f·
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CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
AFFECT OF THE GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING PROGRAM
ON GRADUATE STUDENTS' EMPATHIC SKILLS
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in
Education,
Educational Psychology,
Gounselipg,and·Guidance
by
Janet Wendy Steinbeck
June, 1977
'
The thesis of Janet Wendy Steinbeck is approved:
Marvin Chernoff
aJ.rman
California State University, Northridge
ii
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~
~1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Acknowledgement is expressed to Dr. Augusto Britton
for his consideration, suggestions, encouragement and the
I
many hours of guidance he gave me throughout the study.
I would like to thank all of the participants who
participated in the study and all of the people who made
it possible for me to complete this work.
Finally, I would like to express my sincere appreciation and grateful thanks to my mother, and father, to
Robert Miller, and to my sons Ari and Dean for their
patience and moral and spiritual support during the critical moments of completing this study.
-iii-
...
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Title Page
. .
.
Approval Page
.
. . .
. . .
ii
iii
Acknowledgements
iv
Table of Contents
. . .
List of Tables and Figures
Abstract
i
. .
. . . . . . . .
'•
vi
. . .
vii
CHAPTER
I.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
INTRODUCTION
1
Statement of the Problem
Definitions
Limitations of the Study
Hypotheses
I I.
III.
REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE
METHOD
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8
21
Subject
Instrument
Procedure
Data Analysis
IV.
V.
RESULTS
. . . . . . . . . . .
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sunnnary
Conclusion
Limitations
Suggestions for Further Research
-iv-
25
31
Page
REFERENCES .
38
APPENDIX . .
40
Mean Comparison of CSUN Students
with the Recognition AssessmentEmpathy Scale Norms
- -v- .
l
LIST OF TABLES
Page
TABLE
I.
II.
III.
IV.
v.
Composition of the Groups . . . . .
26
Analysis of Variance by Group, Sex,
and Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . · . .
27
Group Means and Standard Deviation on
the Recognition AssessmentEmpathy Scale . . . . . . . . . .
28
Combined Means and Standard Deviations
on the Recognition AssessmentEmpathy Scale . . . . . . . . . .
28
Mean Comparison of CSUN Students with
the Recognition AssessmentEmpathy Scale Norms . . . . . . .
40
.~vi-
ABSTRACT
AFFECT OF THE GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING PROGRAM
ON GRADUATE STUDENTS' EMPATHIC SKILLS
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
by
Janet Wendy Steinbeck
Master of Arts in
Education,
Educational Psychology,
Counseling
and.Guidanc~
The purpose of this study was to determine whether
the Guidance and Counseling training program at California
State University, Northridge, affected the level of emphatic responses of its· graduating students as measured by
the Recqgnition Assessment-Empathy Test.
1
The design for this study used a multi-factor analysis
of variance to determine main effects and interactive
e_ffects of training, no training, sex, and age among the
groups.
·.('
-vi !I.I
.
r-----------··- -------------------------- ---------- ------------------------------- ------
Results did not provide evidence for the rejection
of the null hypotheses.
There was no statistically signi-
ficant difference among the comparison groups and the
treated groups.
Some of the suggestions for future research included
a post test conducted to determine if the present first
year students' empathy scores will have a statistically
significant difference after their training.
Also suggested was research to determine if those
students who score high in their empathic responses because
they are able to recognize empathy, actually use these high
levels of empathic understanding when working with clients.
-viii-
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The process and technique whereby therapists consciously adopt the internal frame of reference of their
patients, without losing their own identity, is called
empathy or empathic understanding.
The concept of empathy
has a relatively short history in psychology.
introduced in 1903 by Theordor Lipps.
It was
He called the con-
cept of empathy, Einfuhling: the psychological description
of the aesthetic experience.
According to Lipps, the
distinction between the self and the object dissolves when
an individual becomes "absorbed" contemplating an object.
This empathic phenomina will cause the object's movement,
rhythms or forces to seem to flow within the individual.
This experience is not psycotic.
The observer "knows who
he is, for the experience happens to the contemplative
self, not the real self."
However, not until Allport
(1937) suggested that understanding of personality is
similar to aesthetic understanding, was empathy utilized
by personality therapists.
Roger (1956) suggested the helper's empathic understanding, as well as unconditional positive regard and
geniusness, is a major source of client gain.
Further,
he claimed that an effective counselor should be able to
-1-
-2-~----------~~----- -~
----
·---···~---------~--
i
the helpee to come to understand himself at a more significant level.
Rogers (1975) observed that an individual, who
b~lieve
his feelings are clearly understood by others, in able to
grow in .the affective area and to accept himself is a
-3-~--~~-
~···
-- -
positive way.
~~
~~~~-
.
~
~-
~
~
~
. ··· .
~
~·
~--
~--
-~~~-~
- -~
~
~---l
Therefore, according to Rogers, empathy is
a positive and powerful force.
Geniusness, congruence,
caring and empathy are the basis of the helping arts.
How-
ever, there are psychologists who disagree with the concept
of empathy.
Brian (1975) argues that counseling is an interpersonal encounter on the part of a client and counselor which
results in an increased level of self-awareness on the part
of the cleint and perhaps on the part of the counselor.
This awareness will lead to a commitment by the client to
change.
