A Brazilian adaptation of the Affective and Cognitive Measure of Empathy

This study translated and validated a Brazilian-Portuguese version of the Affective and Cognitive Measure of Empathy (ACME-BP). Whereas most empathy scales measure cognitive empathy and affective empathy, their affective subscale only reflects affective resonance – feeling the same emotion as others. The ACME expands the measurement of affective empathy with a third subscale that measures affective dissonance – feeling an opposing emotion, such as pleasure from others’ pain, or pain from others’ pleasure. Compared to previous measures of empathy, which predict 1-4% of the variance in aggression and externalizing disorders,¹ the ACME predicts 15-30% of variance in these constructs.²

This study recruited 338 Brazilian community members, who completed the 28-item Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), a traditional measure of empathy,³ and the 36-item ACME-BP. To construct the ACME-BP, the English ACME was first translated by a native Brazilian-Portuguese speaker and then back-translated by a native speaker of English, naive to the ACME. The back-translated version was compared to the original English ACME by one of its authors (Vachon) and two other collaborators who judged if the two versions were equivalent in meaning. A sample of 10 people then evaluated the readability of ACME-BP items, and three experts judged the semantic validity of each item.

After collecting the data, structural equation modeling was used to validate the three-factor model of empathy. The data were suitable for factor extraction, based on a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin index of 0.90 and Bartlett’s test of sphericity (p < 0.001). The model had good fit: χ² ₍₅₉₁₎ = 697.46, p = 0.002; comparative fit index = 0.949; Tucker-Lewis index = 0.945; root mean square error of approximation = 0.023.⁴ Factor loadings are presented in Table 1; only items that loaded on a theory-congruent factor and had adequate factor loadings were retained, defined as a factor loading above 0.32.⁵ The factor loadings for ACME and ACME-BP were very similar, differing on average by 0.10. They also showed nearly identical factor correlations: across both measures, cognitive empathy was correlated with affective resonance at 0.32-0.34, cognitive empathy with affective dissonance at 0.16-0.20, and affective resonance with affective dissonance at 0.71-0.75. Taken together, these findings provide evidence of structural generalizability.

Table 1
Item descriptions and factor loadings for the Affective and Cognitive Measure of Empathy - Brazilian-Portuguese version (ACME-BP) and the original English version (ACME)

