Empathy and Self-Construals: An Exploratory Study of Eastern and Western Master's-Level Counseling Students

 
 
 
 

Empathy and Self-Construals: An Exploratory Study of Eastern and Western Master's-Level Counseling Students

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Title: Empathy and Self-Construals: An Exploratory Study of Eastern and Western Master's-Level Counseling Students
Author: Kaelber, Kara Young
Description: The purpose of this study was to explore the degree of empathy between Eastern and Western master…#8482;s-level counseling students and the relationship between the degree of empathy and the level of self-construals among those students. Participants consisted of 101 students enrolled in counseling programs at two universities, one in Thailand (n = 48) and the other in the Midwestern United States of America (n = 53). The participants were administered the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1980), used to measure three types of empathy, and the Self-Construal Scale (SCS; Singelis, 1994), used to measure independent and interdependent self-construals. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed that the Western group of participants displayed significantly higher IRI scores on the subscales of Perspective Taking and Empathic Concern than did the Eastern group of participants. Bivariate correlational analyses indicated a significant, positive relationship between the SCS independent scores and the IRI scores on the subscales of Perspective Taking, Empathic Concern, and Fantasy Scale. However, it should be noted that these results cannot be inferred to mean that Western master…#8482;s-level counseling students are more empathic than Eastern master…#8482;s-level counseling students, or that an independent self-construal leads to increased empathy. Although prior cross-cultural research demonstrated that Western and Eastern persons have different linguistic, cognitive, and affective expressions, follow-up statistical analyses demonstrated that Western and Eastern participants did not significantly differ in SCS scores (i.e., independent versus interdependent self-construals), which suggested that the sample population was more homogeneous in their cultural orientations than anticipated. Finally, factors unrelated to this study…#8482;s research design,such as the degree of training of empathy, may have influenced the results in spurious ways. Because the results showed that Western participants evidenced a greater number of semesters in their master…#8482;s-level counseling program than Eastern participants, and the number of semesters of study was significantly positively correlated with IRI scores, perhaps, master…#8482;s-level training influenced results over and above participants…#8482; cultural orientation. The implications of these findings for counselor education, supervision, practice and research and recommendations for future cross-cultural empathy research were discussed.
Permanent Link: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1223092210
http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/103464
Date: 2008

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