The role of the counselor is then to reinforce the
movement toward change.
Concern in this theory, is con-
sidered the basic ingredient 'for successful counseling.
And, counselors must communicate concern through feedback,
revelation, and individualization.
Brian's view challenges
current trends in counselor education which focus onempath
and accurate reflection of feeling and content.
considers empathy to be inadequate.
Brian
This researcher
believes that Brian overlooks a basic concept: a client
won't feel the counselor's concern unless the client
believes he is understood.
And, this feeling of understand
ing is derived from empathy.
Statement of the Problem
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether
fourth semester students in the professional program of
-4-
I
-
,----~~-~---· ··-·-~·--··-·-·--·-·-··--·· ··-·-----···~----~---- ···-----·
1
--~
-------~-------------·----
------]
Guidance and Counseling at California State University,
Northridge, make more empathic responses on the Recognition
Assessment-Empathy Test than do students just entering the
program.
Also, this researcher wants to determine if there I
is a significant difference in the empathic responses of
!
the males and females who enter the program.
I
And, if there
is a difference, how does this difference change after thei~
Further, this study will determine if there is
I
a difference in Empathic Responses between students under
I
!training?
I
age thirty and over age thirty before and after their
I
train~
i
I
ing.
Definitions
Webster's New World DiGtionary defines empathy as the
projection of one's personality into the personality of
/another in order to understand him better; intellectual
!identification of oneself with another.
This study will employ the Carkhuff (1967) definition
of empathy which states, empathy is "the ability to listen
to, understand and connnunicate back one's understanding of
another."
Asking the listener to connnunicate back one's
understanding of another separates Carkhuff's definition
from Webster's and other theorists'.
This interpersonal
quality has been identified as a critical factor in the
helping process by Truax and Carkhuff (1967).
"No matter
lthe helper's occupational persuasion, the outcome of the
-5-------·--------·---------·-------------·····----------·----
process of helping is significantly affected by the helper'
ability to be empathic;."
This researcher's study utilized the Recognition
Assessment-Empathy Test for measurements.
The test con-
tains different helpee statements which are associated to
four helper responses.
The testee selects one of the four
responses which represent various levels of empathy.
Limitations of the Study
This study was limited to graduate students in the
Guidance and Counseling program at California State University, Northridge.
A second limitation was that two different groups of
students were being compared to determine the effect of
the training: fourth semester graduating students and first
semester entry students.
It is assumed that the selection
procedure applied to the senior group was the same as that
applied to the junior group.
Therefore, the test examined
the same relative type of student.
Implications of this Study
If the researcher determines that students have a high
degree of empathy when they enter the program, (and we
assume that a high degree of empathy is a desired criterion
for selection), we can therefore, assume the selection
process satisfies the criterion.
And, if the students have
a higher degree of empathy after four semesters of the
-6----------~----·~--~----------------------
-----------------------------~------1
training, we can assume the program trains students to be
empathic helpers.
If either measurement is low, or if there
is no change, or a negative change in the relationship
!between entering students and fourth semester graduating
I
jstudents, than a closer look at the program, its selection
jprocedures and training is warranted.
I
1
Carkhuff (1967)
maintains that "empathic ability can be improved through
training."
Furthermore, he believes that learning empathy
is the capacity to recognize, discriminate, and judge the
I quality
of an empathic response.
Although recognition and
evaluation of empathy does not guarantee its effective use
in helping relationships, it does provide an essential
1
foundation for the further learning of empathy as a behavioral.L·skill.
Comparing the relationship of the sex of the student
and their score, may indicate if empathy has sexual bias
among those who chose the guidance and counseling program,
or if the training is biased to help one sex more than the
other.
Another implication to be determined is: do mature
students who by the nature of age and life experiences,
demonstrate higher levels of empathic responses than the
younger students?
-7-------·-----··----------------·----·-
---·-----------------------~
Hypotheses
Ho :
1
Fourth semester graduating students will
•
perform significantly better than first
semester entering students in their empathic
responses.
Ho :
2
Students over age thirty will score significantly higher in their empathic responses
than students under age thirty in both the
first semester entering and the fourth semester
graduating.
Ho :
3
Female and male students will have significantly different empathy scores in both first
semester entering and fourth semester graduating.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter will provide a review of the related
literature and research pertaining to empathy.
The
concept of empathy came into being in 1903 when Lipps
used the word Einfuhlung to describe the aesthetic
experience.
According to Lipps the distinction between
1
I the self and the object dissolves when the observer becomes
! absorbed
1
contemplating the object.
In 1937 Allport suggest-
ed that understanding of personality is similar to aesthetic understanding.
Currently, psychotherapists define
empathy as the process and technique whereby the therapist
consciously adopts the "inte:rnal frame of reference" of
the patient without losing his own identity.
Truax and Carkhuss (1967) identified empathy as a critical
factor in the helping process.
They stated that the out-
come of the process of helping is significantly affected
by the helper's ability to be empathic.
A study by Barrett-Leonard (1951) hypothesized that
if five attitudinal conditions were present in the
relationship, therapeutic change would occur in the
-8-
-9-
client.
To investigate this problem, he developed a
Relationship Inventory which had different forms for
client and therapist.
It was designed to study five
dimensions of the relationship.
