Characteristics of Empathy in young people measured by the Spanish validation of the Basic Empathy Scale
- Manuel Villadangos 1
- José Errasti 1
- Isaac Amigo 1
- Darrick Jolliffe 2
- Eduardo García-Cueto 1
- 1 Universidad de Oviedo (España)
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2
University of Greenwich
info
ISSN: 0214-9915
Año de publicación: 2016
Volumen: 28
Número: 3
Páginas: 323-329
Tipo: Artículo
Otras publicaciones en: Psicothema
Resumen
Antecedentes: la empatía es una variable de personalidad que predice buena parte del funcionamiento emocional y social de los jóvenes (Jolliffe y Farrington, 2006). La investigación reciente confirma la existencia de dos dimensiones fundamentales en este constructo: la empatía afectiva —capacidad para experimentar una respuesta emocional semejante a la de otra persona— y la empatía cognitiva —capacidad para comprender racionalmente las emociones de otra persona—. La Escala de Empatía Básica (Jolliffe y Farrington, 2006) es un instrumento que evalúa satisfactoriamente estas dos dimensiones. Método: una muestra de 752 jóvenes (339 varones, 413 mujeres; 14-25 años) completó una adaptación española de la EEB. Resultados: el análisis factorial confirmatorio mostró que la adaptación española de esta escala tenía la misma estructura bifactorial que la original (CFI= .93). Esta adaptación mostró una fiabilidad satisfactoria (alfa de Cronbach>.92), así como validez discriminante y convergente respecto a medidas del Narcisismo, Psicoticismo y Amabilidad. También se encontró una mayor puntuación en Empatía, tanto Afectiva como Cognitiva, en las mujeres frente a los hombres. Ambas subescalas presentan una correlación directa significativa con la edad. Conclusiones: esta escala se confirma como un instrumento en español con buenas propiedades psicométricas para la evaluación de la empatía.
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