The Effects of Personality Education Activities Based on Roots of Empathy Program on Young Children's Empathic Ability and Emotional Intelligence

Abstract

Personality education activities based on the roots of empathy program were designed and practiced in this study to investigate their effects on young children's empathic ability and emotional intelligence. The subjects of this research were 60 five years old of 2 classes in 'W' kindergarten in 'I' city, Jeonra Buk province. We randomly assigned 30 children of one class to the experimental group and 30 children of the other class to the controlled group. The personality education activities based on the roots of empathy program was by the researcher. The results of this study are summarized as follows. First, the personality education activities based on the roots of empathy program improved children's empathic ability. And that effects are shown in all sub-areas of empathic ability(sorrow/burden/joy/fear). Second, the personality education activities based on the roots of empathy program improved children's emotional intelligence. And that effects are shown in all sub-areas of emotional intelligence(recognition and expression of emotion/promotion of thinking by emotion/application of emotional knowledge/emotional reflective control).

Exploring the Korean adolescent empathy using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)

“…In general, Korean adolescents have higher cognitive abilities than their peers in other countries. As there is a positive relationship between cognitive empathy and academic achievement (Austin et al 2005;Park 2004) in particular, considering previous studies showing that PT is related to cognitive function (Kim and Kim 2009;Park 2004) it seems Korean teenagers' cognitive empathy is higher than that of students in other countries. This has been linked to their ranking in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).…”

“…Hence, multidimensional analysis is needed to assess its use for educational purposes. While there are many references to the need for empathy, few studies have substantiated it in a practical educational context (Arghode et al 2013;Chun et al 2018;Kim and Kim 2009;Lee et al 2014). This is because the roots of empathy research begin with esthetics (Wind 1963) and consist mostly of consultation studies based on psychological evidence (Park 2004).…”

Empathy as an Element of Promoting the Manifestation of Group Creativity and Survey on Empathic Ability of Korean Elementary School Students

“…The reason is that empathy has complex and diverse propensities appearing differently depending on personal characteristics, nearby environment, and individual situations (Hoffman, 2000;Shin, 1994). However, when considering preceding research results showing that cognitive empathy has a meaningful positive relationship with study achievement (Austin et al, 2005;Park, 2004), and in particular, when considering the fact that perspective taking is related to cognitive function (Kim & Kim, 2009;Park, 2004), the high science achievement level of Korean elementary school students can be regarded as one of the reasons. Currently in Korea, elementary science education classes mostly emphasize acquisition of knowledge and thinking technique through scientific investigation, and such class methods and contents probably would have affected the high science study achievement level and the cognitive function development of elementary school students (Kim & Kim, 2013).…”