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Empathy in group psychoanalytic psychotherapy: questionnaire development
Collegium Antropologicum
|November 6, 2008
Summary
This study developed a reliable questionnaire to measure empathy in group psychotherapy. The Group-Analysis-Empathy (GA-E) tool assesses emotional communication and insight among patients and therapists.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Psychotherapy Research
Background:
- Empathy is crucial in group psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
- Observing and measuring empathy in group settings presents unique challenges.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a questionnaire for observing empathy in group psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
- To examine the factor structure of empathy within group therapy dynamics.
Main Methods:
- A 160-item Likert-scale questionnaire was developed based on observed group interactions.
- Data collected from 256 patients across 40 therapy groups in Croatia.
- Item analysis and principal component analysis were used to refine the questionnaire, resulting in two parallel forms (GA-Em1, GA-Em2).
Main Results:
- A validated 80-item questionnaire (excluding a 20-item social desirability scale) was created.
- Factor analysis identified five key factors of empathy: Emotional disclosure and sensibility, Containing and metabolizing, Immersion, Resonance and responsiveness, and Insight.
- The questionnaire demonstrates reliability and validity for assessing empathy in group psychotherapy.
Conclusions:
- A new, reliable, and valid questionnaire (GA-E) for empathy observation in group psychotherapy has been successfully designed.
- This tool can effectively measure the capacity for emotional communication within group members and between the group and the therapist.
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