Barrett-Lennard wanted to measure the extent to which
the client felt himself to be empathically understood.
He included the following concepts to be rated by the
client on a six-point scale from very true to very strongly not true.
These represent different degrees of
empathic understanding:
He appreciates what my experience feel like to
me
He tries to see things through my eyes.
Sometimes he thinks that I feel a certain way
because he feels that way.
He understands what I say from a detached,
objective point of view.
He understands my words but not the way I feel.
A second concept he wanted to measure was the level
of regard-the degree of liking of the client by the
therapist.
To measure tl:lis there were items like the
following, each one again rated from strongly true,
to strongly not true:
He cares about me.
He is interested in me.
He is curious about "what makes me tick,"
but not really interested in me as a person.
He is indifferent to me.
He disapproves of me.
-10-
To measure the unconditionality of the regard-the
extent to which there were "no strings attached .. to the
counselor's liking-attitudes of this sort were included:
Whether I am expressing .. good" feelings or
"bad" ones seems to make no difference to
the way he feels toward me.
Sometimes he responds to me in a more positive
and friendly way than he does at other times.
His interest in me depends on what I am
talking to him about.
In order to measure the congruence or genuineness of
the therapist in the relationship, the following attitudes were used:
He behaves just the way that he IS, in our
relationship.
.
He pretends that he likes me or understands
me more than he really does,
There are times when his outward response
is quite different from his inner reaction
to me.
He is playing a role with me.
Barrett-Lennard also wanted to measure another
variable which he regarded as important; the counselor's
psychological availability, or willingness to be known.
To measure this,
h~
used the following attitudes:
He will freely tell me his own thoughts and
feelings when I want to know them.
He is uncomfortable when I ask him something
about himself.
He is unwilling to tell me how he feels about
me.
The findings indicated that the more experienced
-11-
therapists were perceived as having more empathy, regard,
unconditional regard, congruence, and genuineness than
the less experienced therapists.
In "willingness to be
known", however, the reverse was true.
In the more disturbed clients in his sample, the
first four measures all correlated significantly with
the degree of change as rated by· the therapist.
Empathic understanding was more significantly associated
with change, but genuineness, level of regard, and
unconditionality of regards were also associated with
successful therapy.
Willingness to be known was not
significantly associated.
To achieve a high probability of effective therapeutic relationship, the therapist should possess: a high
degree of congruence, and genuineness; a sensitive and
accurate empathy; a high degree of regard, respect and
liking for the client and the absence of conditionality.
These qualities appear to be primary change-producing
I
influences on personality and behavior.
An unpublished
dissertation by Hands {1974) indicates that
couns~lors
concentrate on single actions of their client, rather
than generalizing the behavior of the client, possess
high levels of empathic behavior.
Counselors' empathy
who
-12-
were not influenced by their age, gender. previous
professional experience, personal therapy. educational
level, significant emotional life events, patience or
flexibility.
The on-going debate that exists between groups with
different psychotherapeutic theoretical orientations
centers on which school of therapy makes most effective
use of the therapeutic relationship.
Fischer (1975)
conducted a study that divided twenty-seven clinical
practitioners in three major theoretical orientations:
psychodynamic, behavioristic_, and humanistic.
Each
practitioner conducted an actual interview with a
psuedoclient which was tape recorded and rated with
regard to the clinicians' level of empathy. warmth, and
genuineness, using the Truax-Carkhuff scales.
Results
showed no significant difference between the therapists
of any of the three theoretical orientations.
These
findings suggest that claims by adherents of one or another
theoretical orientation of their greater effectiveness due
to superior relationship abilities may be lacking emperical evidence.
Hekmat, Khajavi, and Mehryar (1975) conducted
research on high and low empathy subjects.
They
"'
-13-
administered R. Hogan's Empathy Scale and the Psychological Screening Inventory to 278 female and 167 male
undergraduates.
The results support the hypothesis that
high-empathy persons were significantly lower in signs
depicting neurotic and psychotic disturbance as compared
with low-empathy persons.
For example, subjects who had
lower levels of anxiety had higher levels of empathy.
Jones (1974) reports a positive correlation between
scores on 17 variables and rated levels of empathic understanding, genuinenss, and respect.
This study tested 19
graduate student clients during counseling practicum
experience.
Empathic understanding and respect were
significantly related to two similar personality variables:
tolerance of ambiguity and need for order.
Ratings from
Carkhuff's index of communication were significantly
related to empathetic understanding.
None of the variables
were significantly related to genuineness.
This researcher found two studies concerned with
ing empathy.
teac~
In d'Augelli's (1974) study, the subjects
spent less than 20 hours in training.
This study
stressed relationship improvement by maximizing empathy
and self-disclosure.
College dating couples moved from
providing level skills typical of college students to
-14-
levels provided by typical counselors.
Th~mpathy
scale
was highly correlated with two other Carkhuff scales,
Respect and Immediacy.
After 20 hours of training,
couples demonstrated a significantly greater increase
in self-disclosure.
Another study, (Housley and Magnus,
1974) examined outservice practicum training of employment service counselors.
An overview of a two week
practicum lab training program with 30 employment counselors was examined to determine helpful levels of empathy
presented by the trained counselors.
