Social Empathy As a Framework to Infuse Competency in Advancement of Social and Economic Justice in Social Work Education
Social work education stresses training students to identify and understand oppressive structural barriers and promote social, political and economic justice, (outlined in CSWE Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards). Criticism of the profession has included accusations that social work’s social justice orientation involves a partisan perspective. Possible mechanisms for promoting social justice in a manner that is non-partisan uses a social empathy framework, which is rooted in a deep understanding of those who are different from us. Social empathy applies empathy to a macro level through a) contextual understanding of structural barriers to social and economic opportunity, and b) the ability to apply macro perspective-taking to understand the social and economic conditions of others. This study sought to identify the relationships between interpersonal empathy, social empathy, political affiliation, and policy positions on issues related to social and economic justice.
Research Hypotheses
It was hypothesized that: (1) social empathy is related to policy positions that reflect social and economic justice, (2) interpersonal empathy is not related to these policy positions, (3) political affiliation is not related to social empathy, and (4) social empathy would be a significant predictor of policy positions.
Methods
Students enrolled in social welfare policy courses at an urban, southwestern university participated in an online survey in fall of 2013. The sample included 127 students (undergraduate, n=79 and graduate, n=48); was predominantly white (n=66) and Latino/a (n=34), and female (n=107); and ranged in age from 18 to 61. The survey included the Social Empathy Index (40 items), self-rated political affiliation on a 7-point scale, and self-rated positions on nine policy issues related to social and economic justice (4-point scale), which were used to create a scale score reflecting the extent to which students held social and economic justice positions (∞=.65).
Results
Bivariate correlations indicated significant relationships between policy positions related to social and economic justice and political affiliation (r=-.41, p<.05), interpersonal empathy and social empathy (r=.36, p<.05), and policy positions and social empathy (r=.44, p<.05). No significant relationships existed between interpersonal or social empathy and political affiliation. To test the predictive value of social empathy on policy positions over and above that of political affiliation, a multiple regression model was analyzed with policy positions scale score as the dependent variable, and political affiliation and social empathy as independent variables. In the model, 35% of the variance in policy positions was explained (R2 = .36, adjusted R2 = .35, F = 31.25 (2, 109), p < .01). Both political affiliation (b = -1.12, t (109) = -5.48, p < .01) and social empathy (b = .13, t (109) = 5.59, p < .01) significantly contributed to the model individually. Social empathy contributed an additional 17% of the variance (sr=.42, p<.01) over and above that of political affiliation.
Implications
The findings from this study support the teaching of social empathy as a way to promote students’ understanding and advancement of social and economic justice. Social empathy appears to have influence for students across the political affiliation spectrum.