<p>I undersökningen om ungdomars attityder mot homosexuella ochheterosexuella brottsoffer utfördes ett experiment där 151 deltagare fick svara på en enkät. Det fanns fyra olika versioner av enkäter där brottsoffret varierade mellan hetero- och homosexuell man men även orten där brottet tog plats varierade mellan liten ort och stor stad. Resultatet visade ingen skillnad i ungdomars empati beroende på brottsoffrets sexuella läggning, dock visade det sig att unga kvinnor har något mer empati än unga män. Resultatet gav inte heller någon skillnad i ungdomars empati beroende på ort. Dock upptäcktes en interaktionseffekt i empati mellan ort och sexualitet som visade att om brottet tog plats i Stockholm kände deltagarna mer empati för en homosexuell man än en heterosexuell man samt att empatin blev motsatt i en liten ort. Resultaten visade ingen signifikant skillnad på empati mellan deltagarnas etnicitet och brottsoffrets sexualitet. Resultaten kan tillämpas som diskussionsmaterial för exempelvis gymnasieskolor.</p>

This study examined the use of a simulated patient, or programmed patient, to train clinical psychology graduate students to be empathic and respectful in the psychotherapeutic relationship. Twenty-five subjects were given a 50-minute training session with a simulated patient, an alternate training which consisted of viewing a video tape or were no-attention control subjects. The video tape used for the alternate training consisted of the section of "Three Approaches to Psychotherapy" in which Carl Rogers interviews the client, Gloria, followed by a discussion of empathy and respect. Training with the simulated client consisted of interviewing the "client" and receiving feedback from her. Pre-post empathy and respect skills were evaluated with Carkhuff's 5-point scales. Subjects' responses to recorded client statements were judged by two trained raters. Interjudge agreement ranged from .66 to .74. Analysis of variance revealed no significant difference between increases in empathy and respect for the three experimental groups. Subjects with more than one year of graduate clinical training profited significantly more (p = .05) from both training experiences than did subjects with less than one year of training. There was also a significant interaction between experimental training received and level of clinical experience, inexperienced subjects scoring higher with the simulated patient than with the video tape training. More advanced subjects scored higher with the video training than with the simulated patient training. Interview data indicated that the training with the simulated patient was perceived as useful and, in the case of more-experienced subjects, as being superior to the training with the video tape. Possible difficulties with the measurement of empathy and respect are discussed. The use of simulated patients is reviewed and the selection and training of simulated patients discussed in some depth.

Empati är en grundförutsättning för människors interaktion, kommunikation och förståelse för varandra. Forskning har visat att individer med depression och olika personlighetsstörningar har en tendens till nedsatt empati. I en enkätstudie med 205 deltagare, varav 162 kvinnor, undersöktes om sinnesstämning har ett samband med empati. Deltagarna försattes i en sinnesstämning, de fick tänka på positiva eller negativa händelse. Sedan läsa en negativt riktad vinjett om en gripande händelse. Sinnesstämning mättes med The Brief Mood Introspection Scale (BMIS) och empati med hjälp av Batsons empatiskala. Studien avser att fylla luckan som finns om sinnesstämning och empati hos människor i allmänhet. Manipulationen gav inget signifikant resultat. Resultatet visar dock ett positivt samband mellan sinnesstämning och empati från självskattningsskalorna. Deltagarna med positiv sinnesstämning rapporterade mer empati. Kvinnor kände mer empati är män och de äldre mer än yngre. Studien relaterar till att högre välmående hos individer kan skapa mer empati i samhället.

