Development and validation of the process of interpersonal empathy scale (pies)
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Abstract
Empathy is a consistent predictor of positive counseling outcome. As counselor educators attempted to teach and evaluate CITs’ empathy competence, various conceptualizations and measurements emerged. Thus, the purpose of this study was to validate a proposed theoretical model and developed a measure based on the model. One hundred and forty-eight recorded responses were usable data. The results of the exploratory factor analysis revealed that a five factor model could best represent counselors’ empathy competence. The resulting Process of Interpersonal Empathy Scale (PIES) is a 20-item scale with promising psychometric properties. The PIES contains five subscales: Conceptualization, Emotional Complexity, Emotional Awareness, Reflections, and Exploratory Stance. Overall, the PIES shows promises for use in research and counselor education. The need of additional validation studies remains to establish consistent results.