The Development and Validation of a New Questionnaire to Assess Experiential and Cognitive Processes As Distinct Aspects of Empathy: Emotion Sharing and Understanding Scale (ESUS)

Sharing and Understanding refer to experiential (intersubjective emotion) and cognitive (explicit understanding) processes that might independently contribute to empathy. In two studies, a new questionnaire was developed and validated to distinctively measure the constructs of Sharing and Understanding. This assessment connects theoretical, empirical and clinical data from psychology and neuroscience.