Defining the line : examining the role of empathy in the prosocial treatment of pain
department or school: Arts and Social Sciences, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)
department or school: Psychology, Department of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Kaseweter, Kimberley Anne
issued: 2020-08-14T15:42:25Z
issued: 2020
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Pain has been identified as the most common reason for seeking medical care in emergency departments and yet has been found to be left widely undertreated. The pervasiveness of these visits, combined with the undertreatment of pain, can have detrimental consequences for patients and providers. As such, there is a pressing need to identify factors associated with effective pain treatment. A factor consistently found to motivate helping behaviour is personal distress; however, the intricacies of this relationship remain unclear. Specifically, willingness to help patients in pain has been linked to both high and low levels of personal distress. This dissertation aimed to clarify the nature of this relationship and to explore the potential moderating influence of both individual (i.e., third-person pain perception, emotion regulation, and psychopathic traits) and situational (i.e., cost of helping) factors. Two studies were conducted in which undergraduate students and medical students completed a prosocial task where they were asked to indicate how much time they wished to spend helping patients in pain. Overall, personal distress did not emerge as a significant predictor of helping behaviour, and this relationship was not moderated by the personal cost of helping (i.e., type of remuneration). Support was found, however, for the moderating role of individual traits. Specifically, Studies 1 and 2 identified three distinct emotional processing profiles: Sensitive Responders, Indifferent Responders, and Insensitive Responders. Moreover, these profiles were found to be differently related to prosocial behaviour. Overall, findings suggest that individual differences in emotional processing may moderate the relationship between empathy and prosocial behaviour, potentially contributing to disparities in the treatment of pain. Additionally, these findings highlight the importance of considering these traits simultaneously, as opposed to examining these variables in isolation.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/75513
note: i DEFINING THE LINE: EXAMINING THE ROLE OF EMPATHY IN THE PROSOCIAL TREATMENT OF PAIN by Kimberley Anne Kaseweter B.Sc., University of Northern British Columbia, 2011 M.Sc., University of Northern British Columbia, 2015 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Psychology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) August 2020 © Kimberley Anne Kaseweter, 2020 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: DEFINING THE LINE: EXAMINING THE ROLE OF EMPATHY IN THE PROSOCIAL TREATMENT OF PAIN submitted by Kimberley Anne Kaseweter in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology Examining Committee: Dr. Paul G. Davies, Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences Supervisor Dr. Maya Libben, Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Cynthia Mathieson, Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Sarah Dow-Fleisner, Faculty of Health and Social Development University Examiner Dr. Tavis Campbell, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary External Examiner iii Abstract Pain has been identified as the most common reason for seeking medical care in emergency departments and yet has been found to be left widely undertreated. The pervasiveness of these visits, combined with the undertreatment of pain, can have detrimental consequences for patients and providers. As such, there is a pressing need to identify factors associated with effective pain treatment. A factor consistently found to motivate helping behaviour is personal distress; however, the intricacies of this relationship remain unclear. Specifically, willingness to help patients in pain has been linked to both high and low levels of personal distress. This dissertation aimed to c…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2020-09
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0392801
language: eng
degree discipline: Psychology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/75513