Abstract
Developing the empathic attitude is one of the tasks of medical education as it aff ects the quality
of therapeutic contact in the relationship between the doctor and the patient, conditioning the treatment
process. According to Davis’s concept, empathy is defi ned as an aff ective-cognitive reaction in the context
of the other person’s experience.
Aim: Analysis of profi les of empathic sensitivity in students of medicine.
Group: Male and female students of the fi ft h year of medicine who agreed to participate in an anonymous
study (n = 153; M = 57, F = 96; mean age: 23 years).
Tools: Th e Empathetic Sensitivity Scale (EES), which is the Polish tool for Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity
Index (IRI) was used. Th e ESS includes three sub-scales: Empathic Care (EC), Personal Distress (PD)
and Adopting Perspective (AP).
Results: The raw results were converted into sten scores and for sten scores for all three dimensions
of empathetic sensitivity no diff erences were found between male and female students. Th ree clusters
(1: n = 33%, 2: n = 39%, 3: n = 28%), which diff er in terms of each distinguished indicator, were identifi ed.
Conclusions: Th e first cluster characterizes empathetic people, both in the aff ective and cognitive
spheres, and those dealing well with unpleasant emotions in situations diffi cult to others. Th e second
cluster characterizes participants with the ability to recognize the needs of others and to take into account
their perspectives; the third cluster includes participants with a tendency to focus on their own experiences
emerging in response to other people’s suff ering but with the ability to understand a situation and
show empathic concern for the other person. The most favourable profi le — for a future doctor as well as for his patients — is the fi rst cluster because the doctor, with his empathic sensitivity directed towards
the other man, can deal with his own unpleasant emotions.
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Authors and Affiliations
Barbara Bętkowska-Korpała
Józef Krzysztof Gierowski