Fifty-five lay persons were assigned to empathy training groups entitled microtraining, systematic human relations training, and .control. Each group, including control, was randomly divided into subgroups for administering programmed empathy training to one subgroup in each main group. Training programs based on Ivey (1971) and Egan (1975) were modified into a format for large-group instruction. Outcome measures were levels of emphatic understanding expressed in written responses to videotaped helpees. All treatment groups scored significantly higher than, the no-training control group. Those subgroups, including control, which received programmed empathy training via the Empathy Enhancement Tapes (Bender, 1973), scored higher than those subgroups with microtraining alone, systematic human relations training alone, or the no-tape control. The results of this study indicate that a large-group format for teaching the skill of empathy can be "an effective method of instruction. Also, the results indicate that programmed training alone and in combination with didactic methodology can have a significant impact on the enhancement of empathy.
Within the broad field of psychology, the systematic study and measurement of human intelligence has a long and varied history. Out of the broad range of instruments developed for the assessment of intelligence, the Wechsler Scales, particularly the Wechsler
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