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Psychometric properties of the questionnaire of cognitive and affective empathy in a Portuguese sample

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  • Andreia Queirós
  • Eugénia Fernandes
  • Renate Reniers
  • Adriana Sampaio
  • Joana Coutinho
  • Ana Seara-Cardoso

Abstract

Empathy is an important concept in psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Despite the controversy around its definition, most researchers would agree that empathy is a multidimensional phenomenon which involves a vicarious experience of another person’s affective state and an understanding of another person’s affective experience. Self-report measures of empathy constitute an important tool for both research and clinical practice. The main goal of this study was to adapt and study the psychometric properties of the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE), a worldwide used measure of empathy, in a Portuguese community sample (N = 562). Confirmatory factor analyses supported the factor structure of the original QCAE. Results show that the Portuguese version of the QCAE has sound psychometric properties, with good structural validity and internal consistency for both scales (i.e., affective and cognitive) and respective subscales of the instrument (i.e., Emotion Contagion, Proximal Responsivity, Peripheral Responsivity, Perspective Taking and Online Simulation). We tested both a five correlated factor structure (Model 1) and a second-order model that postulates the affective and cognitive dimensions (Model 2). Our results show that while both models present acceptable goodness of fit indices, Model 1 performs slightly better. In conclusion, the Portuguese version of the QCAE may prove a useful tool for future cross-cultural assessments of empathy in both research and clinical practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Andreia Queirós & Eugénia Fernandes & Renate Reniers & Adriana Sampaio & Joana Coutinho & Ana Seara-Cardoso, 2018. "Psychometric properties of the questionnaire of cognitive and affective empathy in a Portuguese sample," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(6), pages 1-14, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0197755
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197755
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rosseel, Yves, 2012. "lavaan: An R Package for Structural Equation Modeling," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 48(i02).
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    1. Rapson Gomez & Taylor Brown & Shaun Watson & Vasileios Stavropoulos, 2022. "Confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling of the factor structure of the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(2), pages 1-18, February.
    2. Marina Ienna & Amelia Rofe & Monica Gendi & Heather E. Douglas & Michelle Kelly & Matthew W. Hayward & Alex Callen & Kaya Klop-Toker & Robert J. Scanlon & Lachlan G. Howell & Andrea S. Griffin, 2022. "The Relative Role of Knowledge and Empathy in Predicting Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-21, April.

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