher empathy. The TEQ has previously shown good levels of internal consistency (Gould and Gautreau 2014;Spreng et al 2009; α = 0.74 for the present study).…”

Section: Empathysupporting

confidence: 62%

Secondary Traumatic Stress in Foster Carers: Risk Factors and Implications for Intervention

2019

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Objectives Fostering, a professional or semi-professional role that is in increasing demand, involves potential exposure to material related to children's trauma in a domestic setting. Yet, professional vulnerability to secondary traumatic stress (STS) is under-researched in foster carers, as is the suitability of associated intervention techniques. We therefore investigated incidence of STS and psychological predictors relevant to secondary and primary stress appraisal in UK foster carers. Methods British foster carers (n = 187; 81% female; aged 23-72 years; mean length of experience 9 years) were approached through a range of organizations managing paid foster caring in the UK for a survey study. Self-report measures were obtained on STS, burnout and compassion satisfaction from the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) scale, as well as on primary trauma and variables previously recommended for inclusion in training targeting secondary trauma: empathy, resilience and self-care. Results High levels of STS and burnout were found among foster carers. In multivariate model testing, STS was directly and positively predicted by burnout, compassion satisfaction and primary trauma (R 2 = 0.54, p < 0.001). Resilience, empathy and self-care did not show direct associations with STS, but self-care had a significant indirect effect on STS. Conclusions Findings support the view that STS is a substantial risk factor in foster caring. While self-care is confirmed as a promising factor in intervention, the roles of empathy and resilience are more ambiguous.

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“…31 Another study found that younger adults enjoyed conversing with their peers the most and conversing with children and older adults the least. 32 This variation may help explain the difference in mean CARE score by different age groups in our study.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 64%

Patients’ Perceptions of Dental Students’ Empathic, Person‐Centered Care in a Dental School Clinic in Malaysia

Babar

Hasan

Yong

et al. 2017

Journal of Dental Education

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Empathy has been identified as a crucial foundation in building an effective dentist-patient relationship. The aim of this study was to assess patients' perceptions of dental students' empathic care in the primary oral health care clinic at International Medical University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in May-October 2014. The study also assessed the validity and reliability of the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure in this setting; the association between number of encounters and students' CARE Measure scores; and the association between students' empathy (measured by the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire) and CARE Measure scores. Participants were 283 patients (aged ≥18 years) who were asked to self-complete the ten-item CARE Measure immediately after their clinical encounter with students who provided care under supervision of the teaching staff. The results showed that the CARE Measure demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's α=0.95). A single factor solution emerged, accounting for 69% of the variance. The mean CARE Measure score in the consultations was 43.55±6.14, and 26% of the students achieved the maximum possible score of 50. The mean number of encounters with each student was 2.33±2.78. An increase of one episode was associated with an insignificant average CARE score decrease of 0.05 (-0.28, 0.38), whereas students' empathy was associated with a small increase in average CARE Measure score of 0.63 (0.08, 1.18). These results provide evidence of the measure's ability to support feedback to dental students on their empathy when interacting with patients.

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Empathy and Conversational Enjoyment in Younger and Older Adults

Abstract: These results highlight the importance of a multidimensional view of empathy, and the possibility that empathy influences conversational interactions differentially across the life span.

Cited by 18 publications

References 39 publications

Empathy Mediates the Effects of Age and Sex on Altruistic Moral Decision Making

Empathy Mediates the Effects of Age and Sex on Altruistic Moral Decision Making

Secondary Traumatic Stress in Foster Carers: Risk Factors and Implications for Intervention

Patients’ Perceptions of Dental Students’ Empathic, Person‐Centered Care in a Dental School Clinic in Malaysia

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