Gender role and empathy within different orientations of counselling psychology

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