Empathy and Social Work Education

Abstract

Empathy and social work education behaviors comprising empathy, an important social work skill, were delineated. The impact of professional social work education upon empathy was found, contrary to hypothesis, to be significantly positive. Students identified personal maturation, human behavior classes, and experiential parts of the curriculum as being most beneficial in enhancing empathy. The best students were found to have the highest levels of empathy on the videotape criterion measure. Moreover, female students had slightly higher empathy scores than males. There was no evidence of higher levels of empathy in students specializing in microsystem intervention.