Emphatic tendency scale for student teachers: Validity and reliability studies

The purpose of this study was to analyze the validity and reliability of the Empathic Tendency Scale, which was deandloped in order to identify student teachers' empathic tendencies. The sampling of the study consisted of 730 student teachers studying at Hacettepe Uniandrsity Faculty of Education. To determine the factor pattern of Empathic Tendency Scale, firstly exploratory factor analysis was carried out and it was found that 29 items had a three-dimensional structure. The Cronbach Alpha (α) reliability coefficient of Empathic Tendency Scale was calculated to be.94; where Empathic Skill subdimension was.91; Empathic Environment subdimension was.88, and Anti-empathetic Attitude subdimension was.82. The test-retest correlation coefficient was calculated to be.83. Exploratory factor analysis was followed by the confirmatory factor analysis applied to the obtained structure. Based on these findings, Empathic Tendency Scale was found to be reliable and valid for determining student teachers' empathic tendencies.