Psychological Features of Empathy Formation in Adolescents with Mental Development Disorders

Abstract

The aim of the article is to identify and experimentally test the state of
the empathy formation and its impact on the formation of emotional and
volitional sphere of adolescents with disorders in mental development. The
purpose of the research was to provide step-by-step solution of the main tasks:
firstly, to state the condition of the development of empathy by identifying its
components, indicators and levels of their formation; secondly, identifying the
main factors for developing empathy of adolescents with mental development
disorders; establishing basic peculiarities affecting empathy as a component 

of the emotional-volitional sphere of adolescents’ personality with mental
development disorders.
Мethods. Scientific and specific research methods were used to solve
the tasks and to ensure the validity of the research and conclusions. Among
them there are theoretical and empirical methods, which allowed to establish
quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the phenomenon, to characterize
indicators and to set levels of this phenomenon. Psychodiagnostics was conducted
in accordance with the requirements and instructions of the methodology
having been used, conversations were also organized among the adolescents,
and behavioral monitoring was conducted under the usual conditions during
their educational activities. For the purpose of comparing and analyzing the
phenomenon of empathy, diagnostics of adolescents with preserved intelligence
of the relevant age categories was also performed under the same conditions as
adolescents with disorders in mental development.
The results of the research. According to the results of the diagnosis of
empathy as the indicator of the development of the emotional-volitional sphere
of a personality and the structure of a personality, adolescents with disorders
in mental development were found to have insufficient orientation of mental
processes, communicative properties, empathy, identification with others and
distance from them. It was found that the level of empathy was characterized
in adolescents with disorders in mental development like low and average level
among adolescents with preserved intelligence. Channels of empathy and the
levels of their formation among adolescents were also described in details.
Conclusions. The results made it possible to ascertain among teenagers
with disorders in mental development low differentiation of «Me»-image; low
adaptability to external stimuli (low level of adequacy of expression of emotions
according to the situation); the formation of a leading emotional modality –
anger; insufficient mediation of interpersonal contacts, communicative ability;
unconscious empathy, identification with other people and taking distance from
them.