الملخص الإنجليزي
This study aimed to identify the level and the relationship between emotional empathy and its attitudes towards mental diseases in a community sample of Nizwa University students. In addition, it aimed to find out if there are statistically significant differences in the emotional empathy and attitudes towards mental illness based on gender and education (BA- MA). The population of this study consisted of (507) students males and females in Nizwa University. The researcher employed a descriptive methodology approach in his study. To achieve the aims of the study, he applied two tools: emotional empathy questions prepared by (Shahada, 2016) and attitudes towards mental illness questions prepared by (Shanan, 2015) after investigating the suitability of their psychometric characteristics to the purposes of the study. The study concludes the following results:
- 61.3% of the sample study occurred in the third quarterly, which reflects high emotional empathy, and it is more in the females.
- 72.13% of the sample study have positive attitudes towards mental illness,
- There is a positive significant correlation at the (0.215) level among the level of
emotional empathy and its six-dimensions and the degrees of the attitude towards
mental illness variable and it three-dimensions.
-- There are differences which are statistically significant at the (0.05)level due to the social type variable in emotional empathy questions in favor of females students while there are no statistically significant differences between males and
females in attitudes towards mental illness questions.
- There are no statistically significant differences at the (0.05) level because of education variable in emotional empathy questions while there are statistically significant differences in attitudes towards mental disease questions in favor of MA students.
According to the results of this study and its discussion, the researcher recommends:
1. The need to focus on building counselling programs to raise the level of emotional
empathy among the university students.
2. The need to focus on preparing counselling programs in mental health to the university students to provide appropriate knowledge on mental illness to facilitate the formation of positive attitudes towards mental illness.
