Score Reliability and Validity Evidence for the State-Interpersonal Reactivity Index: A Multidimensional Assessment of In-Session Counselor Empathy

Abstract

Empathy for mental health professionals is often inferred from dispositional assessments that misrepresent the temporal, contextual, and multidimensional nature of empathy. This article presents the State-Interpersonal Reactivity Index, a multidimensional assessment of in-session empathy for mental health professionals. Results suggest good construct and incremental validity evidence for participant scores.

Keywords:

• Empathy
• state-specific
• assessment

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David A. Johnson

David A. Johnson is an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling at Wake Forest University. His research interests involve using mindfulness practices to foster empathy, relational skills, and multicultural counseling competencies among counselors-in-training and supervisees.

Danielle N. Knight

Danielle N. Knight is a counselor at St. PJ's Children's Home in San Antonio and an adjunct professor for the Department of Counseling at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research interests include ways to foster the development of empathy in counselor education and training and the impact of microaggressions in counselor education.

Kelsey McHugh

Kelsey McHugh is a Child and Family Therapist at Klamath Basin Behavioral Health in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and a registered LPC intern in Oregon. She holds a Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Wake Forest University.