The difference
between pre and post training levels of empathy indicated
that statistically significant gains were realized.
These two studies examined short training periods:
20 hours and two weeks respectively.
The ability to train
empathic skills agrees with the Truax-Carkhuff study
(1967) which indicates empathy is learnable.
A major
step in learning to be empathic is to be able to recognize
empathy and to judge its quality.
In another study, Carkhuff (1973) translates the
helping effort into tangible human benefits.
The
counselor should be able to do things that the client is
unable to do, to begin with the clients frame of
reference and to move the client to a higher level
...
-15-
of functioning.
The counselor's behavior which facili-
tates client movement includes:
enabling of clients to
express self, response to client's expressions in ways that
elicit self-exploration, and response to client's
explorations in ways that develop action programs.
Cochrane (1974) developed a measure of empathic
communication and related it to a measure of empathic
inference.
Eighteen graduate students in psychology
underwent therapy analogue procedure.
An experienced
therapist rated their responses according to a specified
criterion for each element (intimacy, separation, accuracy,
concrete energy, and caring).
He also administered the
Dymonds Empathic Inference Index and found a negative
correlation between this scale and his empathic communication measure.
Empathic communication and empathic
inference apparently in this study reflected different
processes.
Since 1975 there have been several studies
pertaining to empathy.
and empathy.
Breisinger (1976) reexamines sex
He reviewed a study by W. Olesker and
Balter {1963) which demonstrated that undergraduates
were significantly more empathic when judging members of
the same sex.
Breisinger's 1976 study used the
Affective Sensitivity Scale to reexamine the
-16-
possibility of a relationship between sex and empathy in
21 female and 21 male graudate students in counselor
education.
Contrary to Olesker and Balter's findings
_____Jl:rgi_singer--'-s _resul-ts--indica'Ce-t-ha+--n-.,... ..,.-,.h
subjects have no significant difference in empathic
ability whether judging members of the same or other
sex.
Along these same lines, Kulberg and Franco (1975)
examined similarity and dissimilarity in a dyadic
interaction.
Thirty pairs of male undergraduates were
paired on the basis of personality traits to provide similar and sissimilar pairings.
Each dyad was instructed
to talk about personally relevant topics.
At the end of
40 minutes the subjects rated their partners.
The similar-
ly paired subjects did not perceive themselves as more
similar nor did they report greater empathy or regard than
the dissimilar pairs.
Perceived similarity did relate
to the perception of regard and empathy.
fact that Breisinger's 21 male and
2~
Perhaps the
female graduate
students had no significant difference in their empathic
skills had more to do with their perceived similarity
as graduate students in a counselor education program
-17-
rather than the fact they were of different sexes.
An important concern for this researcher was to
determine if the review of the literature validated
Carkhuff's
theory that empathy is trainable.
A recent
study by Stone and Vance (1976) supported this position.
They studied the effects of instruction, modeling and
rehearsal in training 48 college students in empathic
communication.
Subjects were assigned to groups
representing all possible factorial combinations of the
variables which included instructions versus no
instructions, modeling versus no modeling, and rehearsal
versus no rehearsal.
Training gains were assessed using
written responses to the pre-test and post-test administration of the Carkhuff Communication Index.
Genera-
lization effects were assessed using empathy ratings of
a critical-incident interview.
Analysis of written
responses indicated that improvement in empathic
communication occured for all training groups.
Specific
I
instructions appeared to be a critical factor in
facilitating written performance.
The following inter-
views indicated that a combination of training variables
rather than a single variable facilitated empathic responses.
Conklin, Altmann and Boak (1976) found that after
-18-
training 64 graduate students in counseling (utilizing a
popular helping model) the graduates were more facilitative
after training and were better able to train others.
An earlier study along these lines was conducted by Long
and Schultz (1973).
They conducted a two part study to
assess levels of empathy in participants enrolled in a
three week institute designed to train facilitators
in encounter group techniques.
In part one, 38 volunteers
were assigned to one of two groups for a 2 day encounter.
They were assessed by staff raters on Truax's accurate
empathy scale.
The second part of the study paired the
four subjects who scored highest and the four subjects
who scored lowest in empathy as co-facilitators in a
weekend basic encounter group involving 128 volunteers.
Results indicated that the groups led by co-facilitators
with high levels of accurate empathy and indepth of
self exploration demonstrated significantly higher scores
than groups led by co-facilitators with low empathy levels.
There was no significant difference between high and low
i
facilitated groups on group members perception of their
degree of group cohesion.
It is important to note a study by Hogan (1975)
that states that too high a level of empathy between
therapist and client may have possible negative results.
-19-
There may be over-identification by the therapist with the
client, and objectivity will be endangered.
In Hogan's
opinion, scores on an empathy scale may not predict
counseling ability.
"Trait" empathy as measured by the
Hogan scale differs from "state" empathy as evaluated by
the Truax measure.
According to Hogan, it is unrealistic
to isolate empathy for it is related to a number of different processes, and they all are concerned with the
clients status.
Selfridge and Vander (1976) correlates the counselor
self~actualization
and client perceived facilitativeness.
They found evidence supporting a strong relationship
between self-actualization and counselor effectiveness
as perceived by clients,
Client ratings of
the abilities
of 33 school counselors to communicate the core facilitative conditions of empathy, regard, congruence, and
trust were compared to the counselors scores on a
measure of self-actualization.
