Empathy, Narcissism, and Visual Arts Engagement

Empathy involves imagining others’ minds and feeling compassion for them, and narcissism is a sense of inflated self-esteem with a low regard for others. In this chapter, I will review scientific research on empathy, narcissism, and visual arts, including creativity. I will present evidence that there are two paths to arts engagement, just as with any behavior. Some people likely get involved with the arts because they care about others and want to improve the world in some way, and some people get involved for more self-focused reasons. The final section will make recommendations for future research and for how these ideas can be applied to museum settings

Positive Technology: Using Mobile Phones for Psychosocial Interventions

This chapter reviews the use of mobile phones in psychosocial interventions. Specifically, it reviews research studies that have used text messages (SMS) or smartphone applications (apps) to improve people’s mental health, psychological well-being, or social relationships. Psychosocial interventions are emerging from the larger and more established mobile health (mHealth) literature of physical health interventions. The scientific knowledge of psychosocial interventions is currently quite limited, with only a few published large randomized control trials. Most of those are limited to North American or European participant samples. The advantages and disadvantages of mobile interventions are discussed, along with recommendations for best practices. The success of future research is dependent upon more researcher-friendly tools to implement interventions

Development and Validation of the Single Item Narcissism Scale (SINS)

Main Objectives: The narcissistic personality is characterized by grandiosity, entitlement, and low empathy. This paper describes the development and validation of the Single Item Narcissism Scale (SINS). Although the use of longer instruments is superior in most circumstances, we recommend the SINS in some circumstances (e.g. under serious time constraints, online studies). Methods: In 11 independent studies (total N = 2,250), we demonstrate the SINS\u27 psychometric properties. Results: The SINS is significantly correlated with longer narcissism scales, but uncorrelated with self-esteem. It also has high test-retest reliability. We validate the SINS in a variety of samples (e.g., undergraduates, nationally representative adults), intrapersonal correlates (e.g., positive affect, depression), and interpersonal correlates (e.g., aggression, relationship quality, prosocial behavior). The SINS taps into the more fragile and less desirable components of narcissism. Significance: The SINS can be a useful tool for researchers, especially when it is important to measure narcissism with constraints preventing the use of longer measures

The Empathy Paradox: Increasing Disconnection in the Age of Increasing Connection

The purpose of this chapter is to summarize changes in personality traits that have co-occurred with the rise of new social media, and to evaluate the plausibility of the hypothesis that new social media are a partial explanation for these dramatic changes. Studies have found a rise in social disconnection among recent generations of young Americans. Self-esteem and narcissism have been rising in college students from the late 1970s to 2010, with simultaneous declines in empathy. Scholars and lay people alike blame the rise of the internet, and in particular, selforiented and self-promoting “social” networking sites. This new media landscape could lead to increasing social disconnection even as it superficially increases our social connections, and several studies suggest a direct link between social media use and social disconnection. However, since most research thus far is correlational, interpretations are limited, leaving open more optimistic possibilities for new social media

Can text messages make people kinder?

Empathic character is a set of interrelated dispositions, skills, motivations, emotions, and behaviors that involve a habitual responsiveness to others’ needs. It is linked to higher prosocial behavior, lower aggression, and better health. There is much research demonstrating both its consistency within people over time and its malleability in response to environmental and situational cues, including face-to-face interventions. In this paper I examine whether it is possible to increase empathic character using a mobile-based program. A large body of research in public health has used text messages to improve physical health outcomes and behaviors, but no research has examined whether text messages can be used to change traits. We conducted a study (N=90) in which participants received 6 daily empathy-building text messages for a 2 week period, versus a control group. We found that those in the empathy group showed some evidence of increased empathic character compared to control participants. The chapter ends by discussing implications of this work for a deeper understanding of empathic character, and some future directions of this research

Development and Validation of the Single Item Trait Empathy Scale (SITES)

Empathy involves feeling compassion for others and imagining how they feel. In this article, we develop and validate the Single Item Trait Empathy Scale (SITES), which contains only one item that takes seconds to complete. In seven studies (N = 5724), the SITES was found to be both reliable and valid. It correlated in expected ways with a wide variety of intrapersonal outcomes. For example, it is negatively correlated with narcissism, depression, anxiety, and alexithymia. In contrast, it is positively correlated with other measures of empathy, self-esteem, subjective well-being, and agreeableness. The SITES also correlates with a wide variety of interpersonal outcomes, especially compassion for others and helping others. The SITES is recommended in situations when time or question quantity is constrained

A Century of Nonprofit Studies: Scaling the Knowledge of the Field

This empirical study examines knowledge production between 1925 and 2015 in nonprofit and philanthropic studies from quantitative and thematic perspectives. Quantitative results suggest that scholars in this field have been actively generating a considerable amount of literature and a solid intellectual base for developing this field toward a new discipline. Thematic analyses suggest that knowledge production in this field is also growing in cohesion—several main themes have been formed and actively advanced since 1980s, and the study of volunteering can be identified as a unique core theme of this field. The lack of geographic and cultural diversity is a critical challenge for advancing nonprofit studies. New paradigms are needed for developing this research field and mitigating the tension between academia and practice. Methodological and pedagogical implications, limitations, and future studies are discussed