| Empathy is a multidimensional ability linked with a variety of benefits and is implicated in numerous psychological disorders. The first purpose of this study was to investigate implicit emotion-related measures as potential measures of multidimensional empathy. The second purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of empathy and humility, as well as the role of humility as a possible moderating factor to social desirability effects on explicit empathy. The third purpose of this study was to examine emotion regulation as a mediating factor on explicit empathy and performance on an emotional go/nogo task (EGNG). Finally, the fourth purpose of the study was to examine the development of empathy and how it is related to emotion regulation ability and attachment style. Previous research has found links between secure attachment style and the development of effective emotion regulation abilities and altruistic behaviors. The present study seeks to further explore the influence of attachment security on the development of emotion regulation ability and subsequently on empathic ability.;A total of 191 participants were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions that manipulated social desirability. Each participant completed self-report measures of social desirability, humility, emotion regulation, attachment, explicit empathy measures and implicit measures.;The results of the study did not indicate a significant effect of the social desirability manipulation on explicit or implicit empathy measures, contrary to what was predicted. There was a significant relationship between empathy and humility; however, humility did not appear to be a moderating factor on social desirability effects. There were also significant relationships between emotion regulation ability and number of false alarms on the EGNG, and evidence of a mediating relationship of emotion regulation on empathy and EGNG false alarms. Additionally, results of mediation analysis supported a model of attachment predicting empathy through the mediation of emotion regulation. Results of correlational analyses also found significant associations between specific types of empathy, attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and emotion regulation. Overall, results support the theory that secure attachment facilitates the development of greater empathy because of better emotion regulation ability. |
