In this master’s thesis, the author researches the link between emotional processing, level of empathy, and positive and negative cognitive-emotional aspects of relationships with parents or the characteristics of parent attachment. The following are communication, trust, anger, and alienation. The research included 210 participants aged 20-65. For the purpose of this research, the Emotional Processing Scale (EPS) was used, which measures the following subdimensions: emotional expression, appraisal of emotions, and emotional stability. The author also used the Empathy Quotient (EQ) questionnaire. To measure positive and negative cognitive-emotional aspects of a relationship with parents, the author used the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) questionnaire, from which she used the part concerning parents. Empathy and the level of attachment to parents proved to be linked only minimally and the links are thus not statistically significant. For emotional processing and levels of attachment to fathers and mothers, attachment to mothers proved to be statistically important, whereas even though attachment to fathers does exist, it is not statistically significant. There is a significantly important link between the subdimension of emotional stability and the level of attachment to both parents, as well as a link between emotional expression and communication and alienation from the mother. Other subdimensions of emotional processing are linked to levels of attachment, but these are not statistically significant. The author continued with researching the link between emotional processing and empathy and discovered that every subdimension of emotional processing has a significant link to empathy, which is why it can be concluded that there is a trend that individuals who experience better emotional expressiveness, better appraisal of emotions and higher emotional stability, also express a higher level of empathy. Nevertheless, due to the mode of participant selection, the representation of the sample is questionable. Another question that arises is if participants replied to more intimate questions truthfully.
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