Abstract
The present study developed an educational intervention program for enhancing the empathy of vocational college students for the care of people who are elderly, and examined whether the program resulted in enhancement of empathy, self-esteem, social skills, and prosocial behavior by using the quasi-experimental method. The students were divided into an intervention group (n=17 ; 6 males and 11 females; Mage=20.71, SD=6.44) and a control group (n=35 ; 17 males and 18 females; Mage=19.58, SD=4.63). The intervention group participated in 6 sessions aimed at fostering the cognitive and affective components of empathy, while the control group had no sessions. The results of a 2-factor mixed ANOVA showed significant effects of the program on perspective taking, empathic response toward positive affection, and sharing of negative affection. A month after participation, the intervention group had higher scores compared to the control group. However, no significant effects of the intervention were found on sensitivity to others’ affection, social skills, self-esteem, or prosocial behavior. The discussion describes a program for enhancing empathy, based on the results of this study, focusing especially on how aspects of the program may be improved and how the program might be applied with elementary and junior high school students.
