The cognitive and affective empathy test represents a resource that is as useful as it is interesting. The aim is to evaluate the ability not only to tune into other people's emotions, but also to understand them.
Written and verified by the psychologist GetPersonalGrowth.
Last update: 15 November 2021
The cognitive and affective empathy test, developed by the Spaniards I. Fernández Pinto, B. LĂłpez-PĂ©rez and F. JosĂ© GarcĂa Abad, it is a complete and easy-to-administer tool. Since its publication in 2008, it has become an extremely valid and reliable resource for evaluating the dimension of empathy starting from the components that define it: the cognitive area and the affective area.
A little over a year ago, a very interesting book was published, entitled The empathy effect. In it, Helen Riess, a lecturer at Harvard University and director of the empathy program at Massachusetts General Hospital, analyzes the absence of this dimension in the medical and organizational fields.
According to what he says, many of the people who currently hold a position of responsibility towards others they lack this basic skill. You can be exceptionally skilled and efficient at your job, you can have numerous titles, a high IQ, and a leadership position. However, if empathy is absent, a void arises.
A flaw that weakens the ability to establish deep communication, to understand the other and to reach agreements, to create alliances, bonds and, ultimately, to develop adequate emotional intelligence. Having adequate resources to measure this dimension is therefore of great help.
On the one hand, we have the opportunity to use them in important sectors such as social, organizational and clinical. Likewise, thanks to some tools such as the cognitive and affective empathy test, we can make the person aware of his limit in terms of empathy, so that he can start working on it.
"If your emotional abilities are not skillful, if you are not aware of yourself, if you cannot manage your distressing emotions, if you do not feel empathy and your personal relationships are not effective, no matter how smart you are: you will not get far . "
-Daniel Goleman-
Cognitive and affective empathy test (TECA): purpose, characteristics and reliability
The cognitive and affective empathy test (TECA) was developed for concrete purposes. Firstly, to have a rigorous and simple instrument to apply in various fields. Secondly, for obtain a questionnaire capable of offering a global measure of the subject's empathy.
The purpose of the TECA is none other than to measure empathic capacity starting from a cognitive and affective approach. Fernández, et al. (2008) authors of the test, consider empathy a fundamental aspect in the study of human behavior. The usability of this resource is therefore extremely important. Let's get into the specifics of the test.
What are the fields of application of TECA?
The cognitive and affective empathy test is administered from the age of 16. We can therefore exclude this resource from the educational field, as it has been developed for application in three specific scenarios. Let's see them below:
- Clinical setting: evaluate empathy in the case of psychological disorders or criminal behavior.
- Social sector: in this scenario, TECA is important to better understand prosocial behaviors, morals, aggression, etc.
- Organizational area: as you can imagine, empathy is essential to create more balanced work environments: it improves the working climate, reduces stress, optimizes communication, productivity, etc.
The four scales of the cognitive and affective empathy test
The TECA consists of 33 questions with a likert type of answer, or the assessed subject must choose between “totally agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree and totally disagree”. It should be emphasized that this tool aims to evaluate the two basic components of empathy, namely:
- Cognitive empathy: the ability to recognize and understand the emotions of others.
- Affective empathy: the ability to feel and get in touch with the emotions, sensations and feelings of others.
With the aim of evaluating these two areas, the cognitive and affective empathy test is structured in four scales:
- Adoption of perspectives: the cognitive ability at our disposal to be able to understand the vision, thoughts and perspectives of others.
- Emotional understanding: refers to the ability to get in touch with the emotions, impressions and intentions of those around us.
- Empathic stress: this dimension refers to the ability (or not) to get in tune with the negative emotions of others.
- Empathic joy. In contrast to the previous scale, empathic joy refers to the ability to understand and recognize positive emotions in those around us.
Is the TECA test reliable?
López-Pérez, Fernández-Pinto and Abad (2008) succeeded in creating a valid, reliable and very simple test to administer (in fact, it is performed in little more than). The evaluation criterion is based on the percentile scores obtained from a large sample of the general population, made up of adult men and women.
It is a highly reliable tool, extremely useful for evaluating individuals aged 16 and over and which is an excellent resource for any company, employment center, health or social institution. Empathy is a dimension that we should all understand more and, of course, empower; this test can help us do that.