Three instruments were
used to measure counselor personality characteristics,
and effectiveness in facilitative communication:
The Personal Orientation and Inventory (POI), The
Relationship Inventory, and a tape excerpt response procedure.
Selfridge and Vander claimed the potential
-20..
·-------··------·---
·-·- ·- · ·-· ·-· · -· --···-··----------- -.----l
usefulness of the POI in the screening and selection of
counselor candidates is indicated.
Avery, d'Augelli and Danish (1976) examined the
effect of different amounts of client-therapist interaction data on empathy ratings.
Audiotaped therapist-
client interactions (including client statements, therapist-response, and subsequent client responses) were
rated for therapist empathy by 5 experienced raters, who
had been trained in the use of the Carkhuff Scale for
Empathic Understanding in Interpersonal Processes.
Raters
made significantly different judgements about levels of
therapist empathy, depending on the amount of therapistclient interaction data available.
The raters tended to
give therapist responses higher empathy ratings when they
did not hear the clients' preceding statement.
Evidence indicates that all effective interpersonal
processes share a common set of conditions that are
conductive to facilitate human experiences.
The amount
of research done on empathy indicates its importance to
psychologists.
This study is a first.
It attempts to
ascertain if there is a relationship between the graduate
program in Guidance and Counseling and the increased
level of empathic skills by the students in the program
at California State University,
Northridge~
CHAPTER III
METHOD
This study examined three independent variables and
depe~dent
their,effect on the
variable.
The independent
variables were: students' semester in graduate school, age,
and sex.
The dependent variable was students' performance
on the Recognition Assessment-Empathy Test (RA-E).
Subjects
Subjects were selected according to their practicum ,
in the graduate program of Guidance and Counseling, Cali- _
fornia State University,
Northr~dge.
Those in A practicum
were considered first semester students.
Those in fourth
semester graduating D practicum were considered to be in
training for one and a half to two years.
The
subjects were differentiated by age_and sex:·.;though these had no bearing on their selection.
-,Ninety-:-three "A" practicum students and sixty-eight
"D" practicum students, a total of 161 graduate students,
were tested.
Instrument
The Recognition Assessment-Empathy test, circa 1972,
measures.. a ' _- person's
capacity
to
select
the pest
·. .
. .
• • .. ,
,·
. :.
,..
~I:Upathic
;esponse from a given 11umber ():f:_:responses._ The
~-Ewas
-f-·r _::-·~J.-Z:~.·
.• /
<;ieve!o,p~d
'
•-·
.. -
~
.
,_- .
.
.
-
. ,
•
c__·, )
to meet the_ crucial need to accurately assess_
-21-
I
:...
.' :·
-22·
the helping person's capacity to recognize appropriate
empathic responses.
RA-E consists of twenty different
helpee statements and four corresponding helper responses.
The four responses represent various levels of empathy.
Testees were instructed to choose the most helpful response
from the four listed.
All responses associated with each
helpee statement were rated by independent and reliable
expert raters from the Learning Designs, Inc., the test
designers.
RA-E has been tested for a variety of uses.
At present
it's primarily used for training and training need assess-·
ment.
Because of its reliability, RA-E can be used as
research instrument, particularly in the area where testing
the effectiveness <>f various human relations training
-
designs is required.
Norms for RA-E are -presented in the RA-.E
Administra~
tor's -,Manual for selected helping service groups.
_..
Norm.
groups are also presented for college and high school students... Means, standard deviation, sample size and decile
scores are provided for each norm group.
Nearly 1,000
persons have been tested in the varied norm groups.
Test-retest correlations have been conducted on two
groups in order to determine the reliability of
RA~E
... An
r of"··• 77 was achieved when a group of college undergraduates
(N=3~).were
tested twice with an intervening interval of
-23
two weeks.
A somewhat lower correlation was obtained when
a test-retest was completed using a group of Early Childhood Education students (r=.73, N=32).
A score on the RA-E represents a person's ability to
select the best empathic response from a group of responses.
Although the score may indicate how well a person performs
in
a·.~greal"
situation, it may also be discrepant with actual
interpersonal behavior.
Being able to assess or recognize
empathy is an important first step to improve the communication of empathic understanding to others.
only step involved.
It is not the
No relationship has been found between
RA-E and the task, self and interaction scales of the Orierr
tation Inventory (Bass, 1962).
A positive- but non-signi-
ficant - relationship has been found between RA-E and the
consideration scale of the Leadership Opinion Questionnaire
(Fleishman, 1969).
Several longitudinal studies are <i..n .
process to determine if RA-E has some capacity to predict
performance of associate degree program students as well as
graduate students in social work.
Procedure
The testing process was done in two steps: the students
in the first semester A practicum were tested in September
and October of 1976; the fourth semester graduating students
D practicum and some first semester students, who entered
the program in the Spring rather than the fall, were
-24
,----------------------------------------------------------~
accomplished in February and March 1977.
The tests were
administered in the classroom or in the home of the respective professor.
The test was administered to small or medium size
groups (10-12) or individually in a few cases where the
subjects missed the class session.
A standard answer sheet was used.
