The effects of covert and overt modelling on the communication of empathy
Date
1984
Authors
Koehn, Corinne Veronica
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Abstract
The primary purpose of the study was to compare the efficacy of covert and overt modelling in the acquisition of an interpersonal communication skill. The target skill in training was the communication of empathy.
Other studies employing covert modelling in verbal skills training confound covert and overt modelling variables. It is difficult, therefore, to ascertain whether it is the covert or overt modelling which is producing the treatment effects. A secondary purpose of the present study was to employ an experimental design that would control for the overt modelling inherent in the covert modelling treatment.
Sixty-four female undergraduate psychology students at the University of Victoria volunteered for the project and were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: (a) covert modelling (CM), in which subjects listened to modelling of empathy and imagined themselves as the model; (b) treatment control (TC), in which subjects listened to modelling of empathy and engaged in a distraction activity of counting backwards; (c ) overt modelling (OM), in which subjects listened to twice as much modelling of empathy as did the TC group; and (d) no-treatment control (C), in which subjects received no modelling of empathy.
The training was presented to each subject individually by audiotape. After training, each subject responded orally to videotaped client statements and wrote responses to written client statements on Carkhuff's Communication Index (CCI). Subjects' written and oral responses were assessed for empathic content using Carkhuff's Empathic Understanding Scale.
Data were analysed using a one-way analysis of variance and the Scheffe multiple comparison of means. The covert modelling, overt modelling, and treatment control groups scored significantly higher than the no-treatment control group in written and oral empathy. There were no significant differences between the covert modelling, overt modelling, and treatment control groups.
The data indicate that overt modelling is an effective training method. All groups which were exposed to modelling outperformed the no-treatment control group.
Covert modelling treatment did not enhance the overt modelling effects. One interpretation of the results is that covert modelling 1s ineffective in empathy training with female university students. A second explanation for the results is that the treatment control subjects may have received sufficient overt modelling to allow them to learn empathic responding to a level which the covert and overt modelling groups could not surpass in a brief analogue situation. The implications of the findings and the limitations of the study are discussed.