Empathy, Post-Stroke Aphasia, and Speech-Language Pathology Students

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background Empathy is a multidimensional construct potentially important in communicating with an individual with aphasia and for students pursuing a career in speech-language pathology. Unfortunately, little is known about empathy towards someone with aphasia among the general public and speech-language pathologists. Aims The aims of the current study are to explore whether (1) prior knowledge of aphasia predicts state and dispositional empathy after viewing a video of an adult with post-stroke aphasia; (2) state and dispositional empathy differs between a group of individuals seeking a profession in speech-language pathology and those who are not; (3) state and dispositional empathy differ between speech-language pathology undergraduate and graduate students. Methods Two hundred-six participants viewed a video of a male with aphasia engaged in three language tasks and then rated themselves with the Batson Empathy Adjectives (BEA) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; empathic concern and perspective taking). Results State empathy is not influenced by prior knowledge, however, knowledge does predict type of dispositional empathy. Furthermore, state and dispositional empathy does not differ between a group of individuals seeking a profession in speech-language pathology and those who are not seeking this profession. Additionally, state and dispositional empathy do not differ between undergraduate and graduate students in speech-language pathology. Conclusions These findings have implications for programs designed to increase public awareness of post-stroke aphasia as well as speech-language pathology graduate programs.