Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-26T21:01:30.550Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Brazilian-Portuguese Empathy Quotient: Evidences of its Construct Validity and Reliability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Valdiney V. Gouveia ,
Taciano L. Milfont ,
Rildésia S. V. Gouveia ,
Julio Rique Neto  and
Lilian Galvão
Valdiney V. Gouveia*
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal da Paraíba (Brazil)
Taciano L. Milfont
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand)
Rildésia S. V. Gouveia
Affiliation:
Centro Universitário de João Pessoa (Brazil)
Julio Rique Neto
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal da Paraíba (Brazil)
Lilian Galvão
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal de Campina Grande (Brazil)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Valdiney V. Gouveia. Departamento de Psicologia, Universidade Federal da Paraiba, 58.051-900, Joao Pessoa – PB (Brazil). E-mail: [email protected] - Homepage: vvgouveia.net
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Empathy is the ability to read other's mind and understand their intentions. This paper examines the psychometric properties of the Brazilian-Portuguese version of a short form of the empathy quotient (EQ, 15 items). The EQ-15 was administered to 237 participants from the general population from João Pessoa, Brazil. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the tripartite model with cognitive, emotional and social empathy factors. In line with other studies, gender differences were only observed for the first two factors, with female participants scoring higher on both, which suggests that the social factor might not constitute a truly dimension of empathy. Strong evidence for convergent and discriminant validity was only observed for the cognitive factor. The poor psychometric parameters of the emotional and social factors are argued to reflect the complexity and contrasting ideas of their items. The possibility of elaborating specific items for the emotional and social factors is also discussed.

La empatía es la capacidad de leer en la mente del otro y comprender sus intenciones. Este artículo analiza las propiedades psicométricas de la versión brasileña-portuguesa del formulario corto del cociente de empatía (EQ, de 15 ítems). El EQ-15 se aplicó a 237 participantes de la población general de João Pessoa, Brasil. Los análisis factoriales confirmatorios apoyaron el modelo tripartito con factores cognitivo, emocional y social de la empatía. En consonancia con otros estudios, las diferencias de género sólo se observaron en los dos primeros factores, con las mujeres participantes puntuando más en ambos, lo que sugiere que el factor social podría no constituir una verdadera dimensión de la empatía. Sólo en el factor cognitivo se observó una fuerte evidencia de validez convergente y discriminante. Se considera que los pobres parámetros psicométricos de los factores emocional y social reflejan la complejidad de sus ítems. También se discute la posibilidad de elaborar ítems específicos para los factores emocionales y sociales.

Keywords

empathycognitionaffectemotionempathy quotientgenderempatíacogniciónafectoemoción cociente de empatíagénero
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , July 2012 , pp. 777 - 782
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baron-Cohen, S. (2003). Essential difference: The truth about the male and female brain. New York, NY: Perseus Books Group.Google Scholar
Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2004). The Empathy Quotient (EQ):An investigation of adults withAsperger Syndrome and high-functioning autism, and normal sex differences. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, 163–175. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:JADD.0000022607.19833.00CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Byrne, B. (2001). Structural equation modeling with AMOS. Basic concepts, applications and programming. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Carmines, E. G., & McIver, J. D. (1981). Analyzing models with unobserved variables: Analysis of covariance structures. In Bohinstedt, G. W. & Borgatta, E. F. (Eds.), Social measurement: Current issues (pp. 65–115). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Clark, L. A., & Watson, D. (1995). Constructing validity: Basic issues in objective scale development. Psychological Assessment, 7, 309–319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//1040-3590.7.3.309CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M. H. (1994). Empathy: A social psychological approach. Dubuque, IA: Brown & Benchmark.Google Scholar
Falcone, E. M. O., Ferreira, M. C., Luz, R. C. M., Fernandes, C. S., Faria, C. A., D'Augustin, J. F., … Pinho, V. D. (2008). Inventário de Empatia (IE): Desenvolvimento e validação de uma medida brasileira [Constrution of a Brazilia measure to evaluate empathy: The Empathy Inventory (EI)]. Avaliação Psicológica, 7, 321–334.Google Scholar
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18, 39–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3151312CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Swann, W. B. Jr., (2003). A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 504–528. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(03)00046-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gouveia, V. V., Gouveia, R. S. V., Guerra, V. M., Santos, W. S., & Medeiros, D. E. (2007). Midiendo contagio emocional: Adaptación de la escala de Doherty [Measuring emotional contagion: Adaptation of the Doherty scale]. Revista de Psicología Social, 22, 99–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1174/021347407780705401CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hair, J. Jr., Anderson, R., Tatham, R., & Black, W. (2005). Multivariate data analysis. (5th Ed.) Upper Saddel River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Hemphill, J. F. (2003). Interpreting the magnitudes of correlation coefficients. American Psychologist, 58, 78–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.58.1.78CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawrence, E. J., Shaw, P., Baker, D., Baron-Cohen, S., & David, A. S. (2004). Measuring empathy: Reliability and validity of the Empathy Quotient. Psychological Medicine, 34, 911–924. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291703001624CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muncer, S. J., & Ling, J. (2006). Psychometric analysis of the Empathy Quotient (EQ) Scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 40, 1111–1119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.09.020CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Onyeizugbo, E. U. (2003). Effects of gender, age, and education on assertiveness in a Nigerian sample. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27, 12–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1471-6402.t01-2-00002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Škerlavaj, M., & Dimovski, V. (2009). Organizational learning and performance in two national cultures: A multi-group structural equation modeling approach. In King, W. R. (Ed.), Knowledge management and organizational learning (Vol. 4, pp. 321–366). New York, NY: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, A. (2006). Cognitive empathy and emotional empathy in human behavior and evolution. The Psychological Record, 56, 3–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van de Vijver, F., & Leung, K. (1997). Methods and data analysis for cross-cultural research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Wakabayashi, A., Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Goldenfeld, N., Delaney, J., Fine, D. … Weil, L. (2006). Development of short forms of the Empathy Quotient (EQ-Short) and the Systemizing Quotient (SQ-Short). Personality and Individual Differences, 41, 929–940. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.03.017CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheelwright, S., Baron-Cohen, S., Goldenfeld, N., Delaney, J., Fine, D., Smith, R. … Wakabayashi, A. (2006). Predicting Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) from Systemizing Quotient-Revised (SQ-R) and Empathy Quotient (EQ). Brain Research, 1079, 47–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2006.01.012CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed