This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Zucker, P. J. Articles by Forsyth, D. R. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Increasing Empathy through Participation in Structured Groups: Some Attributional Evidence

Virginia Commonwealth University

Everett L. Worthington, Jr.

Virginia Commonwealth University

Donelson R. Forsyth

Virginia Commonwealth University

Increases in empathy produced by participation in a short-term empathy skills training group were assessed by contrasting trained and untrained individuals' attributions about salient and nonsalient stimulus persons. Although previous evidence suggests that empathy limits the observer's tendency to over-attribute behavior to personal rather than situational causes, trained subjects underestimated the impact of situational determinants on behavior, especially when observing salient actors. These findings suggest that the early stages of empathy training in structured groups may be characterized by losses in empathic orientation, perhaps as a result of increases in listening skills.

Human Relations, Vol. 38, No. 3, 247-255 (1985)
DOI: 10.1177/001872678503800304


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. REGEHR and G. GLANCY Empathy and Its Influence on Sexual Misconduct Trauma Violence Abuse, April 1, 2001; 2(2): 142 - 154. [Abstract] [PDF]