关键词: 团体咨询, 共情, 团体成员

Abstract: The empathy of group members plays an important role in group counseling, but with little empirical research. Its concept, influencing factors, impacts remain unclear. The purpose of this study is to explore the concept, influencing factors and impacts of group members’ empathy, so as to construct a model for the influencing factors and impacts of group members’ empathy. 11 group members (6 female and 5 male college students) from different types of continuous groups were recruited and signed informed content. They were interviewed about four different types of their empathic experience including experience of being understood or misunderstood, experience of understanding others or misunderstanding others. They needed to recall what happened and how it affected them when they had empathic experience. The interview lasted about 1 hour for each subject. 11 interview recordings were transcribed and analyzed by the grounded theory. The grounded theory is a qualitative research method developed by Glaser and Strauss, which uses a systematic procedure to develop and induce grounded theories about a phenomenon from data. It applies to research questions with little theoretical base. Through open coding, axial coding, focused coding and selective coding, 279 open codes and 11 axial codes were formed. Based on the relations among 11 axial codes, we built a model for the influencing factors and impacts of group members’ empathy. Results are as follows: (1) Group members’ empathy concludes empathic understanding, empathic expression and perceived empathy. Empathic understanding is defined as the degree of similar feelings group members shared with others. Perceived empathy was defined as the degree of being understood group members felt. Both include cognitive and affective aspects, with different depth. Empathic expression is defined as group members expressing their empathic understanding, composed of four attributes, form, continuity, attitude and content. (2) The process of group members’ empathy included four stages. Stage 1: group members disclose their thoughts and feelings or show non-verbal behavior; Stage 2: group members have empathic understanding; Stage 3: group members express their empathic understanding; Stage 4:group members perceive empathy. Group atmosphere and group leaders’ intervention are the background of empathic process; (3) Similarity and taking perspectives are two factors influencing empathic understanding. The higher similarity members felt with others, the easier to understand other members. And it is easier to empathize when taking others’ perspectives. (4) Similarity and empathic expression are two factors influencing perceived empathy. The higher similarity members felt with others, the higher levels of perceived empathy members felt. Empathic expression serves as a bridge connecting empathic understanding and perceived empathy. Continued verbal expression with an accepting attitude promotes perceived empathy. (5) The impacts of group members’ empathy are promoting group members’ relationships, providing affective supports and cognitive insights. Affective supports include feeling accepted, not alone, warm, safe, hopeful et.al.. Cognitive insights are mainly about how to understand others. Based on these results, a model for influencing factors and impacts of group members’ empathy is constructed, providing a theoretical base for further understanding group members’ empathy.

Key words: group counseling, empathy, group members