Diversity dolls: a creative teaching method for encouraging social work students to develop empathy and understanding for vulnerable populations

Papouli, Eleni

doi:10.1080/02615479.2018.1515904

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…'Diversity Dolls' is a hands-on educational method for the reinforcement of empathy that is used among social care students in a Greek university, so that students can instill empathetic skills in socially vulnerable populations [75]. It is believed that the use of such based-on-art methods helps social care students to feel safe, to explore, and give meaning to the real circumstances people live in, through pleasant, participatory, interactive activities [76].…”

Section: Factors That Influence Empathymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Role of Empathy in Health and Social Care Professionals

et al. 2020

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The current article is an integrative and analytical literature review on the concept and meaning of empathy in health and social care professionals. Empathy, i.e., the ability to understand the personal experience of the patient without bonding with them, constitutes an important communication skill for a health professional, one that includes three dimensions: the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral. It has been proven that health professionals with high levels of empathy operate more efficiently as to the fulfillment of their role in eliciting therapeutic change. The empathetic professional comprehends the needs of the health care users, as the latter feel safe to express the thoughts and problems that concern them. Although the importance of empathy is undeniable, a significantly high percentage of health professionals seem to find it difficult to adopt a model of empathetic communication in their everyday practice. Some of the factors that negatively influence the development of empathy are the high number of patients that professionals have to manage, the lack of adequate time, the focus on therapy within the existing academic culture, but also the lack of education in empathy. Developing empathetic skills should not only be the underlying objective in the teaching process of health and social care undergraduate students, but also the subject of the lifelong and continuous education of professionals.

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Section: Factors That Influence Empathymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Globally, creative educational methods such as journaling, art, role-play, and simulation games globally are becoming more popular in the health and social care fields helping students to increase their knowledge and skills in relation to empathy [75,76].…”

Section: Factors That Influence Empathymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Empathy in Health and Social Care Professionals

et al. 2020

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“…Special courses should be part of the curriculum in order to enable students to develop their emotion management, social skills, and wellbeing and enhance their professional empathy. Innovative teaching methodologies should be used to provide social workers with empathetic techniques enabling them to incorporate these skills into their professional attitude [ 15 , 57 , 58 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Reported Assessment of Empathy and Its Variations in a Sample of Greek Social Workers

et al. 2021

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The aim of the study was twofold: (a) to examine the way in which professional social workers perceive and apply in their practice the concept of empathy; (b) to explore sociodemographic factors, education/special training and work characteristics associated with their empathic skills. This is a cross-sectional study with a purposive sample of 203 Greek social workers. For the assessment of empathy, the Empathy Scale for Social Workers (ESSW) was used. The sample consisted mainly of female social workers with a mean age of 43.8 years. More than 70% of them were practicing the profession for more than 10 years. Nearly one-third participated in psychotherapy courses, and only half of them have been certified. On average, they reported high levels of empathy. Initial univariate analyses showed that empathy scores were significantly higher for older social workers, married, the more experienced, those who referred to working experience with disabled people or people having problems with substance use and the professionals who had obtained a certification in psychotherapy. ‘Having a middle work experience of 10–19 years’ was a significant correlate in all scales and related negatively to empathy indicating a burnout effect. The implications for social work education and future training are discussed.

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“…The methods of linking experiences or advice to fictional characters have their roots and a longstanding tradition in the therapeutic setting. It is used to elicit information about subjective experiences, objectifying issues or problems, and thereby safeguard against adverse effects (Butler et al, 2009;Davis et al, 2021;Papouli, 2019). By using a third-person stimulus, refraining from actual occurrences, the participants can assume a distanced perspective, which allows a certain level of detachment from potentially difficult situations and ensures a layer of protection (Frost, 2011), whilst still allowing to reflect on their own experiences separate from the self (Barbosa et al, 2017).…”

Section: Methodological Background and Workhop Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Collecting brainstorming data on spread sheets and notepads in different settings (full class and self-selected small groups) was appealing and engaging for the participants. The methods of linking experiences or advice to fictional characters has its roots and a longstanding tradition in the therapeutic setting and are used to elicit information about subjective experiences, objectifying the issues or problems, and thereby safeguarding against adverse effects (Butler et al, 2009;Davis et al, 2021;Papouli, 2019). By using a third person stimulus, the participants can assume a distanced perspective, which allows to reflect on their own experiences separate from the self.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s perspective on fears connected to school transition and intended coping strategies

et al. 2023

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The transition from primary to secondary school comes with major changes in the lives of children. There is a shortage of in-depth analyses of young people’s perspectives concerning their fears and strategies to address these. This qualitative study aims to gain first-hand understanding of children’s fears and the intended coping strategies used during school transition. Data from 52 workshops were analysed, with a total of 896 students (M age = 10.40, SD = .839) in lower Austria. First, in the classroom setting, a vignette story about a child facing fears about school transition from primary to secondary school was developed with pupils in a brainstorming session. This was followed by self-selected small group discussions, where pupils proposed strategies to help cope with these fears. A thematic analysis was carried out. Major thematic clusters distinguished between four types of fears: peer victimisation, being alone, victimisation by authority figures, and academic failure. Three additional thematic clusters described strategies for countering the fears: enacting supportive networks, personal emotion regulation, and controlling behaviour. In addition to these connected clusters, two further themes were identified: strategy outcomes and consequences, i.e., personal experiences with using specific strategies, and the discussion of participants about contradictions and questionable usefulness of identified strategy outcomes. In conclusion, the children in our study reported more social fears as compared to academic fears. Children seem reasonably competent at naming and identifying strategies; however, maladaptive strategies, as well as controversies within the described strategies may indicate a lack of certainty and competence at engaging with these strategies on a practical level.

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Diversity dolls: a creative teaching method for encouraging social work students to develop empathy and understanding for vulnerable populations

Cited by 13 publications

References 15 publications

The Role of Empathy in Health and Social Care Professionals

The Role of Empathy in Health and Social Care Professionals

Self-Reported Assessment of Empathy and Its Variations in a Sample of Greek Social Workers

Children’s perspective on fears connected to school transition and intended coping strategies

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