EMPATHIC ANGER, SERVICE LEARNING, & CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Ashley Hedgepath and Robert Bringle, Appalachian State UniversityPatti Clayton, PHC Ventures and UNC Greensboro
2014 PACE ConferenceFebruary 5, 2014University of North Carolina Wilmington
EMPATHY AND SERVICE LEARNING
Students who engaged in SL...• Showed greater empathy and cognitive complexity than comparison groups (Courneya, 1994)• Reported greater acceptance of cultural diversity (Melchoir, 1999; Berkas, 1997)•Reported higher postproject empathy scores compared to other students (Lundy, 2007)•Were significantly more likely to express empathy in their reflective writing than the students who did not participate in SL (Wilson, 2011)
WHY SERVICE-LEARNING IMPROVES EMPATHY
Students break the barriers between themselves and the people with different needs, diversity of culture, and opportunities.
They don't limit themselves to feeling and thinking about empathy only.
Instead, they act on it, and this action allows empathy to integrate as a real
attitude.
Observation
Empathic Distress
Sympathetic Distress
Empathic Feeling of Injustice
Empathic Anger
Guilt over Inaction
Empathy: an individual’s (a)
emotional reaction that is congruent with another person’s feelings; and (b) concern for the welfare of that person (e.g., Hoffman, 2000; Batson et al., 1997; Eisenberg, 1986; Krebs, 1975; Stotland, 1969)
HOW EMPATHY IS SHAPED BY CAUSAL ATTRIBUTION
EMPATHIC ANGER
Trait Empathic Anger (TEA) Scale (Vitaglione &
Barnett, 2003)
“I get angry when a friend of mine is hurt by someone else.”
“I feel angry for other people when they have been victimized by others.”
Findings:
Empathic anger is unique from empathy as sadness
Reliable effects of empathic anger on prosocial desires
METHODS
Participants: N = 152 students Questionnaire:REA—Hedgepath, Wall, & BringleVolunteer Functions Inventory: Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Empathy) – Davis
Social Dominance Orientation – Pratto et al.
Aggression questionnaire – Beck & Perry
MEASUREMENT
The Revised Empathic Anger (REA) Scale
8-item self-report measure
“My anger towards inequality has motivated me to take action against it.”
“Problems like social injustice make me mad, so I volunteer to help resolve them.”
A civic-minded graduate is one who
a)is formally educated and
b)has the capacity and orientation to work with others
c)in a democratic way
d)to improve the community
DEFINITION OF A CIVIC MINDED GRADUATE
MEASUREMENTS
CMG Scale: 30-item self-report measure of knowledge, skills, dispositions, and behavioral intentions
MEASUREMENTS
• transfer of resources to those in need
Charity
• working together to address a problem
Project
• empowering the disenfranchised to change the system
Social Change
Morton’s Types of Service
MEASUREMENT
Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI): self-report measure examining the functional motives for volunteering (Clary & Snyder)
Protective Motives
• a way of protecting the ego from the difficulties of life
Values
• a way to express ones altruistic and humanitarian values
Career
• a way to improve career prospects
Social
• a way to develop and strengthen social ties
Understanding
• a way to gain knowledge, skills, and abilities
Enhancement
• a way to help the ego grow and develop
MEASUREMENTS
Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1983): measure of dispositional empathy that takes the notion that empathy consists of a set of separate but related constructs.
the tendency to spontaneously adopt the psychological point of view of others
Perspective Taking
Tendency to transpose themselves imaginatively into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters in books, movies, and plays
Fantasy
"other-oriented" feelings of sympathy and concern for unfortunate others
Empathic Concern
"self-oriented" feelings of personal anxiety and unease in tense interpersonal settings)
Personal Distress
MEASUREMENTS
Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) Scale: measure of individual differences in levels of group-based discrimination (Pratto et al.)
“Some groups of people are simply inferior to other groups.”
“It’s OK if some groups have more of a chance in life than others.”
“To get ahead in life, it is sometimes necessary to step on other groups.”
MEASUREMENTS
Aggression: measure of physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger and hostility (Buss & Perry)
Physical Aggressio
n• Given
enough provocation, I may hit another person.
Verbal Aggresion
• I often find myself disagreeing with people
Angry Aggressio
n• I have
trouble controlling my temper.
Hostility
• I am suspicious of overly friendly strangers
RESULTS(Wall, Hedgepath, & Bringle, 2013)
CorrelationsPositive Negative
Empathy subscales (IRI)
Aggression
Altruism Social Dominance Orientation
Past Involvement
w/ Community Orgs
The CMG Scale
CORRELATIONS OF REA WITH MORTON’S TYPES OF SERVICE
Charity/ Direct Service
.14Projects .26*Social Change/ Advocacy
.53**
.14
IMPLICATIONS
A new perspective on a motive for service that has not been in the service learning literature.
Although based on anger, it is distinct from aggressive responses
Empathic anger is clearly aligned with concern for others
“It is not enough for people to be angry. […] The
supreme task is to organize and unite people so that their anger
becomes a transforming
force.”-Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr.
QUESTIONS ABOUT EMPATHIC ANGER IN TEACHING
Have you seen empathic anger in your work with students?
QUESTIONS ABOUT EMPATHIC ANGER IN TEACHINGShould empathic anger
be an educational objective in a service learning course?a)If so, how can it be
developed?
QUESTIONS ABOUT EMPATHIC ANGER IN TEACHINGHow should courses be
designed to develop empathic anger?
How should reflection be structured for empathic anger?
DEVELOPING EMPATHIC ANGER
Reflections
Community Partners
Placement Documentaries
Music
Key Readings
FUTURE RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Anger is produced when goals are threatened, but the threat can be overcome (Mackeun et al., 2010)If the threat is perceived as too large to reasonably overcome, the result is often motivational ambivalence (Cameron & Payne, 2009)
So…
What is the relationship between self-efficacy and the arousal of empathic anger?How can we help students feel more efficacious?
FUTURE RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What is the relationship between empathic anger and prosocial behavior (beyond behavioral intention or self-reports)?
FUTURE RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What is the role of causal attributions in the arousal of empathic anger on an intergroup level?