Do Empathic Abilities Change throughout the Course of Becoming a Psychotherapist?

Abstract

Abstract. Empathy is defined as an individually varying but stable personality trait. Contrary to this statement we proposed a model ( Georgi, Petermann & Schipper, 2014 ) in which individual empathic abilities are continuously modulated throughout life, resulting in modifications of neural processes and their underlying neural structures. To further investigate and validate the model’s assumptions we conducted a cross-sectional study using the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy, assessing empathic abilities of three groups of psychologists at different stages of their careers. Results showed higher cognitive and lower affective empathic measures for psychological psychotherapists compared to first-year-bachelor as well as master students. Regarding to our model these findings demonstrate possible effects of psychological education and professional experience on empathic perception.