the greek research infrastructure
for social sciences
This paper reported on the development of a new multi-dimensional empathy scale. The scale consisted of four subscales:empathic concern, personal distress, fantasy and cognitive empathy. These subscales corresponded to Davis' four dimensions of empathy and were suitable for the measurement of empathy from early adolesence through late adolescence. Each subscale had satisfactory internal consistency and was significantly related to other empathy scales and a measure of pro-social behavior. Results included the following: (1) Male scores for empathic concern and cognitive empathy were higher among college students than middle school or high school students. (2) Male scores for personal distress were higher among high school students than middle school students or college students. (3) For females, fantasy scores were higher among college students than high school students. (4) Females' scores on all subscales were higher than males' in middle school, but gender differences decreased in high school.
