| 其他摘要 | Empathy refers to understanding, inferring and sharing others' emotional states, which can be divided into affective and cognitive components. Previous studies have found empathy deficits in both patients with schizophrenia and individuals with schizotypal traits. However, the underlying psychological processing for the observed empathy performances in these clinical and subclinical samples is still not clearly known. Emotion regulation, which is the process of managing one's own emotions, is found to be closely associated with empathy in previous empirical studies. Few studies have explored the relationship between empathy and emotion regulation, especially in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. To address these issues, two studies were conducted to investigate 1)the relationship between empathy and emotion regulation; 2) the association between empathy impairments and emotion regulation in both schizophrenia patients and individuals with negative schizotypy; and 3) the effects of cognitive reappraisal on empathic performances.
Study 1 aimed to investigate the correlations between empathy and emotion regulation, as well as the roles of emotion regulation on the associations between negative schizotypy and empathy, and between empathy and negative affect. Study 1.1 administered a set of questionnaires to capture negative schizotypy (the Chinese Version of Social Anhedonia Scale, CSAS), empathy (the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, IRI) and emotional regulation (the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, ERQ) to 548 participants. The results showed that cognitive reappraisal was positively correlated with both cognitive and affective empathy. However, expressive suppression was positively correlated with cognitive empathy but negatively with affective empathy. Moreover, both cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression imposed a moderating effect upon the relationship between negative schizotypy and empathy. Study 1.2 administered the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE), the IRI, the ERQ, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) to 442 college students. The results showed that both empathy and emotion regulation were significantly correlated with negative affect. Furthermore, the relationship between empathy and negative affect was moderated by both cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression.
Study 2 aimed to examine the relationship between empathic performances and emotion regulation in participants with schizotypal traits (Study 2.1) and patients with schizophrenia (Study 2.2), as well as the potential impact of cognitive reappraisal upon empathic performances in a non-clinical population (Study 2.3). Study 2.1 administered the Chinese version of the Empathic Accuracy Task (EAT) and the ERQ to 69 participants with high level of negative schizotypy (high-NS) and 64 participants with low level of negative schizotypy (low-NS). The results showed that participants with high-NS exhibited poorer affective empathy but comparable cognitive empathy relative to participants with low-NS. There was a positive correlation between affective empathy and expressive suppression in participants with high-NS but no such a significant relationship was found in participants with low-NS. Study 2.2 administered the set of measures used in Study 2.1 to 35 patients with schizophrenia and 35 healthy controls. Results showed that patients with schizophrenia exhibited significant poorer affective and cognitive empathy than healthy controls. Moreover, a significant positive correlation was found between cognitive reappraisal and cognitive empathy inschizophrenia patients but not healthy controls. Study 2.3 recruited 33 college students to perform the EAT under two conditions, i.e., applying cognitive reappraisal while viewing the scenarios, and naturally viewing condition without applying cognitive reappraisal. Participants also completed the CSAS to measure negative schizotypy. The results showed that participants, individuals with high level of negative schizotypy in particular, performed better on the EAT under the condition applying cognitive reappraisal than the naturally viewing condition. Specifically, people had higher empathic accuracy scores and experienced lower negative affect in reaction to others’ negative emotions, while experienced higher levels of positive affect in reaction to positive emotions under the cognitive reappraisal condition.
In conclusion, emotion regulation exerts its moderating effect on the relationships between empathy and negative schizotypy, and between empathy and negative affect. Patients with schizophrenia exhibited deficits in both cognitive and affective empathy, while individuals with high-NS only exhibited impaired affective empathy. Both schizophrenia patients and individuals with negative schizotypy exhibited significant correlation between emotion regulation and empathy performances. Our preliminary findings also suggested cognitive reappraisal endorsement would improve empathic performances. These findings contribute to a better understanding of social cognition deficits in schizophrenia spectrum disorders and highlight the potential development of intervention for social cognition. |
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