		Factor loadings
		Brazilian ACME			English ACME
Item	Description	COG	RES	DIS	COG	RES	DIS
Cognitive empathy (COG)
1r	I have a hard time reading people’s emotions / Tenho dificuldade para ler as emoções dos outros	0.72	--	--	0.81	--	--
3	I can tell when someone is afraid / Eu consigo perceber quando alguém está com medo	0.60	--	--	0.59	--	--
4	It’s obvious when people are pretending to be happy / É óbvio para mim quando as pessoas fingem que estão felizes	0.39	--	--	0.60	--	--
9	I usually understand why people feel the way they do / Normalmente, eu compreendo por que as pessoas se sentem de determinada maneira	0.58	--	--	0.65	--	--
14r	I have a hard time figuring out what someone else is feeling / Tenho dificuldade para compreender o que outra pessoa está sentindo	0.72	--	--	0.78	--	--
15	I can tell when people are about to lose their temper / Eu consigo perceber quando as pessoas estão prestes a perder a calma	0.59	--	--	0.58	--	--
16	I can usually predict how someone will feel / Geralmente, eu consigo prever como alguém irá se sentir	0.67	--	--	0.66	--	--
25	I can usually tell how people are feeling / Normalmente, eu consigo perceber como as pessoas estão se sentindo	0.80	--	--	0.82	--	--
31r	I am not good at understanding other people’s emotions / Eu não sou bom em compreender as emoções dos outros	0.75	--	--	0.71	--	--
33	I can usually guess what’s making someone angry / Normalmente, eu consigo adivinhar o que está deixando alguém com raiva	0.67	--	--	0.69	--	--
34	People don’t have to tell me when they’re sad, I can see it in their faces / As pessoas não precisam me dizer quando estão tristes, eu consigo ver em seus rostos	0.73	--	--	0.87	--	--
35r	I find it hard to tell when someone is sad / É difícil para mim perceber quando alguém está triste	0.62	--	--	0.81	--	--
Affective resonance (RES)
7	It makes me feel good to help someone in need / Ajudar alguém que está passando necessidade faz com que eu me sinta bem	--	0.64	--	--	0.86	--
8	I get excited to give someone a gift that I think they will enjoy / Eu fico empolgado(a) ao dar para alguém um presente que penso que irá gostar	--	0.32	--	--	0.43	--
12r	I don’t worry much about hurting people’s feelings / Eu não me preocupo muito em ferir os sentimentos dos outros	--	0.60	--	--	0.72	--
13r	I don’t really care if other people feel happy / Não me importo se outras pessoas estão felizes	--	0.39	--	--	0.54	--
17r	I don’t really care if people are feeling depressed / Não me importo se outras pessoas estão deprimidas	--	0.68	--	--	0.68	--
22r	Other people’s feelings don’t bother me at all / Os sentimentos das outras pessoas não me incomodam nem um pouco	--	0.52	--	--	0.66	--
23	I feel awful when I hurt someone’s feelings / Sinto-me péssimo(a) quando firo os sentimentos de alguém	--	0.55	--	--	0.60	--
24r	Other people’s misfortunes don’t bother me much / As desgraças dos outros não me incomodam muito	--	0.75	--	--	0.75	--
28	If I see that I am doing something that hurts someone, I will quickly stop / Se eu percebo que estou fazendo algo que machuca alguém, eu paro na mesma hora	--	0.45	--	--	0.59	--
29	I often try to help people feel better when they are upset / Frequentemente, tento ajudar as pessoas a se sentirem melhor quando estão chateadas	--	0.49	--	--	0.60	--
30	I enjoy making others happy / Eu sinto prazer em fazer os outros felizes	--	0.58	--	--	0.84	--
32r	People have told me that I’m insensitive / Já me disseram que sou insensível	--	0.59	--	--	0.57	--
Affective dissonance (DIS)
2r	I think it’s fun to push people around once and a while / Acho divertido intimidar as pessoas de vez em quando	--	--	0.53	--	--	0.51
5r	I love watching people get angry / Adoro ver as pessoas ficarem com raiva	--	--	0.72	--	--	0.56
6r	I enjoy seeing strangers get scared / Sinto prazer em ver pessoas que não conheço se assustarem	--	--	0.45	--	--	0.55
10r	When my friends are having a good time I often get angry / Frequentemente me sinto irritado(a) quando meus amigos estão se divertindo	--	--	0.30	--	--	0.41
11r	People who are cheery disgust me / Sinto desprezo por pessoas “alegrinhas”	--	--	0.47	--	--	0.72
18r	I like making other people uncomfortable / Gosto de deixar os outros desconfortáveis	--	--	0.52	--	--	0.50
19r	I get a kick out of making other people feel stupid / Sinto prazer em fazer com que os outros se sintam bobos	--	--	0.66	--	--	0.57
20r	When my friends get angry I often feel like laughing / Quando meus amigos ficam com raiva, muitas vezes sinto vontade de rir	--	--	0.54	--	--	0.55
21r	Sometimes I enjoy seeing people cry / Às vezes, sinto prazer em ver pessoas chorando	--	--	0.53	--	--	0.69
26r	Sometimes it’s funny to see people get humiliated / Às vezes, é engraçado ver pessoas sendo humilhadas	--	--	0.52	--	--	0.45
27r	If I could get away with it, there are some people I would enjoy hurting / Se eu pudesse sair impune, há algumas pessoas que eu sentiria prazer em machucar	--	--	0.64	--	--	0.45
36r	I admit that I enjoy irritating other people / Admito que sinto prazer em irritar outras pessoas	--	--	0.73	--	--	0.49

• Cognitive empathy (COG) = 1r, 3, 4, 9, 14r, 15, 16, 25, 31r, 33, 34, 35r.
• Affective resonance (RES) = 7, 8, 12r, 13r, 17r, 22r, 23, 24r, 28, 29, 30, 32r.
• Affective dissonance (DIS) = 2r, 5r, 6r, 10r, 11r, 18r, 19r, 20r, 21r, 26r, 27r, 36r.
• r = reverse scored item: items are administered on 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). On all three scales (including DIS), high scores indicate greater empathy.

Finally, the ACME-BP scales were internally reliable (0.81 ≤ α ≤ 0.90) and had high 6-month test-retest reliability (0.81 ≤ ρ ≤ 0.89). Theoretically similar constructs on the IRI correlated strongly with those of the ACME-BP (0.40 ≤ r ≤ 0.66), providing evidence of concurrent validity. It is worth noting that the sample was disproportionately young (20% of participants older than 38), limiting the generalizability of the results. Future work should evaluate the ACME in older Brazilian samples and in clinical samples. The ACME-BP is a short, useful measure of empathy that shows evidence of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and structural generalizability in a Brazilian sample.

References

• ¹
  Vachon DD, Lynam DR, Johnson JA. The (non) relation between empathy and aggression: surprising results from a meta-analysis. Psychol Bull. 2014; 140:751-73.
• ²
  Vachon DD, Lynam DR. Fixing the problem with empathy: development and validation of the affective and cognitive measure of empathy. Assessment. 2016;23:135-49.
• ³
  Davis MH. Measuring individual differences in empathy: evidence for a multidimensional approach. J Pers Soc Psycho. 1983;44:113-26.
• ⁴
  Hu LT, Bentler PM. Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Struct Equ Modeling. 1999;6:1-55.
• ⁵
  Tabachnick BG, Fidel LS. Using multivariate statistics. Boston: Allyn & Bacon; 2001.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  15 Feb 202122 Feb 2021
• Date of issue
  May-Jun 2021

History

• Received
  22 Mar 2020
• Accepted
  1 Dec 2020