Guide
Scoring the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index
Two self-report measures dominate empathy research. The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire gives one score. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index gives four. Implicitify carries both and scores them by their published keys.
The two measures
- Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ-16). Sixteen items summed to one empathy score.
- Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Twenty-eight items in four seven-item subscales.
The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire
The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) treats empathy mainly as an emotional process. Spreng, McKinnon, Mar and Levine built it in 2009, reported in the Journal of Personality Assessment, from a factor analysis of several older empathy measures. The TEQ is comprised of 16 items rated from Never (0) to Always (4). Eight items are worded in the negative and are reverse-scored. The sixteen item scores are summed, so totals run from 0 to 64, and higher totals describe more self-reported empathy.
The Interpersonal Reactivity Index
The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) treats empathy as several related processes. Davis described it in 1980 and reported its validation in 1983 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The IRI is comprised of 28 items in four subscales of seven items each: Perspective-Taking, Empathic Concern, Personal Distress and Fantasy. Several items in each subscale are reverse-scored.
Each subscale is summed on its own. The IRI has no total score, since the four subscales measure different things. Personal Distress, for example, describes self-focused unease when others suffer, which is not the same as concern for them.
Choosing between them
Spreng and colleagues found that the TEQ correlated highly with the IRI Empathic Concern subscale and less with Perspective-Taking and Fantasy. The TEQ suits a short, single score. The IRI suits work that needs to separate perspective-taking from emotional reactions. On Implicitify, both reports show each score with a z-score and a percentile where published comparison data exist.
Questions
Can I add the four IRI subscales into one empathy score?
No. The IRI has no total score. Each of the four subscales is scored and read separately.
What range can a TEQ total take?
TEQ totals run from 0 to 64 after the eight negatively worded items are reverse-scored.
Scores and reports describe responses. They are not a diagnosis.