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15 Psych., Crime & L. 1 (2009)

handle is hein.journals/pcyceadl15 and id is 1 raw text is: Psychology, Crime & Law Routledge Vol. 15, No. 1, January 2009, 1-17 - Tay1or&FrancisGroup Empathy and social desirability: a comparison of delinquent and non-delinquent participants using direct and indirect measures Nicole Kampfe*, Jan Penzhorn, Julia Schikora, Julia Diinzl and Jane Schneidenbach Differential and Personality Psychology, University of Jena, Humboldtstr. 11, Jena, 07743 Germany (Received 18 October 2007; revised 12 February 2008; accepted 18 February 2008) Empathy has repeatedly been shown to be relevant for pro-social behaviour, while a meta-analysis reported lower levels of empathy among delinquent compared to control subjects. However, most findings are based on self-reports of the ability or the willingness of persons to empathize with others. The present study measures empathy and attitudes towards empathy in a sample of incarcerated delinquent subjects and a non-delinquent control group using direct measures and a Single- Target Implicit Association Test (ST-IAT). Higher social desirability was associated with higher levels of self-reported empathy in the delinquent sample whereas the indirect measure revealed a less strong positive connotation of empathy for the delinquent group compared to the control group. In a discriminant function analysis, delinquency was predicted by lower ST-IAT scores, higher cognitive concern, and higher social desirability. Different correlational patterns of direct and indirect measures are observed for delinquent and non-delinquent subjects. Whereas differences in the indirect measure correspond to our expectations, results for the self-report measures contradict meta-analytical findings of lower levels of empathy amongst delinquent compared to control subjects. Findings are discussed with regard to effects of incarceration and conceptualization of delinquency. Keywords: empathy; delinquency; indirect measures; Single-Target IAT; social desirability Introduction Empathy has gained attention as one of the most important individual variables in the context of social behaviour. It encompasses the capacity to understand and identify with the feelings and the perspective of another person (e.g. Cronbach, 1955; Wisp6, 1986; Zahn-Waxler & Radke-Yarrow, 1990). The prevalence of various definitions, theoretical approaches and ways of assessing empathy reflect the diversity in understanding the construct. Most contemporary approaches, however, conceptualize empathy as multidimensional phenomenon comprising cognitive processes and affective capacities (Davis, 1983, 1994; Jolliffe & Farrington, 2004; Lard6n, Melin, Holst, & LAngstr6m, 2006). Cognitive empathy comprises 'the ability to understand another's emotional state' *Corresponding author. Email: Nicole.Kaempfe@uni-jena.de ISSN 1068-316X print/ISSN 1477-2744 © 2009 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/10683160802010640 http://www.informaworld.com

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