The Measurement of Empathy and Its Efficacy in Psychotherapy

Psychotherapeutic Processes Clinical Trial

— EMPATHY  

Official title:

The Measurement of Empathy and Its Efficacy in Psychotherapy

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT00620009
• Other study ID #: 2002-0381
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: February 11, 2008
• Last updated: February 11, 2008
• Start date: June 2002
• Est. completion date: June 2007

Study information

• Verified date: February 2008
• Source: University of Illinois at Chicago
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: United States: Institutional Review Board
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial 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.

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.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 16
• Est. completion date: June 2007
• Est. primary completion date: June 2007
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 18 Years to 65 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Outpatient psychotherapy at University of Illinois at Chicago

• Age 18-65

Exclusion Criteria:

• Psychosis

• Suicidality

• Organic Brain Disorder

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Single Blind (Subject), Primary Purpose: Treatment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Psychotherapeutic Processes
• Transference (Psychology)

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Empathy Feedback
Discussion of empathy ratings between patients and therapists during psychotherapy sessions.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of Illinois at Chicago	Chicago	Illinois

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Illinois at Chicago

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Patient Global Assessment of Functioning		20 psychotherapy sessions	No
Secondary	Barrett-Lenard Relationship Inventory		Every 5th session, 20 sessions of psychotherapy	No