The answer sheet
was listed in number sequence with multiple choice boxes
labeled ABCD.
Testing was done anonymously.
However, the
students indicated their practicum, sex and birth date.
There was no time limit.
20 minutes.
Most students finished in about
Statistical computations were performed at the
computer center at California State University, Northridge.
Data Analysis
The statistical analysis consisted of multiple analys·
of variance.
Means and standard deviations were provided
for further comparison.
The level of statistical significance was set at .05.
CHAPTER IV
RESULTS
The purpose of this study was to determine whether
fourth semester graduating students in the professional
program of Guidance and Counseling at California State
University, Northridge demonstrate more empathic responses
than entering students in the same graduate program.
The following hypotheses were tested at the .05 level
of significance:
Ho 1 :
Fourth semester students will perform significantly better than first semester students in
their empathic responses.
Ho 2 :
Students over thirty will score significantly
higher than students under age thirty both in
the first semester and the fourth semester.
Ho 3 :
Female and Male students will have significantly
different scores in their respective first and
fourth semester.
The design for this study required a multi-factor
analysis of variance to determine main effects and interactive effects of training, no training, sex, and age among
the groups.
Statistical computations were performed at the compute
center- at California State University, Northridge.
-25-
1
-26-
Table I shows the composition of the eight groups.
TABLE I
COMPOSITION OF THE GROUPS
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
First Semester.
First Semester·
First Semester
First Semester
Fourth Semester
Fourth Semester
Fourth Semester
Fourth Semester
Male
Male
Female
Female
Male
Male
Female
Female
Under age 30
:Over. 'age, 30
Under age 30
Over age 30
Under age 30
Over age 30
Under age 30
Over age 30
... -- .............. -
One hundred and sixty-one subjects were involved in
the eight groups.
A multiple analysis of variance was
performed to determine the relationship between the groups
and
t~e
dependent variable-empathic responses.
-27-
r-------------------------------------------------------TABLE II
ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE BY
GROUP, SEX, AND AGE
Source of
Variation
Sum of
Squares
Main Effects
Group
Sex
Age
140.329
0.147
113.532
43.521
1
1
1
46.776
0.147
113.532
43.521
0.637
0.002
1.546
0.593
.999
.999
.213
.999
2-Wa:y Interactl.on
Group-Sex
Group-Age
Sex-Age
77.705
3
25.902
0.353
.999
23.342
62.456
3.822
1
1
1
23.342
62.456
3.822
0.318
0.850
0.052
.999 ...
. 999
.999
77.119
1
77.119
1.050
.308
77.119
1
77.119
1.050
.308
·7
. 295 .15211236.823 ,,- 153
42.165
73.443
0.574
.999
11531.975
72.075
3-Way Inter...
action
Group-SexAge
.Explained
Residual
.
'·'
t'
Total
-
><
.-
•>
.
-
.,.,
Degree of
Freedom
3
160
Mean
Square
Sig. of
F
F
,.
.N··•
-~
; _,.
.,
.
'
..... As indicated in Table II, no statistically significant
.,
difference was found due to main effects.
In groups: first
semester, fourth semester, ,sex, and age there was no statistically significant difference due to either the 2-way or
3~way:interactio~s .
.·>:;A rcloser
Table::rv.
,·
look at the .data is giveri in Table III .and
The slight differences are attributed to random ·
I
-28-
factors and'not to the experimental effect of the counseling
program.
TABLE III
GROUP MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATION ON THE
RECOGNITION ASSESSMENT-EMPATHY SCALE
Group
Mean
N
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
-
·-··
-·
~
Standard Deviation
13
7
31
42
8
8
20
32
48.308
51.429
51.032
50.286
50.500
45.75
51.900
50.125
L•
10.766
13.202
7.657
7.607
11.250
7.363
6.632
9.101
TABLE IV
COMBINED MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS
ON THE·RECOGNITION ASSESSMENT-EMPATHY SCALE
!
.
-
;-.
N
Group
Mean
Standard Deviation
··First ;semester
20
Females, First Semester . 73
49.4300
50 .·603
11.427
7 ~·584
Males, Fourth . Semester
Females, Fourth Semester
16
52
48.125
50.808
9.507
8.215
Total, First Semester
Total, Fourth Semester
93
68
50.344
50.176
8.499
8.540
161
50.2733
8.4897
Male~,
Total Population
.
..
-29-
As noted in Tables Ill and IV there is a slightly
higher mean score for entering students compared to graduating fourth semester students.
This is in the opposite
direction than expected, but it was not statistically
significant.
Also, Table III and IV show female mean
responses higher than those of males.
This difference is
due to random factors and not to experimental effect.
It is also important to note the lowered performance
of the graduating, fourth semester males over age 30
(Group 6,) whose mean score 45.75 was the lowest among the
groups.
The data clearly indicates that the first semester
students entered the program already scoring high in empathic responses, and the counseling program does not
signi~
ficantly alter their empathic responses.
Table V compares California State University, Northridge, students' scores with Recognition Assessment-Empathy
scale norming groups (see appendix).
However, when the
empathic responses of the students are compared to the
norming group, it appears that students at.Northridge_who
select the guidance and counseling program, already have a
high empathic trait.
-30-
In summary, the data does not provide evidence for the
rejection of the null hypotheses.
