The Empathy Spectrum. Are there Six Types of empathy?

Post Reply New Topic

I think most people identify empathy as the human social connection, concern, and expression of that concern for others, whether cognitive, emotional, or a physical action. And I think it is something some can take for granted more than others, which has led to a great deal of research, describing it with finer details. That's probably part of the reason the DSMIV or DSMV doesn't use the actual word "empathy" in the criteria set, and instead describes observable behavior identified with empathy as social emotional reciprocity.

I think the significantly varying degrees of "emotional affect" throughout life is probably common among many individuals diagnosed on the spectrum, as well as some in the general population, diagnosed with other disorders or without a disorder. I've got some of those smiling pictures in early childhood, deer stuck in the headlights pictures in middle school and high school, with the "affect" coming back with social adaptation.

Wait, so you're saying the study says people with AS show normal levels of empathetic concern, but have a lack of cognitive empathy? I'm confused. I thought cognitive empathy was like empathetic concern, except achieved through logic (well, if that happened to me, I would feel X) instead of emotions (oh no, those poor people!).

Actually, the study recognized that in instances when cognitive empathy was not strong enough to determine the different perspectives and emotions of another person, there was no recognition of that person's emotional pain or suffering, therefore no empathetic concern (either sharing the feeling with concern for the other person and/or expressing/demonstrating that concern overtly for the other person with the intent of alleviating their discomfort).

The study removed the instances where cognitive empathy was not strong enough to determine the perspective and emotions of others and determined in the remaining instances where cognitive empathy was effective, there was an equal amount of empathetic concern that was expressed as compared to the control group.

However, there a couple things about that study to consider. One is that research has already determined that cognitive empathy is higher among individuals with higher measures of standards intelligence, on average on the spectrum. This study of 21 individuals was skewed specifically towards individuals diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome that had an average IQ of 121 and close to 4 years of college. The median IQ of individuals with Asperger's syndrome is not significantly different than the general population in adult studies. The average age of the individuals in the study was 43. At that decades have passed to allow one the potential to learn cognitive empathy through trial an error. This is the only recognized study that shows these type of findings. The tiny sliver of demographic from the full spectrum in that study is similar to what one finds reported in online autism communities.

But, the demographic is not reflective of broad longitudinal clinical studies. One that recently done showed 96% of individuals in a 20 year longitudinal study of 113 individuals with Autistic Disorder, PDDNOS and Asperger's syndrome, were on permanent disability by the time they were 22, with only 1 percent that were married. These individuals have not been studied for empathy, but there is the potential that a study like that may be done, sometime in the future.