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Emotional Empathy

The Emotional Empathy scale is a 30-item measure of emotional empathy for adolescents as well as adults, with six factors: Empathic Suffering, Positive Sharing, Responsive Crying, Emotional Attention, Feeling for Others, and Emotional Contagion.

Categories

Geographies Tested: United States of America

Populations Included: Female, Male

Age Range: Adolescents, Adults

Items:

  1. I cry easily when watching a sad movie.
  2. Certain pieces of music can really move me.
  3. Seeing a hurt animal by the side of the road is very upsetting.
  4. I don’t give others’ feelings much thought.
  5. It makes me happy when I see people being nice to each other.
  6. The suffering of others deeply disturbs me.
  7. I always try to tune in to the feelings of those around me.
  8. I get very upset when I see a young child who is being treated meanly.
  9. Too much is made of the suffering of pets or animals.
  10. If someone is upset I get upset, too.
  11. When I’m with other people who are laughing I join in.
  12. It makes me mad to see someone treated unjustly.
  13. I rarely take notice when people treat each other warmly.
  14. I feel happy when I see people laughing and enjoying themselves.
  15. It’s easy for me to get carried away by other people’s emotions.
  16. My feelings are my own and don’t reflect how others feel.
  17. If a crowd gets excited about something so do I.
  18. I feel good when I help someone out or do something nice for someone.
  19. I feel deeply for others.
  20. I don’t cry easily.
  21. I feel other people’s pain.
  22. Seeing other people smile makes me smile.
  23. Being around happy people makes me feel happy, too.
  24. TV or news stories about injured or sick children greatly upset me.
  25. I cry at sad parts of the books I read.
  26. Being around people who are depressed brings my mood down.
  27. I find it annoying when people cry in public.
  28. It hurts to see another person in pain.
  29. I get a warm feeling for someone if I see them helping another person.
  30. I feel other people’s joy.

Response Options:
A five-point response scale was used, where 1 was “Strongly Disagree” and 5 was “Strongly Agree”.

Scoring Procedures

Not Available

Original Citation

Caruso, D. R., & Mayer, J. D. (1998). A measure of emotional empathy for adolescents and adults.


Psychometric Score

Ease of Use Score

Scoring breakdown

Formative Research

Qualitative Research

Existing Literature/Theoretical Framework

Field Expert Input

Cognitive Interviews / Pilot Testing

Reliability

Internal

Test-retest

Interrater

Validity

Content

Face

Criterion (gold-standard)

Construct

KEY

Ease of Use

Readability

Scoring Clarity

Length

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