Purpose: Determine the difference between the empathic abilities of first and second year physical therapy graduate students and licensed, practicing physical therapists with a minimum of one year of clinical experience. Subjects: A total of 100 first year students, 88 second year students from Nova Southeastern University and 350 licensed, practicing physical therapists in Duval, Pinellas, and Dade counties in Florida. Methods: Respondents completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) to measure their empathic abilities. Crosstabulations and Chi-Square tests were used to determine if the three groups of subjects differed based upon their demographic data. One-way ANOVA tests and two-tailed t-tests with the alpha level at .05 were used to determine if differences between those of first and second year students. Findings: Females scored statistically higher than males on the IRI (t(303) = -5.526; p Conclusion: A significant relationship existed between subjects' demographics and empathic abilities, and a significant difference was found between the empathic skills levels of students and therapists on the perspective-taking subscale.
| Date of Award | Jan 1 1998 |
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| Original language | English |
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