Development of an Empathy Scale.

TL;DR: This paper discusses the development of a 64-item self-report measure of empathy, constructed by comparing the responses of groups with high- and low-rated empathy, using the combined MMPI-CPI item pool.

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 the capacity to adopt a broad moral perspective, that is, to take "the moral point of view." This paper discusses the development of a 64-item self-report measure of empathy, constructed by comparing the responses of groups with high- and low-rated empathy, using the combined MMPI-CPI item pool. After providing evidence concerning the 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 the interpersonal situation as a major focus of concern. Accordingly, most writers in the 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 the key variable in social and moral development; extending this line of reasoning he equates the "g" factor in intelligence with social sensitivity, the origins of which can be found in the central nervous system. In a similar vein, Cottrell and Dymond (1949) also maintained that empathy is the basic process in all social interaction. Empathy, seen as an everyday manifestation of the disposition to adopt a broad moral