Improving Public Service Quality from a Developmental Perspective: Empathy, Attachment, and Gender Differences

Abstract

By introducing a developmental perspective, the current study explored the influence of attachment and gender differences on empathy, which is a key determinant of high quality of public service. The predicting role of mother/father/peer attachments in cognitive/emotional empathy was examined. Participants were 569 undergraduates who completed self-report measures on attachment and empathy. Peer/father attachment made contribution to cognitive empathy, and father attachment was stronger predictor in females than in males. Gender, mother attachment predicted emotional empathy among females and males, and peer attachment predicted emotional empathy among females only. These findings suggested that father/mother/peer attachments might contribute the different aspects of empathy, and the effects of the influences depend on gender of the parents and young adults.