Empathic capacity among university students during the pandemic: an exploratory study

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59885/cienciaypsique.2023.v2n2.04

Keywords:

universitarios, empatía cognitiva, empatía afectiva, pandemia

Abstract

It is of great importance to analyze the concept of empathy since it is considered a substantial construct to understand various aspects of human behavior. Our main objective is to investigate the empathic capacity and compare the levels of affective and cognitive empathy in 63 young people, whose average age is 17.8 years, of both genders, who entered the university and were in the adolescent stage, during the pandemic of COVID-19. The empathy test developed by Jolliffe and Farrington (2006) was used. This study is part of a cross-sectional descriptive design with a previously selected sample in its natural environment. The SPSS statistical software was used, using basic descriptive statistics, as well as the analysis of the normal distribution according to the KolmogorovSmirnov test and the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test, for the comparisons. The results revealed that the participants obtained an average or normal level in relation to total empathy, remaining in the 50th percentile. Conclusively, significant differences were observed between the levels of affective empathy (40) and cognitive empathy (60). A notable disparity was evidenced in the levels of affective empathy, where men (60) obtained considerably higher scores than women (35), which revealed that a high capacity for empathy prevails among male university students and they tend to perceive and experience good quality as well as human receptivity.

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Published

2023-07-01

How to Cite

Cossío Ale de Preciado A. M., García Solís, C. L., & Encarnación Chávez, N. (2023). Empathic capacity among university students during the pandemic: an exploratory study. Ciencia Y Psique, 2(2), 95–114. https://doi.org/10.59885/cienciaypsique.2023.v2n2.04

Issue

Section

Research Article