Smith, Chloe (2015) The Empathic Psychologist: How is Empathy Done in Psychological Therapy? Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Despite consistent relationships with improved therapeutic client outcomes (Elliott, Bohart, Watson, & Greenberg, 2011), little is known as to how empathy is accomplished by psychologists and clients. As such, this study investigated how empathy is interactionally established, understood, managed, and co-constructed in a real-life psychological consultation between a psychologist and client. The data comprised an audio-recording of a psychologist-client consultation undertaken at a university psychology clinic. In order to capture the interactional aspects of empathy, a discursive psychology approach and conversation analysis methodology was used. Five key findings emerged from the analysis. Firstly, empathy sequences consisted of a three-turn display: (a) the client elicited empathy, (b) the psychologist expressed empathy, and (c) the client receipted the empathic expression. Secondly, elicitations of empathy were performed within a troubles-telling sequence and contained features of crying. Thirdly, the psychologist’s empathic expressions typically comprised of three elements: (a) an initial acknowledgement token, (b) a formulation of the client’s experience, and (c) a marker of epistemic contingency. Fourthly, offers of empathy were oriented toward making the client’s emotional experience more explicit. Finally, the psychologist preserved the client’s institutional identity as the focus of the empathic expressions. It is anticipated that the findings of the current study will contribute toward informing the development of university-level empathy training programmes, so that the positive outcomes associated with empathy can be capitalised on from the outset of formal practice.
|
Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Andrea Lamont-Mills |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Aug 2025 23:43 |
| Last Modified: | 20 Aug 2025 23:43 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | empathy, discursive psychology, psychotherapy, conversation analysis |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52763 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Archive Repository Staff Only |
