Studying Characteristics and Mechanisms of Pain Empathy Following Psychological Trauma

Psychological trauma, such as severe accidents, natural disasters, combat, or experiencing interpersonal violence, is a common human experience. Most individuals will experience at least one traumatic event in their lives and approximately 10-20% of survivors develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is characterized by distressing memories of the event, physiological hyperarousal, and a series of cognitive-affective alterations, including poor interpersonal sociability. Empathy, the ability to understand others and share others’ feelings, particularly in relation to their pain, is one of the most important prerequisites of successful interpersonal functioning. Previous studies on long-term trauma survivors showed that PTSD patients show deficits in empathy, which might be attributed to increased psychological distress. However, the impact of traumatic stress on social functioning remains unclear. One possible avenue of studying these characteristics and mechanisms is to experimentally investigate peritraumatic processes using the trauma film paradigm in analogue samples. The PhD project aims to investigate the influence of lab-based trauma-related pain empathy (Study 1) and its underlying mechanisms (Study 2) in healthy individuals. Moreover, the project will further examine the potential restorative effects of oxytocin and secure attachment priming on pain empathy among individuals experiencing stressful events (Study 3).