Empath Test

Basic information
Statements:	28
Duration:	3–6 minutes
Type:	Self-assessment
Seminal work:	Deenz Empath Scale (DES-28) ^{[1] Dar, D. M. (2023). Deenz Empathy Scale (DES-28) Development and Validation. PsychArchives. https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.13936}
Publishing year:	2023
Instructions:	This self-assessment is designed to measure the extent to which you can understand and share the feelings of others. Below are the 28 statements, you need to indicate the level of agreement for each statement.

Empath test is available in the following languages:

Empath test is the digital adoption of Deenz Empath Scale (DES-28) the scale is designed to measuring empathy quotient by accessing multidimensional aspects or facets. ^{[1] Dar, D. M. (2023). Deenz Empathy Scale (DES-28) Development and Validation. PsychArchives. https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.13936} Participation in this self-assessment tool is completely anonymous; we do not collect or store your results for research purposes.

Development of Deenz Empath Scale

Empathy is a complex psychological and emotional process and it is defined as the ability to understand the feelings of others. Empathy goes beyond the capacity to put oneself in someone else’s shoes. ^{[2] Elliott R, Bohart AC, Watson JC, Greenberg LS. Empathy. Psychotherapy. 2011 Mar;48(1):43.} It is bound by the deep connection where emotions resonate with the experiences of others. The ability to empathize is important for developing meaningful relations and crucial for promoting a supportive environment. ^{[3] Davis, Carol M. “What is empathy, and can empathy be taught?.” Physical therapy 70.11 (1990): 707-711.}

In 2016 the lecture comparison of psychopathic and empathic traits led me to study the psychological and emotional process. ^{[4] Domes G,,,,… Emotional empathy and psychopathy in offenders: An experimental study.} The main purpose of this research was to developing the empathy test which can measure the empathy level among individuals and access empathic tendencies on four distinct but correlated dimensions: pity, sympathy, empathy, and compassion.

Thanks to Dar Amir for the guidance and help in giving access to exacting lectures that explore human nature and emotional processes. During the lecture review, I collected comprehensive and in-depth information from existing lectures on psychopathy, empathy, and emotional processes. I also reviewed the existing empathy questionnaire and found valuable information that was necessary for the development of the scale. What I found odd about these scales was that these scales measure empathy in general and lack granularity.

Item Generation:

In the initial stage, I came up with 60 items and they were reviewed by my academic colleagues who are experts in the fields of psychology, sociology, and education. After receiving feedback from these experts 32 items were merged or excluded from the scale.

Validity and Reliability Testing:

Content validity: The scale was administered to a small group of psychology students for pilot testing purposes and it was found that the scale accurately measured what it was intended to measure. The feedback received by these participants helped revise and refine these items. On the recommendations for experts, items were shortened to 6 words maximum it was suggested by experts that participants will understand items easily and make it time effective.

By using Cronbach’s alpha we accessed the internal consistency of the scale. With a coefficient of 0.85, the scale showed high internal consistency. In order to evaluate further stability and consistency, test-retest reliability was conducted. A small group of students (n=12) from college-aged 20-24 were asked to take part and the scale was administered twice at a two-week interval. We recorded a 0.87 correlation coefficient from the test-retest method.

For the validation study, Dar Amir and Jalel Mirs contribution has helped in accruing ethical approval from the institution and helped in collecting data from the participants. We reached out to the college students for participation and 85 students agreed to take part, of which 32 were female and 53 were male. These participants were all college students from different disciplines. We provided the instructions and information on the research and Urdu translated version was also made available. We also ensured the participants that the data we tried to collect would be kept confidential and no sensitive personal information is collected.

In this study the number of participants where low but the sample provided comprehensive data which helped us in the validation of the scale in different genders. From the statistical and compression, the scale demonstrated a high validity coefficient of 0.91, which suggests the scale is highly valid in measuring the empathic quotient.

References

Dar, D. M. (2023). Deenz Empathy Scale (DES-28) Development and Validation. PsychArchives. https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.13936 ↩
Elliott R, Bohart AC, Watson JC, Greenberg LS. Empathy. Psychotherapy. 2011 Mar;48(1):43. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0022187 ↩
Davis CM. What is empathy, and can empathy be taught?. Physical therapy. 1990 Nov 1;70(11):707-11. https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/70.11.707 ↩
Domes G, Hollerbach P, Vohs K, Mokros A, Habermeyer E. Emotional empathy and psychopathy in offenders: An experimental study. Journal of personality disorders. 2013 Feb;27(1):67-84. https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi.2013.27.1.67 ↩

Empath Test

Basic information

Development of Deenz Empath Scale

Item Generation:

Validity and Reliability Testing:

References

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