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Empathic Accuracy Task: Indian Adaptation and Validation
Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, Volume 45, Issue 5, Page 486-495, September 2023.
Background:The Empathic Accuracy Task (EAT) is an objective measure to assess empathic accuracy. Due to the variability in the number and linked emotions of the narrated events, we adapted EAT for the Indian sociocultural setting as Indian EAT (I-EAT).Methods:Eight videos were adapted in three languages (English, Hindi, and Kannada), narrating emotional events with a uniform representation of age groups, different emotions, and sex. The adapted I-EAT was then validated by cross-sectional comparison with different tests similar to EAT and those that assessed concepts different from or similar to empathy, in 29 healthy young adults, 23 healthy older adults (aged ≥60 years) along with clinical groups of 15 young people with depression, 15 older people with depression, and 15 young people with schizophrenia.Results:We selected eight videos with good content validity and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.73. We obtained satisfactory concurrent validity of the EAT scores with the self-reported empathic assessments using the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (Cognitive empathy score = 0.29, p = .034; Total score = 0.29, p = .035) and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Empathic concern score = 0.45, p = .001). Good divergent validity was revealed in the high inverse correlation recorded with the Apathy Evaluation Scale ( = –0.67, p < .001). I-EAT did not correlate significantly with measures of social cognition. Known-groups validity was adequate in young adults with the significantly lower EAT scores (Cohen’s d: 0.77 to 1.15) in the Schizophrenia group and higher EAT-N scores (Cohen’s d: 0.51) in the Depression group, compared to the Healthy group. The Healthy group of the geriatric population also achieved significantly higher EAT scores (Cohen’s d: 0.71 to 0.85) than the Depression group.Conclusion:With a good validity and internal consistency, I-EAT can be used in the Indian population to assess empathic accuracy without compromising performance of the original EAT.
Background:The Empathic Accuracy Task (EAT) is an objective measure to assess empathic accuracy. Due to the variability in the number and linked emotions of the narrated events, we adapted EAT for the Indian sociocultural setting as Indian EAT (I-EAT).Methods:Eight videos were adapted in three languages (English, Hindi, and Kannada), narrating emotional events with a uniform representation of age groups, different emotions, and sex. The adapted I-EAT was then validated by cross-sectional comparison with different tests similar to EAT and those that assessed concepts different from or similar to empathy, in 29 healthy young adults, 23 healthy older adults (aged ≥60 years) along with clinical groups of 15 young people with depression, 15 older people with depression, and 15 young people with schizophrenia.Results:We selected eight videos with good content validity and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.73. We obtained satisfactory concurrent validity of the EAT scores with the self-reported empathic assessments using the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (Cognitive empathy score = 0.29, p = .034; Total score = 0.29, p = .035) and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Empathic concern score = 0.45, p = .001). Good divergent validity was revealed in the high inverse correlation recorded with the Apathy Evaluation Scale ( = –0.67, p < .001). I-EAT did not correlate significantly with measures of social cognition. Known-groups validity was adequate in young adults with the significantly lower EAT scores (Cohen’s d: 0.77 to 1.15) in the Schizophrenia group and higher EAT-N scores (Cohen’s d: 0.51) in the Depression group, compared to the Healthy group. The Healthy group of the geriatric population also achieved significantly higher EAT scores (Cohen’s d: 0.71 to 0.85) than the Depression group.Conclusion:With a good validity and internal consistency, I-EAT can be used in the Indian population to assess empathic accuracy without compromising performance of the original EAT.
Trait mindfulness, self-efficacy, and coping strategies during COVID-19
Reassessing assessment: what can post stroke aphasia assessment learn from research on assessment in education?
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Increasing Food Consumption With an Antecedent and Reinforcement-Based Treatment Generalized Via Telehealth
Clinical Case Studies, Volume 22, Issue 4, Page 403-419, August 2023.
We report a case with a 7-year-old girl with autism spectrum disorder and anxiety disorder who had severe restrictive eating leading to various medical concerns raised by her pediatrician. Following medical consultation and a descriptive functional assessment, a therapist implemented behavioral intervention consisting of a visual cue, choice, and differential reinforcement of alternative behaviors. The intervention was focused on both in-home meals and telehealth consultation during mealtimes, as the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated moving to remote consultation for continued treatment. The success of this study has long-standing implications for the benefits of positive feeding interventions and telehealth as well as parental training strategies.
