Development and validation of a Portuguese psychologist's empathy scale: A pilot study

The systematic assessment of empathy is essential for identifying psychologists' competencies and developmental needs, ultimately contributing to more effective clinical practice. Given the multidimensional nature of empathy, comprehensive evaluation requires consideration of its cognitive, affective, and behavioural dimensions. However, no existing instrument is specifically validated to assess psychologists' self-perceived empathy in clinical contexts. To address this limitation, the present pilot study aimed to develop and undertake a preliminarily validation of the Portuguese Psychologists' Empathy Scale (PPES), a self-report instrument designed to assess empathy among psychologists working in Portuguese-speaking contexts across these three components. The study proceeded in two phases: item construction and initial psychometric testing. A total of 106 Portuguese psychologists completed a 57-item Likert-type instrument. Bartlett's test of sphericity was significant (χ²(45) = 811.56, p < .001), and the KMO index (0.73) indicated moderate adequacy for factor analysis. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three core factors explaining 48% of the total variance, with strong internal consistency. A subsequent confirmatory factor analysis supported model refinement, leading to the removal of items with low factor loadings. The final PPES comprises 43 items distributed across cognitive (16), affective (16), and behavioural (11) dimensions. The findings provide encouraging preliminary evidence for the PPES, demonstrating robust internal consistency and acceptable initial factorial validity. Nevertheless, further studies using independent samples and external validation procedures are required to fully establish its psychometric soundness and clinical applicability with Portuguese-speaking psychologists.