Date: 22 Mar 2023 

Time: 12:30-14:00 

Venue: Chen Kou Bun Building 123, CUHK (In person only. No online link available.) 

Speaker: Ms. TANG Xiaolei (MPhil Student, Gender Studies Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Moderator: Prof. WONG Ivy Wang (Associate Professor, Gender Studies Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)  

Language: English

Abstract:  

Empathic accuracy refers to the extent to which people successfully infer others’ thoughts and feelings. With substantial research proved the close association between romantic couples’ empathic accuracy and their relationship satisfaction, scant research has explored factors which could affect one’s performance on empathic accuracy. Besides, no study has probed the effect of perceived self and partner’s empathic accuracy on relationship satisfaction. In the context of heterosexual romantic relationships, whether and how gender would alter the associations between these constructs also needs further inquiry.

The current study extends existing literature by 1) examining how perceived mental depletion and gender are related to people’s empathic accuracy in romantic relationships; 2) exploring how one’s own and partner’s actual and perceived empathic accuracy are related to one’s own and partner’s relationship satisfaction; 3) examining whether these association patterns differ for women and men.

Eighty-seven heterosexual couples (N=174, Agemean=29) completed a set of one-off questionnaires and a 14-day daily diary assessment. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. The results showed that higher mental depletion level was associated with lower empathic accuracy, and women and men did not differ in their performance on empathic accuracy. Both one’s own and partner’s actual EA level and the perceived EA level contributed to their relationship satisfaction and gendered association patterns were found.

Biography: 

TANG Xiaolei is an MPhil student in Gender Studies (Psychology) at CUHK, and a lab member of the Gender Development Lab at CUHK. Her research interests include the role of gender/sexual identity in shaping people’s behaviors in different social contexts and the psychological well-being of gender/sexual minorities.

Registration: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13660767