There was no statisti-
cally significant difference among the comparison groups
and the treated groups.
the null hypotheses.
Thus, the data failed to reject
.---------------------------------------------------------~
CHAPTER V
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION ANn RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
The purpose of this study was to determine whether the
Guidance and Counseling training program at California
State University, Northridge affected the level of empathic
responses of graduate students as measured by the Recognition Assessment-Empathy Test.
Previous research suggests empathy is one of the most
important qualities of the effective counselor.
Also,
research has shown that empathic skills can be increased
with training.
This study hypothesized that:
Ho 1 :
Fourth semester graduating students will perform
significantly better than first semester students
in their empathic responses .
. Ho 2 :
Students over age thirty will score significantl
higher in their empathic responses than students
.';
'·.
under age thirty both in the first semester and
the fourth semester graduating.
1·,'-
Female and Male students will have significantly
.
;
.
different empathy scores in both first semester
·, ;~··
.
.- ~~- ·i·}"-:'.
.
~:-.-
': ·:;-~~<:~:-.: ~- ~
,_....,.~.
' ~":·
'.
i':·
and fourth semester graduating.
-.·
. .·
•
-31-
-32-------------
No statistically significant relationship was found
between the training and increased empathic responses on
the Recognition
Assessment~Empathy
Test.
The results of
this study failed to reject the null hypotheses.
/conclusions
J
A brief look at previous studies concerned with
empat~
is necessary to place the findings of the present study
jwithin the realm of some rational conclusions.
D'Augelli's
(1974) study examined couples with less than 20 hours of
training in empathic skills.
After only 20 hours of train-
ing, the couples demonstrated significantly greater increas
in self-disclosure and higher levels of empathic skills.
Housley and Magnus (1974) spent only two weeks with 30
employment counselors training them in empathic skills.
Again the difference between pre and post training levels
or empathy indicated that statistically significant higher
levels of empathy were realized.
Recently, Stone and
Vance (1976) studied the effects of instruction, modeling
and rehearsal in training college students in empathic
communication.
Improvement in empathic communication
occurred within all training groups.
The Truax-Carkhuff
study (1967) indicates empathy is learnable.
Because
research indicated that empathy is trainable, and a correlation between empathy and client benefits exists; Truax
1
-33-
and Carkhuff, 1967); it is necessary to look at the Guidanc
and Counseling program at California State University,
Northridge to determine why higher levels of empathic
responses do not result from the training.
This study discovered that the Guidance and Counseling
program did not increase the empathic responses to the
graduate students.
However, the scores were already high
when the students entered the program.
And, it is possible
in the selection process, the department's screening procedure selects students who have high empathic qualities.
Also, the training program may not emphasize empathic skil
and might focus on other counseling qualities.
The Guidanc
and Counseling program is requiring a minimum of two years
training for its students to be counselors, and yet one of
the most important qualities of an effective counselor is
not increased.
Therefore, in.what areas are the students
increasing their skills to justify their.time and effort
in the program?
This study highlights the program's lack
of effective training in empathy.
This study also found age and sex contribute to empathic level differences, but, they were not statistically
significant and could be attributed to random factors.
is interest!ng to note,, graduCJ,ting .males over age thirty
performed at the lowest level of empathic response and
It
-34.------------·---------------·-··--·----·----------,
graduating females under age thirty performed at the highest
level.
This may indicate that young females who choose
this program, and stay with the training, have high
empathic traits.
Whereas the older males, who were also
high empathic responders when entering the program, are
somehow not increasing their empathic responses due to the
training.
Limitations
The following are limitations of this study:
1.
The subjects were not drawn at random from the
Guidance and Counseling program.
Only classes
whose teachers were willing to participate were
used for testing.
2.
The Learning Design Company, who designed the
Recognition Assessment-Empathy test, used as
their criteria for empathy a Rogerian approach
with a Carkhuffian scale to judge degrees of
empathy.
There are those psychotherapists who
are in disagreement with the approach of these
two theoreticians.
3.
Two different groups of students were being com·~pared
to determine the effect of the training:
fourth semester graduating students and first
semester entry students. -It is not known if the
-35-
fourth semester graduating students possessed the same
high empathic skills when they entered the program as the
present first semester students.
Suggestions for Further Research
The Guidance and Counseling program at California
State University, Northridge requires a minimum of two
years to train its graduate students to be effective counselors.
However, limited research has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of the program.
Questions such as,
"Why is the program not impacting on the students' empathic
skills?" need to be asked.
Perhaps another study should
be conducted to determine exactly in what areas the Guidance
and Counseling program may be affecting change in students.
The program needs to have clearly understood goals and
objectives.
Secondly, a post test, next year, could be conducted
to determine if the present first year students' empathy
scores will have a statistically significant difference
after their training.
Thirdly, it is necessary to determine if there is a
relationship between empathic traits as measured by the
Recognition Assessment-Empathy test and behavioral performance of those tested when functioning as counselors.
-36------------------,
Fourthly, it might be important to find out if those
students who score high in their empathic responses because
they are able to recognize empathy, actually use these high
levels of empathic understanding when working with clients.
Sensitive understanding of persons in need is a primary
concern for all people in the helping profession of Guidance
and Counseling.
