A revised instrument for the assessment of empathy and Theory of Mind in adolescents

Introducing the EmpaToM-Y

verfasst von
Christina Breil, Philipp Kanske, Roxana Pittig, Anne Böckler
Abstract

Empathy and Theory of Mind (ToM) are two core components of social understanding. The EmpaToM is a validated social video task that allows for independent manipulation and assessment of the two capacities. First applications revealed that empathy and ToM are dissociable constructs on a neuronal as well as on a behavioral level. As the EmpaToM has been designed for the assessment of social understanding in adults, it has a high degree of complexity and comprises topics that are inadequate for minors. For this reason, we designed a new version of the EmpaToM that is especially suited to measure empathy and ToM in youths. In experiment 1, we successfully validated the EmpaToM-Y on the original EmpaToM in an adult sample (N = 61), revealing a similar pattern of results across tasks and strong correlations of all constructs. As intended, the performance measure for ToM and the control condition of the EmpaToM-Y showed reduced difficulty. In experiment 2, we tested the feasibility of the EmpaToM-Y in a group of teenagers (N = 36). Results indicate a reliable empathy induction and higher demands of ToM questions for adolescents. We provide a promising task for future research targeting inter-individual variability of socio-cognitive and socio-affective capacities as well as their precursors and outcomes in healthy minors and clinical populations.

Organisationseinheit(en)
Institut für Psychologie
Externe Organisation(en)
Max-Planck-Institut für Kognitions- und Neurowissenschaften
Technische Universität Dresden
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Typ
Artikel
Journal
Behavior research methods
Band
53
Seiten
2487-2501
Anzahl der Seiten
15
ISSN
1554-351X
Publikationsdatum
12.2021
Publikationsstatus
Veröffentlicht
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Experimentelle und kognitive Psychologie, Pädagogische und Entwicklungspsychologie, Geisteswissenschaftliche Fächer (sonstige), Psychologie (sonstige), Psychologie (insg.)
Elektronische Version(en)
https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01589-3 (Zugang: Offen)