Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The relationship between the religious orientation of pastoral counselors and client-perceived empathy was investigated. Forty-six parish clergy and 96 of their clients completed Batson's (1976) Three-Dimensional Religious Orientation Scale and the Truax-Carkhuff Relationship Questionnaire, respectively. As hypothesized, end-oriented and quest-oriented clergy are perceived by their clients to be significantly more empathic than means-oriented clergy. As empathy is generally acknowledged to be vital to counseling effectiveness, the findings suggest that the means orientation to religion potentially inhibits counselor effectiveness relative to quest and end orientations. This finding implies a greater suitability of quest- and end-oriented pastoral candidates for counselor training as compared to means-oriented candidates.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allport

G.W.

(1959). Religion and prejudice. Crane Review,. 2, 1–10.

Allport

G.W.

, & Ross

J.M.

(1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 432–443.

Archer

R.L.

, Diaz-Loving

, Gollivitzer

P.M.

, Davis

M.H.

, & Foushee

H.C.

(1981). The role of dispositional empathy and social evaluation in the empathic mediation of helping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 786–796.

Batson

C.D.

(1976). Religion as prosocial: Agent or double agent. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 15, 29–45.

Batson

C.D.

, & Gray

R.A.

(1981). Religious orientation and helping behavior: Responding to one's own or to the victim's needs? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 40, 511–520.

Batson

C.D.

, Naifeh

S.J.

, & Pate

(1978). Social desirability, religious orientation, and racial prejudice. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 17, 31–41.

Batson

C.D.

, & Ventis

W.L.

(1982). The religious experience. New York: Oxford University Press.

Clay

(1984). Development of an empathie interaction skills schedule in a nursing context. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 9, 343–350.

Darley

J.M.

, & Batson

C.D.

(1973). “From Jerusalem to Jericho” A study of situational and dispositional variables in helping behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27, 100–108.

10.

Entner

P.D.

(1976). Religious orientation and mental health. Dissertation Abstracts International, 38 1949B. (University Microfilms No. 77–21,525)

11.

Hindmarch

(1977). Differential client perceptions of lay vs. professional counselors. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Alberta, Edmonton.

12.

Lambert

, De Julio

, & Stern

(1978). Therapist interpersonal skills: Process, outcome, methodological considerations, and recommendations for future research. Psychological Bulletin, 85, 467–489.

13.

Mullen

, & Abeles

(1971). Relationship of liking, empathy, and therapist's experience to outcome of therapy. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 18, 39–43.

14.

Rogers

C.R.

(1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21, 95–103.

15.

Truax

C.B.

, & Carkhuff

R.R.

(1967). Toward effective counseling and psychotherapy. Chicago: Aldine.

16.

Truax

C.B.

, & Lister

J.L.

(1970). The effects of counselor accurate empathy and non-possessive warmth upon client vocational rehabilitation progress. Canadian Counselor, 4(4), 39–43.

17.

Truax

C.B.

, Wargo

D.G.

, Frank

J.D.

, Imber

S.D.

, Battle

C.C.

, Hoehn-Saric

, Nash

E.H.

, & Stone

A.R.

(1966). Therapist empathy, genuineness, and warmth and patient therapeutic outcome. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 30, 395–401.

18.

Tyner

(1985). Elements of empathic care for dying patients and their families. Nursing Clinics of North America, 20, 393–401.

19.

Watson

P.J.

, Hood

R.W.

, & Morris

R.J.

(1985). Dimensions of religiosity and empathy. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 4(3), 73–85.

20.

Watson

P.J.

, Hood

R.W.

, Morris

R.J.

, & Hall

J.R.

(1984). Empathy, religious orientation, and social desirability. The Journal of Psychology, 117, 211–216.

21.

Wiebe

K.F.

, & Fleck

J.R.

(1980). Personality correlates of intrinsic, extrinsic, and nonreligious orientations. The Journal of Psychology, 105, 181–187.

22.

Wilkinson

H.J.

, & Wilkinson

J.W.

(1986). Evaluation of a hospice volunteer training program. Omega, 17, 263–275.

The Relationship between Religious Orientation and Empathy in Pastoral Counselors

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References