Empathy and emotional perception in Psychology students and psychotherapists

• Autor(a) principal: Palhoco, Ana Rita
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Outros Autores: Afonso, Maria João
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Estudos Interdisciplinares em Psicologia
• Texto Completo: https://ojs.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/eip/article/view/10823
• topic: empathy; perception of primary emotions; psychotherapy; empatía; percepción de emociones primarias; psicoterapia; empatia; percepção de emoções primárias; psicoterapia

This research project aimed the study of the empathic ability and the perception of primary emotions, both in students and psychotherapists at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon. To assess these variables two tests were used: the first Portuguese experimental version of the Test de Empatía Cognitiva y Afectiva (TECA), translated and adapted as part of this study, and the Teste de Percepção de Emoções Primárias (PEP), developed at the University of San Francisco (Brazil). The intent was to ascertain if these abilities may be developed through academic teaching or only by practice, whereby it was assessed in a sample of 113 participants. It was found that cognitive empathy is higher in individuals with better knowledge and experience, that emotional empathy is positively (but not significantly) correlated with the perception of emotions and that there is evidence of a certain degree of independence between the two types of empathy (cognitive and emotional).