Abstract
Pain empathy is influenced by a number of factors. However, few studies have examined the effects of strength of professional identity on pain empathy in pre-service teachers. This study used the event-related potential (ERP) technique, which offers a high temporal resolution, to investigate the neurocognitive mechanisms of pain empathy in pre-teachers with strong or weak professional identity. The N110 and P300 components have been shown to reflect an individual’s emotional sharing and cognitive evaluation in pain empathy, respectively. The results of the current study show that pre-teachers with strong professional identity showed a significant difference in N110 amplitudes evoked towards painful and non-painful stimuli; whereas pre-teachers with weak professional identity did not show a significant difference in the amplitudes evoked by the two stimulus types. For the P300 component, pre-teachers with weak professional identity showed a significant difference in the amplitudes evoked towards painful and non-painful stimuli; whereas pre-teachers with strong professional identity did not show a significant difference in the amplitudes evoked by the two stimulus types. Our results indicate that pre-teachers with strong professional identity show a higher level of pain empathy than those with weak professional identity.
Highlights
Teacher empathy is a teacher’s ability to genuinely consider issues from a student’s point of view
Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the reaction time (RT) and correct response rate (CRR)
Behavioral indicators showed no significant differences in the pain empathy between pre-teachers with strong professional identity and those with weak professional identity, painful pictures evoked less negative amplitudes for the N110 and P300 components in both groups
Summary
Teacher empathy is a teacher’s ability to genuinely consider issues from a student’s point of view. Teacher empathy is a key feature of teachers who have strong professional identity, allowing them to effectively establish good teacher-student relationships and a relaxed teaching environment (Stojiljkovic et al, 2011). It can promote students’ academic achievement and teachers’ professional growth (Li et al, 2015; Peck et al, 2015). The following hypothesis was examined in the current study: pre-teachers with stronger professional identities will show better empathic abilities, while pre-teachers with weak professional identities will show a lower level of empathy towards students. It is possible that the empathic ability of pre-teachers can be enhanced by increasing professional identity or, that developing teacher empathy can promote professional identity
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