Biography and Role Playing: Fostering Empathy in Abnormal Psychology

Abstract

In this article I describe a method of fostering empathy in undergraduate and graduate students of abnormal psychology. Students depicted a psychological disorder by writing a brief biography and then role playing the characters they developed. Students demonstrated understanding of the disorders by acting and interacting in a manner consistent with their character and diagnosing other student “characters” using criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980) results indicated student empathy increased significantly after the exercises. Qualitative analyses of focus group interview data supported and augmented the quantitative findings. Students attributed complex gains to the exercises.