Research Report: Gender & Education Influence on Empathy Quotient

This report investigates the influence of gender and educational background on the empathy quotient (EQ), drawing from existing literature and new research. Previous studies indicated that females generally exhibit higher EQ scores than males, and medical students demonstrate greater empathy compared to non-medical students. The present research supports these findings, suggesting that medical female students are the most empathetic, highlighting the significant roles of gender and educational background in shaping empathy. Earlier research limitations, such as technical glitches in questionnaire distribution and complicated data analysis methods, are acknowledged, emphasizing the need for larger participant samples for more accurate results. The report concludes that social interaction plays a crucial role, with students in people-oriented fields showing higher empathy levels, and suggests that inherent maternal traits contribute to females' heightened empathy.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Background or definition of the study
The study is concentrated on the effects of gender and the educational background on
the quotient of empathy. This have been established through a research that has been
conducted of the females and the medical students. Empathy has different views and different
perspectives. While studying it in an individual manner empathy has been studied as a
personality indicator. It is defined as the ability of an individual to understand and most
importantly to share the feelings of others (Lyons, Brewer & Bethell, 2017). There is a huge
difference between empathy and sympathy. Sympathy is to sympathize with the individuals
who are suffering from a hard situation. Empathy is to feel the same for the person who was
going through the harsh situation. Empathy involves the response towards the identification
of the problems an individual goes through and respond to the same situation. It is evident
that the quotient of empathy was more in the females than the men and it was more in the
medical students than the others. Even in the medical field empathy was more evident among
the females than the males (Jacobs et al., 2016). The report constitutes the earlier research
that was conducted on this and it also includes the present research that was conducted on
this. The research showed that the students who preferred people-oriented specialties scored
higher on the empathy quotient. The research was conducted by applying the primary method
of research.
Previous Research on this topic
According to Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright (2004), this is not a contemporary
issue. The research on this topic has been done since a longer period of time. There is a
difference between the earlier research and the current research. The earlier research showed
that the females showed significant higher score on the Empathy quotient than the males.
According to Guilera, Batalla & Soler-González (2017), the medical students usually show

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a greater level of empathy than the other students. It is evident in the field of nursing.
Empathy refers to a kind of cognitive quality in the nursing profession. The nurses
understands the emotions of the patients and they try to communicate with the patients in the
way the patients want it. This is the reason one of the significant result of the research
included the fact that the students who prefer the people-oriented specialties scored higher on
empathy. The further research of the topic showed the fact that the female students were more
empathetic than the male students who were from the medical background. This was proved
by using the primary method of research that is by using the questionnaire.
Problems with Past Research
There were few problems that were faced in the earlier research process. The earlier
research was based on the primary method that included circulating the link of the
questionnaire to the participants. There was technical glitch in the system. It was found in
many case that the link did not open and the participants could not participate in the research.
The other problem was that the participants had to give their answers through the scoring
keys as a result they could not express anything if they wished to. As a result the findings of
the research was not accurate. It was difficult to find the accurate result of the research. Apart
from this the two-way anova process of research was used that proved to be a complicated
process. It is time-consuming and a difficult process. The one-way anova process is easier
than the two-way anova process. These were the primary problems found in the research
process apart from these, the number of participants for the research were less. The result of
the research would be more appropriate if there would be an increased amount of participants
(Kidron et al., 2018).
Present research

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According to Ferri et al. (2015), the current study aims at making a research of the
fact that the females are more empathetic than the males and the medical students proved to
be more empathetic than the non-medical students. It further proved through the research that
the medical female students were the most empathetic. This is the reason it can be said that
empathy had a huge influence on the gender as well as the educational background. The
recent research has observed the fact that the social interaction had a major role to play in the
context of empathy. The students who study social studies shows higher amount of empathy
and the students who studies business shows much empathy than the students who studies
technology. The reason for this is the social interaction. The person who will be involved in
more social interaction will show more empathy. The female shows more empathy because of
the maternal nature they acquire since their birth. Therefore, it can be concluded by saying
that the gender and the educational background have a huge influence on the empathy
quotient.

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References
Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2004). The empathy quotient: an investigation of adults
with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism, and normal sex differences.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 34(2), 163-175.
Ferri, P., Guerra, E., Marcheselli, L., Cunico, L., & Di Lorenzo, R. (2015). Empathy and
burnout: an analytic cross-sectional study among nurses and nursing students. ACTA
BIO-MEDICA DE L'ATENEO PARMENSE, 86(Supplemento 2), 104-115.
Guilera, T., Batalla, I., & Soler-González, J. (2017). Empathy and specialty preference in
medical students. Follow-up study and feedback. Educación Médical
Jacobs, E. L., deJongh Curry, A. L., Deaton, R. J., Astrone-Figari, C., & Strohmer, D. C.
(2016). Empathy and Gender Inequity in Engineering Disciplines.
Kidron, R., Kaganovskiy, L., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2018). Empathizing-systemizing cognitive
styles: Effects of sex and academic degree. PloS one, 13(3), e0194515.
Lyons, M. T., Brewer, G., & Bethell, E. J. (2017). Sex-Specific Effect of Recalled Parenting
on Affective and Cognitive Empathy in Adulthood. Current Psychology, 36(2), 236-
241.