| Previous research has suggested that empathic accuracy can be enhanced when a perceiver acquires additional information about a target person. The present study examined the influences that the provision of two types of information about a target had on empathic accuracy: (1) information provided through the use of immediate, veridical, feedback, and (2) information provided by a specific, informational frame. The participants viewed two female client-targets in separate, videotaped psychotherapy sessions and attempted to infer the actual thoughts and feelings that had previously been reported by each woman. In addition, the perceivers indicated how accurate they thought they were for each thought/feeling inference that they made. Perceivers in the study participated in either a feedback or a no-feedback condition and in either a specific frame or a generic frame condition. Unlike their counterparts in the no-feedback (control) condition, perceivers in the feedback condition participated in a training phase where, immediately following their inferences, they saw the actual thought or feeling that the client-target had previously reported having had during the therapy session. Unlike their counterparts in the generic frame condition, who received very general information that described the format of the therapy session that they were instructed to view, participants in the specific frame condition received detailed information about the client-target's background and current problems prior to their exposure to the client. Results suggested the provision of feedback enhanced empathic accuracy but only for one of the videotaped targets. The prediction that viewing a specific frame would facilitate empathic accuracy was not supported. The most consistent finding to emerge in the present study was that the females obtained significantly higher empathic accuracy scores than the males. However, with the addition of feedback, the males approached the accuracy level obtained by the females. Metaknowledge of empathic accuracy was also tested as a function of gender, feedback, and frame. The females also obtained significantly higher metaknowledge scores than the males. Those individuals who received accurate feedback about their thought/feeling inferences also exhibited slightly higher metaknowledge scores and significantly lower confidence levels for the empathic accuracy task. Frame again had no effect on metaknowledge scores. |
