Universal CAEI 2.0 Assessment System
The First Culturally-Universal Empathy Infrastructure Assessmentnt
The Breakthrough
Separating what you have from how you use it.
Previous empathy assessments conflated infrastructure health with Western cultural expression. A Buddhist practitioner with intact infrastructure but achieved non-self awareness would score “low.” A collectivist individual with network-embedded identity would appear “identity-diffused.”
This produced culturally-biased measurement masquerading as universal assessment.
Universal CAEI 2.0 resolves this through modular architecture: separating substrate (processing capacity) from deployment (how that capacity is used).
The substrate is universal. Deployments are culturally and individually variable.
The Architecture
Modular design enabling universal measurement with cultural precision
CAEI-S: Substrate Assessment (64 items) Content-neutral processing capacity. Always administered first.
CAEI-D: Deployment Modules (64 items each) How substrate manifests within specific optimization strategies:
| Module | Optimization Strategy | Core Question |
|---|---|---|
| CAEI-D-W | Western Narrative | “Who am I across time?” |
| CAEI-D-C | Contemplative Non-Self | “What is experience without ‘I’?” |
| CAEI-D-R | Relational Collectivist | “How do I serve my network?” |
Total architecture: 256 items across 4 instruments, administered in combinations appropriate to population and context.
CAEI-S: The Universal Substrate
Processing capacity independent of cultural deployment
Four axes measuring content-neutral infrastructure:
C-Axis: Processing Clarity Signal discrimination, experience-interpretation distinction, processing ownership, authentic response access.
A-Axis: Relational Stability Processing resilience during engagement, proximity-distance regulation, secure processing base, relational repair capacity.
E-Axis: Output Capacity Expression generation, output range, output modulation, output-processing congruence.
I-Axis: Synthesis Capacity Experience integration, temporal continuity, cross-context coherence, meaning synthesis.
These capacities apply universally because they measure processing architecture, not deployment content. Processing Clarity serves narrative construction in Western contexts and contemplative awareness in Buddhist contexts—same capacity, different application.
The Critical Clinical Distinction
Low CAEI-D ≠ pathology. It may reflect different optimization strategy or deployment transition.
Low CAEI-S = substrate damage. This requires intervention regardless of cultural context.
A clinician restores processing capacity. The client chooses deployment.
Scoring Interpretation
| CAEI-S | Deployment | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| High | High (any) | Healthy substrate, effective deployment |
| High | Low (all) | Healthy substrate, deployment difficulty or transition |
| High | Mixed | Healthy substrate, uneven deployment |
| Low | Any | Substrate damage—address first |
Rule: Deployment interpretation requires adequate substrate. If CAEI-S is compromised, deployment scores are unreliable until substrate is restored.
Why This Matters
Content-neutrality as scientific integrity
EST’s central prediction: infrastructure mechanics operate identically across cultural deployments. Components fail together. Restoration follows the A→E→I→C sequence. The cascade signature is substrate-level, not content-specific.
Universal CAEI 2.0 enables testing this prediction:
- Cross-cultural comparison at substrate level
- Culturally-matched deployment assessment
- Distinguishing damage from difference
- Therapeutic neutrality regarding optimization choice
This is the first empathy infrastructure assessment that measures processing substrate independent of cultural optimization—enabling truly universal measurement without imposing Western constructs as norm.
Administration Protocols
| Context | Administer | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Western clinical | CAEI-S + CAEI-D-W | 30–40 min |
| Contemplative populations | CAEI-S + CAEI-D-C | 30–40 min |
| Collectivist populations | CAEI-S + CAEI-D-R | 30–40 min |
| Cross-cultural research | CAEI-S only | 15–20 min |
| Bicultural individuals | CAEI-S + multiple CAEI-D | 45–60 min |
| Universal screening | CAEI-S-16 (brief) | 8–12 min |
Validation Status
Universal CAEI 2.0 specification is complete. Validation roadmap:
- Phase 1: Instrument finalization and expert review
- Phase 2: Pilot validation across cultural groups
- Phase 3: Psychometric establishment and invariance testing
- Phase 4: Clinical validation and treatment sensitivity
- Phase 5: Population norms and clinical guidelines