Empathy in Group Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Questionnaire Development

The aim of this study is to develop a questionnaire that can observe empathy in group psychoanalytic psychotherapy and examine the structure of its factors. A questionnaire comprised of 160 items in five-point Likert-type scale was developed through analysis of communication and interaction related to empathizing during group sessions. The questionnaire was applied on 256 patients from 40 therapy groups in 9 cities in Croatia. All 20 group analysts are trained in the Institute for Group Analysis in Zagreb. The patients were selected based on group analysis criteria. After item discrimination and principal component analysis limited to five factors were assessed, 80 items were isolated, 20 of which made a control scale for socially desirable responses. Two parallel questionnaire forms were developed: Group-Analysis-Empathy 1 (GA-Em1) and Group-Analysis-Empathy 2 (GA-Em2). A new, reliable and valid questionnaire for empathy observation employable in group psychotherapy was designed. The following factors were isolated by means of factor analysis: 1. Emotional disclosure and sensibility; 2. Containing and metabolizing; 3. Immersion; 4. Resonance and responsiveness; 5. Insight. A new questionnaire on empathy in group-analytical psychotherapy can measure the capacity for emotional communication among group members and between the group and the group analyst – conductor