The problem of isolating and measuring empathy.

Abstract

In 1949, the social psychologists Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr. and Rosalind Dymond wrote a paper calling for increased attention to the empathic responses in empirical social psychology. The empathic responses, they wrote, "occupy a crucial position in human interaction and adjustment" (Psychiatry 12(4):355-359, 1949, https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1949.11022747 ). Not only practically important for therapy and communication, the empathic responses were considered to be foundational for the very development of the self. In this paper, I examine challenges that arose in the 1940s and 1950s, when researchers attempted to subject empathy to scientific scrutiny. I focus specifically on conceptual and methodological problems that Dymond faced in developing her measures of empathy, which are typically considered to be the first in existence. This foray into the history of empathy measures offers a case study for considering questions about validity and coherence in the philosophy of psychological measurement.