This thesis explores the long-standing debate in the field of psychotherapy around the use of humour in psychotherapy and the shift from outcome to process research in psychotherapy research. In line with the social constructionist framework of this study, the researcher’s position is outlined. The literature review describes the link between language and the construction of both the therapeutic relationship and humour. The functions of humour in psychotherapy are outlined, and the contribution that Conversation Analysis (CA) can make in this evolution. CA, with its focus on the social action of talk, is employed on three audio-tapes of psychotherapy within this research to identify the resources drawn upon by interactants, and to examine the sequential environments in which humour arises and the responses to humorous utterances. Linguistic devices used to create humour included hyperbole, irony in conveying contrasting incongruent frames of reference, repetition, empathic self-disclosure, sarcasm, facetiousness, normalising statements, humorous impersonation and anthropomorphic personification. Humour emerged in the sequential environment of repeating and elaborating on diverging viewpoints outside of therapy. Humour in the context of persuasion and resistance functioned to dismantle client resistance and contrast their competing perspectives. Humour made in the context of uncertainty exaggerated pre-existing conversational disruption, allowing a move into repair. Humour was used to contrast new and old ways of viewing situations in the process of therapeutic change. Therapists used humour strategically to move into therapeutic tasks such as formulation, reinterpretation, lexical substitution, invitation to express emotion, praise for following an intervention and empathy. Results are discussed in relation to humour's potential place in pertinent areas of therapy such as the therapeutic relationship, empathy and emotional connectedness, unconditional positive regard, congruence, resistance, uncertainty and change. Clinical implications are summarised drawing on these concepts. Strengths and limitations of the project are outlined, future research suggested and reflections by the researcher conclude this thesis.

Elever med sociala och emotionella svårigheter beskrivs ibland som problematiska och svårhanterliga. Lärarens bemötande och inlevelseförmåga av eleven är av stor betydelse. Syftet med studien var att undersöka lärares empati i mötet med elever med utagerande beteende. Centralt har varit hur empatin yttras samt om lärares empati skiljer sig åt mellan elever med och utan diagnos. Utifrån att deltagarna fick läsa två olika fallbeskrivningar utfördes en skriftlig intervju med totalt 13 personer, varav nio kvinnor och fyra män. I fallbeskrivningarna redogjordes för två scenarier med elever i utsatta situationer. Kvalitativ innehållsanalys användes som forskningsmetod och därav baserades studien på tolkning av texter. Med en hermeneutisk ansats i studien fanns en strävan om att inta en så objektiv ställning som möjligt till texterna. Analysen resulterade i ett antal bemötanden som är vanliga hos lärare: (1) läraren visar varsamhet och hänsyn till eleven, (2) läraren känner ansvar, (3) läraren vill förstå eleven, (4) läraren skuldbelägger inte eleven, (5) läraren vill hjälpa eleven. Resultat pekar på stor empatisk förmåga hos lärarna inom dessa områden. Det var även vanligare att lärarna bemötte eleven med diagnos mer empatiskt än eleven utan diagnos. Resultaten kan vara till hjälp för lärare att öka sin medvetenhet kring empati.

The rising prevalence of media use and the decreasing use of books create a need for research on the positive learning effects these platforms may have on children. This study will explore how learning platforms (specifically books, television, and computers) in early childhood affect development of social awareness – in particular, empathy and altruistic behavior. The researcher will recruit approximately 192 participants, ages 3 to 5, and randomly assign them to one of three groups: book readers, television viewers, and computer gamers. The subject of the platform will be kept consistent through the use of the children’s television program Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. The dependent variables, empathy and altruistic behavior, will be measured in the lab before and after a 6-month period in which the platform stimuli will be presented in the children’s homes by parents. All learning platforms are expected to have a positive effect on empathy and altruistic behavior, with books having the highest effect in participants. The results will help caregivers, parents, and teachers take steps to effectively create a better social awareness learning environment for children.

Moral philosophers like Martha Nussbaum, Philippa Foot, and Michael Weber argue for what I call the “Neo-Stoic Reading” of Nietzsche, which includes two claims: first, Nietzsche allegedly recommends the relentless pursuit of self-interest at the expense of other persons; second, he denies empathy any major role in the ethical life. I will argue that the Neo-Stoic view misses an important unifying theme in Nietzsche’s ethics and his criticism of morality—his investment in the value of honor—and that Nietzsche’s ethical recommendations involving empathy and even altruism can be better understood by situating them within an historical tradition of honor-based ethics.

