The psychological and physiological responses of emotional empathy in Autism Spectrum Disorders
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1
University of NSW, Australia
There is a general consensus in the literature that individuals with ASD have difficulty with cognitive empathy, however, much less is know about the process of emotional empathy in these individuals. Research to date has mostly employed subjective self-report measures, which can often be misinterpreted or under/over-reported.Oobjective measures, such as physiological recordings of arousal offer a more objective response. Combining physiological responses with self-report ratings also allows us to explore the relationship between these two responses to emotionally charged stimuli. Twenty-five individuals with ASD were compared with twenty-five matched controls on their physiological (arousal and facial expression) and psychological (self-report) responses to emotionally distressing video scenes. Responses were also then compared with self-report cognitive and emotional trait empathy. Results indicate that whilst individuals with ASD appear to respond similarly to controls physiologically, their interpretation of this response is dampened emotionally. Furthermore, this dampening of self-report emotional response is associated with an overall reduction in trait empathy.
Keywords:
autism,
Empathy,
Arousal,
emotional response,
Skin conductance
Conference:
ASP2016 - The 26th Annual Meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Adelaide Australia, Adelaide,SA, Australia, 12 Dec - 14 Dec, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Abstract (student award)
Citation:
Trimmer
E,
McDonald
S and
Rushby
JA
(2016). The psychological and physiological responses of emotional empathy in Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Conference Abstract:
ASP2016 - The 26th Annual Meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Adelaide Australia.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2016.221.00026
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Received:
20 Oct 2016;
Published Online:
05 Dec 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Miss. Emily Trimmer, University of NSW, Sydney, NSW, Australia, e.trimmer@psy.unsw.edu.au