A Validation Study of the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire - Korean Version

Humans are capable of empathizing and responding approximately when others express their feelings even though they may not fully understand the situation. In this regard, emotional empathy is the fundamental and unique concept in the meaning of empathy. Spreng et al. (2009) developed the 16 item Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) by focusing on emotional empathy. This study focused on examining psychometric properties of the TEQ. First, The TEQ was translated into Korean. Then, 200 graduate students answered the TEQ. The authors analyzed the test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and factor structure. Another sample of 255 undergraduate students took the package test which includes the ex-empathy questionnaires and aggression scale. With the second sample data, the authors examined the correlation between the scales. Results showed that the test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the TEQ - Korean version were appropriate. Furthermore, it accurately measured convergent validity by showing a significantly positive relationship with ex-empathy questionnaires and a negative relationship with aggression. In terms of factor structure according to the confirmatory factor analysis, there lacked a goodness of fit in the single factor model; conversely, according to the exploratory factor analysis, the single factor was suggested. In addition, implications and limitations of this study were discussed.