Measuring cognitive and affective empathy and its relationship to self-efficacy, parental relationship and academic achievement, among university students

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 1PAAET, Faculty of Education, Department of Psychology

2 2University of Haifa, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology

Abstract

Empathy is a highly valued ability in advanced societies around the world, enabling individuals to become more productive in work environments that require cooperation, including schools and universities. This research aimed to investigate the level of empathy among a relatively large sample of male and female students in a College of Education in Kuwait (N=562), and its relationships with academic achievement—measured in terms of Grade Point Average (GPA)—self-efficacy, and parental relationship, while controlling for number of demographic variables. In addition, the study sought to ascertain whether these relationships can show a predictive role of academic achievement. The research employed measures translated into Arabic, which included a performance test that distinguishes between the cognitive and emotional aspects of empathy and relies on identifying the thoughts and feelings of others from pictures of the eye region (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test; RMET), and a self-report measure that evaluated retrospectively parental care received by an individual during childhood and adolescence (Remembered Relationship with Parents; RRP). The research also adopted the Kuwait University measure of self-efficacy. The results revealed levels of empathy that fell within the range of global test performance rates, but they showed a bias toward items measuring cognitive empathy. It also revealed significant differences between the sexes, such that females scored higher in empathy, self-efficacy and academic achievement. Empathy was directly and significantly linked to sex, self-efficacy, and academic achievement, and self-efficacy was inversely linked to dysfunction in parental relationship. Regression analyses also revealed that students’ academic achievement was predicted by empathy, the interaction between sex and empathy and by self-efficacy. The study recommended the necessity of designing educational programs aimed at raising the level of self-efficacy and empathy and social cognitive abilities among college students.

Keywords

References

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