We report a case with a 7-year-old girl with autism spectrum disorder and anxiety disorder who had severe restrictive eating leading to various medical concerns raised by her pediatrician. Following medical consultation and a descriptive functional assessment, a therapist implemented behavioral intervention consisting of a visual cue, choice, and differential reinforcement of alternative behaviors. The intervention was focused on both in-home meals and telehealth consultation during mealtimes, as the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated moving to remote consultation for continued treatment. The success of this study has long-standing implications for the benefits of positive feeding interventions and telehealth as well as parental training strategies.
Adjusting to the COVID-19 Outbreak in the United States: The impact of disruptions on habits and changes in health behaviors
Journal of Health Psychology, Ahead of Print.
The COVID-19 pandemic provides a naturalistic test of whether pandemic-related disruptions weaken habits and undermine behavior stability. We hypothesized that better capacity to effortfully guide behavior (self-regulation) would buffer this effect and be associated with behavior stability and development of new habits to accomplish daily behaviors. A cross-sectional study of 416 MTurk workers recruited in April 2020 (Mage = 34.60, SD = 11.51) indicated that pandemic-related disruptions generally exceeded people’s capacity to effortfully modify their behavior. Self-regulation related to the development of new habits and to lower likelihood that work productivity decreased. Self-regulation also protected against the effect of disruption on the likelihood that substance use increased. Besides these associations, self-regulation was largely unrelated to health-related behaviors and, in some instances, associated with poorer outcomes. These findings underscore the need to appreciate the impact of contextual disruptions in interpreting and promoting change in health-related behaviors.
The COVID-19 pandemic provides a naturalistic test of whether pandemic-related disruptions weaken habits and undermine behavior stability. We hypothesized that better capacity to effortfully guide behavior (self-regulation) would buffer this effect and be associated with behavior stability and development of new habits to accomplish daily behaviors. A cross-sectional study of 416 MTurk workers recruited in April 2020 (Mage = 34.60, SD = 11.51) indicated that pandemic-related disruptions generally exceeded people’s capacity to effortfully modify their behavior. Self-regulation related to the development of new habits and to lower likelihood that work productivity decreased. Self-regulation also protected against the effect of disruption on the likelihood that substance use increased. Besides these associations, self-regulation was largely unrelated to health-related behaviors and, in some instances, associated with poorer outcomes. These findings underscore the need to appreciate the impact of contextual disruptions in interpreting and promoting change in health-related behaviors.
Performance and symptom validity assessment in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Base rates of invalidity, concordance, and relative impact on cognitive performance
Why Do Regular and Reversed Items Load on Separate Factors? Response Difficulty vs. Item Extremity
Educational and Psychological Measurement, Ahead of Print.
When constructing measurement scales, regular and reversed items are often used (e.g., “I am satisfied with my job”/“I am not satisfied with my job”). Some methodologists recommend excluding reversed items because they are more difficult to understand and therefore engender a second, artificial factor distinct from the regular-item factor. The current study compares two explanations for why a construct’s dimensionality may become distorted: response difficulty and item extremity. Two types of reversed items were created: negation items (“The conditions of my life are not good”) and polar opposites (“The conditions of my life are bad”), with the former type having higher response difficulty. When extreme wording was used (e.g., “excellent/terrible” instead of “good/bad”), negation items did not load on a factor distinct from regular items, but polar opposites did. Results thus support item extremity over response difficulty as an explanation for dimensionality distortion. Given that scale developers seldom check for extremity, it is unsurprising that regular and polar opposite items often load on distinct factors.
When constructing measurement scales, regular and reversed items are often used (e.g., “I am satisfied with my job”/“I am not satisfied with my job”). Some methodologists recommend excluding reversed items because they are more difficult to understand and therefore engender a second, artificial factor distinct from the regular-item factor. The current study compares two explanations for why a construct’s dimensionality may become distorted: response difficulty and item extremity. Two types of reversed items were created: negation items (“The conditions of my life are not good”) and polar opposites (“The conditions of my life are bad”), with the former type having higher response difficulty. When extreme wording was used (e.g., “excellent/terrible” instead of “good/bad”), negation items did not load on a factor distinct from regular items, but polar opposites did. Results thus support item extremity over response difficulty as an explanation for dimensionality distortion. Given that scale developers seldom check for extremity, it is unsurprising that regular and polar opposite items often load on distinct factors.
Is recovery from left-sided neglect based on changes in automatic attention? An auditory event related potentials study
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Application of machine learning techniques for dementia severity prediction from psychometric tests in the elderly population
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