Document Type
Article
Source Publication Title
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
First Page
881
Last Page
893
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.5.881
Abstract
This study tested predictions from Ickes and Simpson’s (1997, 2001) empathic accuracy model. Married couples were videotaped as they tried to resolve a problem in their marriage. Both spouses then viewed a videotape of the interaction, recorded the thoughts and feelings they had at specific time-points, and tried to infer their partner’s thoughts and feelings. Consistent with the model, when the partner’s thoughts and feelings were relationship-threatening (as rated by both the partners and by trained observers), greater empathic accuracy on the part of the perceiver was associated with pre-to-posttest declines in the perceiver’s feelings of subjective closeness. The reverse was true when the partner’s thoughts and feelings were non-threatening. Exploratory analyses revealed that these effects were partially mediated through observer-ratings of the degree to which partners tried to avoid the discussion issue.
Disciplines
Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Publication Date
11-1-2003
Language
English
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Ickes, William; Oriña, M. Minda; and Simpson, Jeffry A., "When Accuracy Hurts, and When It Helps: A Test of the Empathic Accuracy Model in Marital Interactions." (2003). Psychology Faculty Publications. 32.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/psychology_facpubs/32