Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Exploring Empathy: A Dance/Movement Therapy Program For Adults With Developmental Disabilities, Krista Samborsky

Creative Arts Therapies Theses

The purpose of this program development project was to assess how Rena Kornblum’s (2002) activities from Disarming the Playground: Violence prevention through movement and pro-social skills could be adapted for adults with developmental disabilities (DD), resulting in a Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT) treatment program focusing on empathy. The project set out to answer the following question: How can Rena Kornblum’s activities from Disarming the Playground be adapted for adults with DD, resulting in the development of a DMT treatment program? The program development cycle created by Rossman and Elwood Schlatter (2008) with formative evaluation was used in the development of Exploring …

Social Cognitive Factors Associated With Verbal Bullying And Defending, Heather L. Carroll

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine defending and verbal bullying and the role of social cognitive variables, including empathy, values, moral disengagement, and efficacy among middle school students. Middle school students (n=282) in grades 6 through 8 in an urban public school district in Michigan participated in the study. Data were collected using a self-report survey format during the 2013-2014 school year. Social cognitive variables were analyzed by grade and gender. Results indicated a statistically significant main effect for gender. Female students reported significantly higher scores for empathy, self-transcendence values and openness to change values, in comparison to …

Empathy As A Moderator Of Adolescent Bullying Behavior And Moral Disengagement After Controlling For Social Desirability, Amy Zelidman

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess the moderating influence empathy has on the associations between adolescent bullying behavior and moral disengagement after controlling for social desirability (e.g., response bias). 676 students in 7th and 8th grade from a suburban middle school in Southeast Michigan participated in this study in the fall of 2012.

Results showed male respondents were more likely than female respondents to (a) report engaging in all forms of traditional bullying behavior overall, including physical, verbal, and social bullying and (b) report higher rates of physical victimization and moral disengagement. Female respondents were more likely to …