The Psychometric Construction of Empathy: An Exploratory Factor Analysis of Empathy Self-Rating Subscales
Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Empathy is widely considered one of the most fundamental components of prosocial and cooperative human behavior. However, contemporary research still struggles to reach a unified conceptualization of empathy. This lack of conceptual unity on the nature of empathy is mirrored by the existence of a plethora of psychometrically validated self-rating scales for its measurement.Here, in an attempt to contribute to a more unified conceptualization and measurement of empathy, we assessed the correlative structure of the subscale sum scores on German versions of five popular empathy self-rating scales using an exploratory factor analysis on data collected from an online sample comprising n = 236 participants. Our findings suggest that empathy can be conceptualized as a two-dimensional construct, consisting of “Grand Cognitive” and “Grand Affective” components. We discuss how our findings refine and extend previous conceptualizations of similar components and examine their relationship to other empathy-related constructs.
Authors: Domenic Groh, Dirk Ostwald
Institution: Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4414039631