Validity Evidence for a State-Specific Assessment of In-Session Counselor Empathy: The State-Empathic Concern Scale

Abstract

Many researchers assessing counselor empathy have inferred state-specific counselor empathy in a counseling session using trait empathy assessments. This article introduces the State-Empathic Concern Scale, a state-specific assessment of counselor empathy based on Davis’s (1994) multidimensional empathy model. Results indicated moderate to strong evidence of construct validity among 200 counselors-in-training.

Keywords:

• Empathy
• state-specific
• assessment

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by a grant from the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision.

Notes on contributors

David A. Johnson

David A. Johnson is in the Department of Counseling at Wake Forest University.

Michael J. Karcher

Michael J. Karcher is in the Department of Educational Psychology at The University of Texas at San Antonio.