REFERENCES
Allport, Gordon W. Personality: A Psychological Interpretation, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
Inc., 1937.
Avery, Arthur W., D•Augelli, Anthony R. and Danish,
Stenven J., An Empirical investigation of the
construct validity of empathic understanding
ratings, Counselor Education and Supervision, 1976
(Mar) 15 (3) 177-183.:
Barrett-Lennard, G. T. Dimensions of the client,' s
ex_p_erience of his therapist, associated with
personal1.t¥ change. Unpublished doctoral dl.ssertation, Un1.versity of Chicago, 1959.
Breisinger, Gary D. Sex and Empathy, Reexamined. Journal
of Counseling Psychology, 1976, (May) 23, 289-290.
-
'
Brian, J. Concerned confrontation: the art of counseling,
Southern Jourrial of Educational Research, 1975
(Sunnner )" 9, ·110-122.
· ·
Carkhuff, Robert,· Helping and.Human Relations Vol. I
New York, Hm1t, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1968.
Carkhuff, Robert Differential functioning of lay professional helpers, Journal of Counseling Psychology,
1968 15, 117-126
.
Carkhuff, Robert A htiman techhoiliogy for group helping
processes, Educational Technology, 1973 (Jan) 13
(1). 31-38.
Cochrane, Carolyn T. Development of a measure of empathic
communication. Psychothera11=· Theor,.·Research and
Practice, 1974 (Spring) 11
), 41-4 .
.
Conklin, R.C., Altmann, H. A., and Boak, T. The effect of
a six week program of systematic training on counselors, Canadian Counsellor, 1976 (Jan) 10 (2),
78-82.
-37-
-38
r--------------------------- ·----- ----,
d'Augelli, Anthony Interpersonal skill training for
dating couples: An evaluation of an educational
mental health, Journal of Counseling Psychology,
1974 21, 385-389.
Fischer, Joel The relationship between theoretical
orientation and therapists empathy, warmth and
genuineness. · Journal of Counseling Psychology,
1975, 22, 399-403.
Hands, Diane The effect of.high and low empathic responses on utilization of intrapsychic processes.
Unpublished doct·oral dissertation, University of
Southern California, 1974.
Hekmat, Hamid; Khajavi, Farokh and Mehryar, Amir. Some
personality correlates of empathy. Journal of
Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1975 (Feb),
43, 89.
Hogan, Rovert Empathy: A conceptual and psycometric
Analysis; Counseling Psychologist, 1975, 5, 14-18.
Housley, Warren and Magnus, Robert. Increasing empathy
for employment service counselors; Journal of
· Employ'nien·t Co"uns·eling, 1974 (March) 1, 28-31.
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 15
Macmillan Co., and the Free Press, 1968
Jones, Lawrence K. Toward more adequate selection crite·,...
r~i.a:-: ·- riair, corx-eJ.ates.::-<afh~t,npaf!h][Jngenuineness ~~md: respect.
Counselor Education and Supervision, 1974 (Sept)
14, 13-21.
Kulberg, Gordon E. and Franco, Edward W. Effects of A-B
similaJricy andedisstm:t:ial;,iti}'Pineadd.yadic interacpdion. 1Psychoiogical Reperts, 1975 (Dec), 37,
1307-1311.
Lipps, Theodor Einfuhlung, innere Nachahmung und organemp
findungen. · Achiv FU:r Die Gesamte Psycho"logie, 1903
2, 185-204.
-39
-----------------,
Long, Thomas J. and Schultz, Edward W. Empathy: A
quality of an effective group leader. Psychological
Reports, 1973 (Jun) 32, 699-705.
Recognition Assessment Empathy Test.
City, publisher, circa, 1972.
Test and Designer,
Rogers, Carl Empathic: an unappricated way of being.
Counseling Psychologist, 1975 5, 2-10.
Selfridge, Fred F., and VanderKolk, Charles Correlation
of counse_lor self-actualization and client perceived
facilitativeness. C<lmhselor Education and Supervision, 1976 (Mar), 15, 189-194.
Stone, Gerald L., and Vance, Adrian Instruction, Modeling
and Rehersal. Implications for Training. Journal
of Counseling Psychology, 1976 (May), 23, 272-279.
Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Languag'e
College Edition, The World Publishing Co., Cleveland and New York, 1951.
..,
APPENDIX
-40-
-41
- - - - - ---- - - - ----------l
TABLE
I
v
MEAN COMPARISON OF CSUN STUDENTS WITH THE
I
RECOGNITION ASSESSMENT-EMPATHY SCALE NORMS
Group
;-•
" ·~i:::
Mean
SD
50.344
8.499
CSUN Guidance & Counseling
Second year graduating students ,' ,68:-:\
50.176
8.540
CSUN, Guidance & Counseling
Combined First and Second year
50.2733
8. 489,
N-
CSUN, Guidance & Counseling
First year entering students
93
161
RA-E NORMS
Graduate Social Work Students
(First and Second Year)
Experienced Clinicians
Nursing Students
(Second Year)
Community College Helping
Service Students (First &
Second Year)
52
50.6
443
50.5
48
45.3
318
45.3
Public Welfare Workers
University Social Welfare
Students (First C~urse)
167
37.1+
150
31.8
General Population
115
30.8