Gender role and empathy within different orientations of counselling psychology

Abstract

Person-centred and cognitive-behavioural therapies are two divergent theoretical orientations and students of each may offer systematically different personality traits. In this study, potential variations in empathy and gender roles between postgraduate student groups (person-centred, cognitive-behavioural and social sciences) were examined. Seventy participants from UK educational institutions completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and two subscales of Davis’ Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Results revealed that the person-centred group had higher empathic concern, and more individuals classified as androgynous, while the cognitive-behavioural group scored higher on perspective taking. Empathy was strongly associated with femininity, regardless of the group or gender. Knowledge of how trainee therapists differ across orientations could potentially be of use in improving the working alliance, as clients could be better matched to therapists according to their personal need

‘A Different Voice’ in Peer Feedback: Gender Specificity in Students’ Willingness to Provide Peer Feedback

“…Therefore, when gender is measured as a continuum (with a questionnaire such as the Bem Sex-Role Inventory [45]), some of the personal characteristics that are only weakly correlated with sex appear to be strongly correlated with gender as it is measured. This is what was found, for instance, in studies linking the degree of femininity or masculinity of the participants' self-concept with their empathic concern (e.g., [46]) or with their self-esteem (e.g., [47]). Yet, in most populations today, the social treatment conferred to people is based on their biological sex, and therefore it is also important to characterize people as belonging to the two clearly defined groups: men and women.…”

“…Self-esteem was evaluated using a 5-point Rosenberg's scale [46] including positive and negative items and used as a continuum (alpha 0.859).…”

The Mediating Role of Personality and Gender Roles on the Relationship Between Gender and Empathy: A Study on Preservice Teachers

“…Additionally, when the contribution of gender roles was covaried, empathy was unrelated to gender. In a study on postgraduate psychology students in the United Kingdom, empathy was strongly associated with femininity, regardless of gender (Ivtzan, Redman & Gardner, 2012). In a more recent study conducted in Germany, empathy was positively associated with female gender and feminine gender-role orientation (Löffler & Greitemeyer, 2021).…”