• J Pain · Feb 2012

    How do I empathize with you? Let me count the ways: relations between facets of pain-related empathy.

    • Jaclyn B Issner, Annmarie Cano, Michelle T Leonard, and Amy M Williams.
    • Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202, USA.
    • J Pain. 2012 Feb 1;13(2):167-75.

    UnlabelledThis study examined the extent to which components of empathy (ie, empathic accuracy, empathic tendencies, and empathic responses) were correlated within the context of chronic pain couples. Additionally, the interrelationships between these empathy variables and spouse responses to pain were investigated. Participants were 57 couples in which at least 1 spouse reported chronic musculoskeletal pain. Each couple participated in a videotaped interaction about the impact of pain in their lives together, after which they completed an empathic accuracy procedure. The interactions were coded for the spouse's use of empathic responses. Couples also completed surveys about pain severity, pain interference, empathic tendencies, marital satisfaction, and perceived spousal responses (ie, solicitous and punishing responses) to pain. Spousal empathic responses and empathic accuracy were not related to one another nor were they related to spousal empathic tendencies, or solicitous spouse responses. Spousal punishing responses were negatively related to empathic responses. The association between solicitousness and empathic responses was moderated by spousal marital satisfaction. The findings suggest that there are not clear associations among these empathy variables. The results also indicate that the climate in which solicitousness is provided may influence the extent to which spouses display empathic responses.PerspectiveThe findings have implications for models of pain empathy and suggest that future research is needed to understand relations between aspects of empathy. Moreover, interventions aimed at addressing the empathic climate in which support is delivered may help spouses more empathically and effectively communicate with and assist partners with pain management.Copyright © 2012 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…