Abstract
M.A. (Counselling Psychology)
The "aim of this study was (1) to compare three different procedures of evaluation
used with the "Group Assessment of Interpersonal Traits" (GAIT) in terms
of reliability, and (2) to assess the strength of the relationships between
the different measures of empathy and selfactualization and the quality of
interpersonal relationships, to achieve a tentative indication of the validity
of the three evaluation procedures.
From a survey of the literature it is apparent that very little agreement
exists as to the exact meaning of the construct empathy, and that there is
need of a valid, reliable and economical measure of empathic ability.
Against this background an evaluation procedure based on Barrett-Lennard's
(1981) conceptualization of empathy as a cyclical process and Goodman's
(1972) GAIT-procedure was developed.
Eighty-nine third year psychology students were used as subjects. They were
randomly divided into 12 subgroups. Three groupings of four subgroups were
exposed to three different GAIT evaluation procedures, which were those of
Goodman (972), Van Wyk (978) and one that was developed for the purpose of
this study. The "Personal Orientation Inventory" (POI) and the "Personal,
Home, Social and Formal Relations Questionnaire" (PHSF) were respectively
used as measures of selfactiJalization and interpersonal relationships.