Date of Award

8-2000

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Counseling Psychology & Community Services

Abstract

Using Hill and O'Grady's (1985) model of assessing counseling intentions, this study examined the effects of a two-hour empathy training component in an introductory counseling methods course, as well as the relationship between intentions categories and the intention of being empathic. Participants also completed the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory (BLRI) as a pretest measure, again immediately preceding the empathy training, and finally as a posttest measure. Due to unequal distribution within the control and treatment groups, gender was also examined. The results indicated that men responded more than women during role-play sessions as well as had more intentions. There was also a differential effect of the empathy training on men and women regarding their rate of intending to be empathic. Empathy training increased men's intention to be empathic while it decreased women's. Additionally, it was found that the intentions of Support and Assessment are reliable indicators of either the presence or absence of empathy in the counseling session. Implications for training and future research are discussed in light of these results.

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