Empathic inference, or "everyday mind reading," is a complex psychological process in which observation, memory, knowledge, and reasoning are combined to yield insights into the subjective experience of others. This comprehensive volume addresses the question of how accurate our "readings" of the thoughts and feelings of others actually are. Introducing two innovative methods for objectively measuring this key dimension of social intelligence, the book offers essential insights into how and why people sometimes succeed and sometimes fail in their attempts to understand each other. Table of Contents Introduction, William Ickes 1. Communicative Genes and the Evolution of Empathy, Ross Buck and Benson Ginsburg 2. Physiological Aspects of Emotional Knowledge and Rapport, Robert W. Levenson and Anna M. Ruef 3. The Development of Empathic Accuracy, Nancy Eisenberg, Bridget C. Murphy, and Stephanie Shepard 4. When Women's Intuition Isn't Greater than Men's, Tiffany Graham and William Ickes 5. Personality and Empathic Accuracy, Mark H. Davis and Linda A. Kraus 6. Why Do Friends Understand Each Other Better than Strangers Do?, C. Randall Colvin, Dawne S. Vogt, and William Ickes 7. Empathic Accuracy in Close Relationships, Geoff Thomas and Garth J. O. Fletcher 8. Managing Empathic Accuracy in Close Relationships, William Ickes and Jeffry A. Simpson 9. Empathic Accuracy and Marital Conflict Resolution, Victor L. Bissonnette, Caryl E. Rusbult, and Shelley D. Kilpatrick 10. Studying Empathic Accuracy in a Clinically Relevant Context, William Ickes, Carol Marangoni, and Stella Garcia 11. Automatic and Controlled Empathy, Sara Hodges and Daniel M. Wegner "The kind of book that is all too rare in the sociopsychological sciences: an immensely readable, professionally highly competent tome on a topic that is inherently difficult to investigate....This is a book of very hard- headed theory and research, by top-notch scientists....Richly deserves to be read by workers in any of the mental health professions, as well as by workers in social and developmental psychology, sociology, family studies, and education." -Psychiatric Services "The book is uniformly well written....Researchers interested in empathic accuracy...should find this volume invaluable....The book should be of interest to researchers in the emotions and relationships field and to communications researchers....There is also much here that should be of interest and helpful to clinical researchers and practitioners....We liked this book. We enjoyed reading it, discussing it, and reviewing it. We commend it to others." -Contemporary Psychology "William Ickes' research on empathic accuracy has quietly revolutionized the field, and this is reflected in the present volume....The book is likely to be widely read by professionals and graduate students alike, and to become a standard in the field." -Susan M. Andersen, PhD "This unique volume will likely set the agenda for the next generation of theorizing and research. It is a 'must read' for anyone interested in how empathy affects human interaction." -Harry T. Reis, PhD, University of Rochester "The book is a compendium of state- of-the-art research on one of the most important and interesting topics at the interface of social and personality psychology- -when and how do we know what another person is thinking and feeling? The 11 chapters cover a wide range of research and theory, and the level of their quality is amazingly even: Each one is excellent." -David F. Funder, Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside from the publisher's website |