Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ)

The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) is a relatively brief self-assessment questionnaire measuring a person’s emotional ability to understand and respond to others. Thus, it was developed to assess the general factor of empathy, conceptualizing it as primarily an emotional process. It contains 16 statements whose frequency is rated by the respondent on a Likert scale.

Length of completion

The questionnaire takes approximately 5-7 minutes to complete.

Individualized feedback for the respondent

The respondent will know his/her level of empathy after the questionnaire has been scored.

Keywords

Toronto Empathy Queastionnaire, TEQ, empathy, emotional process, empathy

Scoring and interpretation

To obtain a total score, the scores for each item must be summed. Items 2, 4, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14 and 15 are reverse scored. The total score ranges from 0-64 and higher scores indicate higher levels of empathy.

Response Scale

Respondents record their answers on a five-point Likert scale ranging from “Never” (0) to “Always” (1).

References

Novak, L., Malinakova, K., Mikoska, P., van Dijk, J. P., Dechterenko, F., Ptacek, R., & Tavel, P. (2021). Psychometric Analysis of the Czech Version of the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(10), 5343. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18105343

Spreng, R. N., McKinnon, M. C., Mar, R. A., & Levine, B. (2009). The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire: scale development and initial validation of a factor-analytic solution to multiple empathy measures. Journal of personality assessment, 91(1), 62–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223890802484381

Ursoniu, S., Serban, C. L., Giurgi-Oncu, C., Rivis, I. A., Bucur, A., Bredicean, A. C., & Papava, I. (2021). Validation of the Romanian Version of the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) among Undergraduate Medical Students. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(24), 12871. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182412871

Xu, R. H., Wong, E. L., Lu, S. Y., Zhou, L. M., Chang, J. H., & Wang, D. (2020). Validation of the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) Among Medical Students in China: Analyses Using Three Psychometric Methods. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 810. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00810