Empathy and Emotional Intelligence among Eastern and Western Counsellor Trainees: A Preliminary Study
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Empathy and Emotional Intelligence among Eastern and Western Counsellor Trainees: A Preliminary Study Kara A. Young Kaelber & Robert C. Schwartz
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Abstract This study explored degree of empathy and emotional intelligence among Thai (n= 48) and American (n=53) counsellor trainees to determine if differences in Eastern and Western cultural orientations (e.g., interdependent versus independent self-construals) affect foundational counselling skills. Results indicated that Western trainees showed greater empathy, although no differences were found in emotional intelligence between Eastern and Western trainees. Length of training correlated with greater empathy in both groups, but was not associated with emotional intelligence. Type of self-construal correlated with both degree of empathy and emotional intelligence. Implications for counselling research and training are addressed. Keywords Empathy . Emotional intelligence . Counsellor trainee . Cultural worldview . Self-construals
Introduction Learning and communicating empathy has been viewed as foundational to counselling since the profession began (cf., Carkhuff 1969). Empathy includes an attitude or way of being that exudes respect, caring, and understanding to the client in a genuine and nonjudgmental manner (Hill 2004). According to Carl Rogers (1959) empathy is the ability to recognize and understand another person’s internal private world, without losing a sense of separateness. Many noted counselling theorists and researchers have asserted that counsellor empathy is vital to the therapeutic process (e.g., Cartwright and Lerner 1963; Rogers 1975; Truax and Carkhuff 1967) because it enhances a counsellor’s ability to assist clients in attaining deeper self-understanding (Carkhuff 2000; Ivey et al. 2002) and psychological healing (Sinclair and Monk 2005). Empathy development is, therefore, a primary training goal in most counselling graduate programs (Hill 2004; Ivey and Ivey 2007). K. A. Young Kaelber (*) Department of Counseling and Human Development, Malone University, 2600 Cleveland Ave., NW, Osborne Hall, 2nd Floor, Canton, OH 44709, USA e-mail: [email protected] R. C. Schwartz Department of Counseling, University of Akron, Akron, OH, USA
Int J Adv Counselling
More recently it has been suggested that the development of emotional intelligence is also essential to counsellor competence (Easton et al. 2008). Emotional intelligence relates to one’s “ability to recognize the meanings of emotions and their relationships, and to reason and problem-solve on the basis of them” (Mayer et al. 1999, p. 267). It includes aspects of selfawareness, self-regulation, and social skills, reflecting the ability to identify one’s own feelings, motivations, and intentions, as well as discerning other individuals’ feelings, beliefs, and intentions (Goleman 1995). Emotional intelligence, therefore, involves both intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, and has been shown through research to correlate with counsellor selfefficacy (
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