Do Sociology Courses Make More Empathetic Students? A Mixed-Methods Study of Empathy Change in Undergraduates

• Published in: Teaching sociology Vol. 47; no. 4; pp. 284 - 302
• Main Authors: Rockwell, Ashley, Vidmar, Chris M., Harvey, Penny, Greenwood, Leanna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA Sage Publications, Inc 01-10-2019; SAGE Publications; American Sociological Association
• Subjects: Attitude Change; Changes; Classrooms; College students; Empathy; Introductory Courses; Mixed methods research; Original Article; Outcomes of Education; Predictor Variables; Research design; Sociology; Student Attitudes; Student Educational Objectives; Students; Teachers; Undergraduate Students; empathy; learning outcomes; mixed methods; course goals; introductory courses
• ISSN: 0092-055X; 1939-862X
• DOI: 10.1177/0092055X19860563

Assessing course goals is often challenging; assessing an abstract goal, like empathy, can be especially so. For many instructors, empathy is central to sociological thinking. As such, fostering empathy in students is a common course goal. In this article, we report the initial findings of a semester-long assessment of empathy change in undergraduate students (N = 619). We employ a mixed-methods research design that utilizes qualitative instructor data to determine independent instructor-level variables and student surveys to measure student empathy change. We compare empathy change between students enrolled in introductory sociology classes to students not enrolled in sociology classes and test which student and instructor variables predict empathy change. We find that students taking sociology classes have positive empathy change compared to those who do not. We interpret these findings as evidence that study of sociology promotes empathy development and discuss implications for the classroom and further research.