Accurate empathy, long argued to be important in psychotherapy, now is an object of social-cognitive research. Graduate-level psychology students viewed brief portions of a therapy session and inferred the thoughts and feelings of the client. Accuracy scores were the rated similarity of their inferences to the client's reported thoughts and feelings. Throughout the semester course in interviewing, experimental participants practiced such judgments with feedback, while controls did not. Both groups' accuracy increased from pre-to post-test on inferred feelings, in part because the post-test was easier. Nonetheless, experimental participants on the post-test had greater accuracy of inferred feelings than controls. Women were more accurate than men in inferences for thoughts at post-test. Implications for training and future research are discussed.Empathy is a factor common to most theoretical orientations in clinical/counseling psychology as a means of increasing practitioners' effectiveness (Truax & Carkhuff, 1967). Empathy usually is conceptualized as a skill that can be developed and learned if properly instructed. The
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.