There has been growing research interest in what we term empathy-based stress, a process of traumatic stressor exposure, empathic experience, and adverse reactions among particular empathy-related professions, captured in the literatures on compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious traumatization in trauma-related lines of work. Although these three empathy-based strain constructs are highly related, each represents different components of similar strain responses. Unfortunately, extant reviews of the empathy-based stress literature are non-comprehensive and/or out of date. This qualitative review thus aims to synthesize and summarize the current literature on empathy-based stress at work and contribute to theoretical, methodological, and practical improvements in this area of research and practice. After introducing empathy-based strain constructs and their defining characteristics, we detail our review methodology and the primary theoretical and empirical themes derived through our review of the past decade of published literature. Then, we summarize conceptual, methodological, and analytical gaps in the empathy-based stress literature, helping to generate recommendations for the literature moving forward.
In the United States, persistence for women and ethnic minorities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers is strongly impacted by affective factors such as science identity, agency, and sense of belonging. Policies aimed at increasing the diversity of the national STEM student population and workforce have recently focused on fostering inclusive learning environments that can positively impact the experiences of underrepresented minorities (URMs) in STEM, thus increasing their retention. While research on inclusion in STEM in higher education is relatively new, inclusion research has a rich history in several other disciplines. These fields have developed theoretical frameworks and validated instruments to conceptualize and assess inclusion. Self-determination theory (SDT) is a well-established theoretical framework in educational psychology that states that ones' internal motivation is strongly correlated with the satisfaction of three specific psychological needs: autonomy, competency, and relatedness. In this paper, we introduce SDT and discuss how it relates to inclusion and to ongoing efforts to increase retention of STEM URM students in higher education environments. We argue that grounding inclusion initiatives in the SDT framework increases our understanding of the mechanisms mediating their impact, thus facilitating their reproducibility and generalizability. Finally, we describe how this theoretical framework has been adapted by the field of Industrial and Organizational Psychology to define and assess inclusion in the workplace as an example of how STEM education researchers can use this framework to promote and assess inclusion in their fields.
No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, and a part of the main; : : : any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. (Donne, 1959, pp. 108-109) When one student's constructive ideas and perspectives are diminished or ignored, everyone stands to lose. Just as scientific dialogue propels the knowledge base forward, student dialogue advances the learning process in the classroom. An inclusive classroom environment refers to a learning context in which all students feel a sense of belonging and that their unique characteristics are valued by their peers and instructor (Shore et al., 2011). Such an environment facilitates learning, allowing us to reap the greater benefits from diversity (Shore et al., 2011). Failure to create this environment may impede learning by encouraging conformity and making students feel excluded. Kath et al. (2021) offer several helpful recommendations for promoting diversity and inclusion, though they are largely geared towards shaping interactions between instructors and students via individual-and task-level predictors (e.g., providing opportunities for selfexpression in assignments, learning each student's name). We extend Kath et al.'s (2021) discussion by presenting macro-level antecedents to perceptions of inclusion, namely psychological safety and leadership behaviors, which instructors can leverage to develop an inclusive classroom environment. Psychological safety climate An inclusive classroom environment enhances psychological safety among students. Psychological safety climate (PSC) is defined as the shared belief that a team will not embarrass or punish an individual when they voice their ideas (Edmondson, 1999). By developing a positive PSC, students can experience a sense of comfort during the learning process because they know that they can speak up and ask questions without negative repercussions such as experiencing embarrassment during class. Students who perceive their environment as psychologically safe for risk taking (e.g., expressing challenging or unpopular ideas) can promote knowledge sharing, learning behavior, positive attitudes, and performance (Edmondson & Lei, 2014). Therefore, the question that remains to be answered is "How can we effectively maintain a psychologically safe climate in the classroom?" Creating a psychologically safe climate requires that positive interpersonal relationships be cultivated between students and both the instructor and their peers, with trust in leadership and team members being particularly important for the development of PSC (Frazier et al., 2017). Trust can
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