The purpose of this research study was to ascertain whether there is a relationship between teachers' cognitive role taking aspect of empathy and the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL); English, Reading scores of their students. A correlational research design using hierarchical multiple regression was used to look for this relationship. In order to control for what previous research has shown to contribute to student achievement, a teacher's years of experience, degree level, self-efficacy beliefs about managing classroom behavior and a teacher's expectations for her students were measured and placed into the regression equation. The empathy measure was taken from the Interpersonal Reactivity Index created by Mark H. Davis, Ph.D. The subscale measuring the cognitive role taking aspect of empathy was used in conjunction with the subscale on self-efficacy beliefs about managing classroom behavior from the Teacher Interpersonal Self-Efficacy instrument. The subscale on teacher expectations was created based on research by Jussim and Eccles (1992), Harris and Rosenthal (1985) and Gottfredson, Marciniak, Birdseye and Gottfredson (1995). The study attempted to see if the relationship was stronger based on the ethnicity and course level of the students. The results indicate that the null hypothesis cannot be rejected, so it is indicating that there is not a relationship. However, the results also indicated that the other teacher variables for which this study controlled were also not contributing to the variance in the test scores. These findings led to the conclusion that standardized tests, by their very nature, may possibly not be susceptible to teacher attributes or dispositions. Further, it was concluded that teachers may need to acknowledge that the SOL tests may be measuring a very small part of student achievement that, in many cases, can be considered learning to pass the tests. If education is supposed to prepare students to be educated citizens of a democracy, it is important to remember that classroom instruction must do more than focus on training students to pass standardized tests.

ABSTRACT There is a growing body of research that demonstrates the relationship between identity development, the development of citizenship, and the pedagogy of service learning (Eyler & Giles, 1999; Jones & Hill, 2001, 2003; Rhoad, 1997; Youniss &Yates, 1997). While a review of the effects of community service on elementary and high school participants in the USA provide some indication that participating in service-learning programmes is beneficial to young people, Alt & Medrich (1994) state that there is still relatively little clear, systematic evidence demonstrating the connection between community service and particular affective and educational objectives. It is of concern in the light of the Further Education and Training (FET) Life Orientation (LO) Curriculum’s call for citizenship education (Department of Education, 2003), that no research on ‘community service’ work done by high school learners in South Africa can be located. The studies that link a service- learning or community work pedagogy to the development of empathy have primarily been conducted with college students (Burnett, Hamel, & Long, (2004); Giles, & Eyler, (1993); Jones & Hill (2003); Pratt, (2001); Rhoad, (1997)). Although there is some research with adolescents (Hamilton & Fenzel, (1988); Leming, (2001); Middleton, & Kelly (1996); Yates. & Youniss, (1996), it has primarily focused on social and identity development in community service settings and not specifically on empathy. However Hatcher’s (1994) research with adolescents and college students provides indications that empathy is developmental and can be elicited by environmental intervention and that some aspects of empathy can be taught to adolescents if a developmental shift is caught. Key words: empathy, service learning, community work, identity, citizenship

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / The theories ot empathy in the visual aesthetic experience as propound by Theodor Lipps, Vernon Lee and Hugo Munsterberg attempt to explain cognition ar qualities that do nat correspond to any specific sensations due to an object, but are nevertheless attributed to the object just as the specific sensations (e.g. of red or blue) are attributed to it. Pleasure felt as a result of experiencing the aesthetic object is not felt as occurring in the observer's body but as tied up with the object. The empathists discussed haw different explanations for the way that this attribution ot what seem to be "illusory qualities" is achieved. For Theodor Lipps empathy is a more complex process than it is for the other empathists. According to his view the observer, on one hand, participates in the life and activity of the object, and, on the other hand, attributes these "illusory" qualities to the object. [TRUNCATED]