THE TEACHING OF EMPATHY FOR HIGH-SCHOOL AND COLLEGE-STUDENTS - TESTING ROGERIAN METHODS WITH THE INTERPERSONAL REACTIVITY INDEX

The teachability of empathy is discussed with particular regard to dev elopmental issues. One hundred and four high school and college studen ts were administered Davis's (1980) Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IR I) both before and after a standard course of Rogerian-based peer faci litation skills training. The IRI offers four independent subscales wh ich measure the cognitive and affective components of empathy. Statist ically significant findings indicate greater developmental readiness f or learning empathic commuication in the college sample, particularly for subscales measuring Empathic Concern and Perspective Taking. A gro up of untrained college students taking a course in behavioral psychol ogy showed no progress on any IRI subscales. Although college females began with higher empathy scores, both genders were equally teachable. Implications for prevention and counseling readiness are discussed, a long with suggestions for future research.