DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ SOCIAL EMPATHY THROUGH SERVICE LEARNING ACTIVITIES: A Study on the Impact of Service Learning Program in the “Family Health Psychology”

“Family Health Psychology” is an elective subject offered to students in the Faculty of Psychology. This subject focuses on the roles of family in developing health behaviours and health status of family members. In this term the topic discussed in the “Family Health Psychology” was clean and healthy life style, especially in the family context. Fifty-eight students participated in the service learning program of the subject. They were grouped into 26 groups, and each group had to visit one family at least two times, with total visiting time is not less than six hours. They had to work with the family, observe the behaviours and environment, and interview the family members. After the field visit students made individual report, group report, and poster as a summary of the group report.The reports reveal that the service learning program has personal effects, namely feelings of gratefulness for being in touch with family whose conditions are different from their own conditions, gratefulness for learning health behaviours from the visited families, empathetic reactions to the minor conditions of the visited families and their environment, and willingness to help the families. Several intervention for developing or enhancing health behaviours are recommended by the students