The relationship between perceived communication competence and perceived empathy

Abstract

Empathy has been previously treated as a dimension of communication competence. This study indicates that both concepts are essentially composed of the same set of skills and reflected by the same set of behaviors, thus raising a question about the research value of communication competence and empathy. Twenty‐seven conversational sets were evaluated by respondents. One group of respondents evaluated the 27 response statements for the level of reflected communication competence. Another group evaluated the responses for the level of reflected empathy. The ratings were highly correlated (r = .98) thus supporting the hypothesized relationship between communication competence and empathy. Additional tests for reliability and validity were performed to demonstrate the power of the method used in the study.