The Measurement of Empathy and Its Efficacy in Psychotherapy

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Psychotherapeutic Processes; Transference (Psychology)
• Interventions: Behavioral: Empathy Feedback

• Registration Number: NCT00620009
• Lead Sponsor: University of Illinois at Chicago

Brief Summary

The purpose of the research is to: 1) to test whether psychotherapy including immediate feedback of empathy data is more efficacious than therapy without such an exchange of data, 2) to measure the degree of accuracy of therapist's empathy and its relationship to the patient's estimate of the therapist's empathy.

Detailed Description

Objective: To develop and evaluate a feedback method for measuring and increasing therapists' empathic accuracy and reducing empathic errors in psychotherapy. Method: Sixteen (16) patient-therapist pairs were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. All patients rated their own functioning using the GAF (Global Assessment of Functioning) and predicted the accuracy with which their therapists would estimate their ratings. Therapists rated the patient's GAF, predicted the patients' ratings of their own GAFs, and rated their confidence in their own predictions. In the intervention condition, therapist and patients discussed the previous session's ratings for a few minutes of the therapy session. Results: Intervention therapists showed greater empathic accuracy relative to controls on our empathy measure (t(14) = 2.69, p \< .01) and increased empathy over time on the Barrett-Lenard Empathy subscale (t(32) = 3.21, p \< .01). We also found significant effects on errors related to perceived accuracy of therapist empathy. Patients in the control group were found to perceive their therapists to be either more or less accurate than was actually the case (over/under-idealization), but such biases were not as strong in the intervention group. Similarly, therapists in the control group were likely to over-estimate their own accuracy (over-confidence) to a greater extent than intervention therapists. Affective responses to the instrument were positive overall and did not differ by condition. Conclusion: Empathy feedback and feedback concerning degrees of patient idealization and therapist confidence may be effective in improving functioning as well as in increasing empathic accuracy in psychotherapy.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2002-06
• Primary Completion: 2007-06
• Study Completion: 2007-06
• Status Verified: 2008-02
• Study First Submitted: 2008-02-11
• Study First Submitted QC: 2008-02-11
• Last Update Submitted: 2008-02-11
• Study First Posted: 2008-02-21
• Last Update Posted: 2008-02-21

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 16

Inclusion Criteria

• Outpatient psychotherapy at University of Illinois at Chicago
• Age 18-65

Exclusion Criteria

• Psychosis
• Suicidality
• Organic Brain Disorder

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Empathy Feedback	Empathy Feedback	Therapists and patients record their ratings of the patient's Global Assessment of Functioning and discuss these ratings.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Patient Global Assessment of Functioning	20 psychotherapy sessions

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Barrett-Lenard Relationship Inventory	Every 5th session, 20 sessions of psychotherapy

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Illinois at Chicago; 🇺🇸 Chicago, Illinois, United States