THE EFFECTS OF EMPATHY-TRAINING ON THE EMPATHIC RESPONSE LEVELS AND SELF-CONCEPTS OF STUDENTS IN A TEACHER-TRAINING PROGRAM

The purposes of the study were to determine the effects of relatively short term empathy training on prospective teachers ' empathie abilities and self-concepts. The experimental samples consisted of two intact groups of undergraduate students enrolled in a five week modular course in education entitled "Analysis of Self and Teacher Behavior. " The two experimental groups received empathy training which consisted of practice responding to videotaped excerpts of counselling interviews, a filmed demonstration of empathie responding, and role-playing exercises. The findings indicated that empathy training resulted in statistically significant increases in levels of empathie ability for both experimental groups. Statistically significant changes in self-concept were found for one of the experimental groups and changes for the other experimental group, though not statistically significant were in a similar direction. Resume Le but de la recherche était de déterminer les effets d'un entraînemen