Research On The Effect Of Empathy Training Based On Empathy Motivation And Attentional Bias

Empathy has always received extensive attention from various disciplines,and its generation is considered to include two processing channels,bottom-up and top-down.In the bottom-up channel,empathy is more unconsciously and automatically generated,but empathy is not always automatic.In the top-down channel,the individual will regulate and control the process of empathy,e.g.,the influence of different motivations and attention.Researchers have been trying to clarify the relationship between motivation and empathy,as well as the control strategies used by individuals in this process.Based on previous studies,this study examined how empathic motivation and attentional bias affect empathy and its internal mechanisms,and further explored the training method that using video media as a medium to improve individual empathy.This study was divided into three parts.The first part was the pre-experiment aiming at screening and evaluating the experiment materials from the videos and pictures,which could make ensure that the main characters in each video used in the experiment has two types of emotions,as well as the degree of pleasure,arousal and familiarity of the picture materials has no significant difference.The second part was study 1,using two-factor mixed experimental design,with 60 college students as the subjects.The study manipulated the participants’ empathy motivation,and measured their attentional bias as well as empathy level by using monetary rewards.The purpose of the study 1 was to investigate whether an individual’s empathy motivation could affect their empathy level,and to further explore the moderating effect of attentional bias on the above process.The third part is study 2.On the basis of study 1,study2 adopted single-factor two-level experimental design,with 60 college students as subjects.The experimental group adopted the method of narrative thinking of inter-subjectivity for empathy intervention training.The aim of study 2 was to test whether this intervention method could improve individuals’empathy level during the short-term effect.Through three parts of experiments,this research mainly drawed the following conclusions:(1)Empathy motivation could significantly positively predict individuals’ empathy level;(2)Empathy motivation only changed the individuals’ cognitive empathy level,and did not affect emotional empathy;(3)Attentional bias played a moderating role between empathy motivation and empathy level.Compared with participants with low facial attention,participants with high facial attention did not increase their empathy level significantly as their empathy motivation increased;(4)The training method based on narrative thinking of inter-subjectivity could significantly improve the individuals’ empathy level in the short-term effect.However,from the perspective of the different dimensions of empathy,the training effect only manifested on the cognitive empathy dimension,has no obvious training effect on emotional empathy.Finally,the study discussed its theoretical and practical enlightenment and the limitations,as well as the future research directions.