Research Initiation: Development and Initial Validation of an Engineering Empathy Scale

工程师被要求解决的问题是复杂的，不仅从智力严谨的角度来看，而且从解决方案中必须考虑的无数社会、伦理和人的因素来看。为此，同理心是工程师理解这些复杂问题并提供满足社会需求的解决方案所需要的基本技能。然而，同理心在占主导地位的工程文化中被贬低了，而且在很大程度上没有被纳入大学工程形成。为了纠正这种工程形成上的差距，更多的研究者必须研究工程中的移情，并为工程师创造与移情培训相关的干预措施和工具。为了能够评估和装备一个更有同理心的工程师，与工程相关和特定的同理心能力必须是可测量的。本项目的目的是创建一个工程移情量表（EES）来衡量职业前工程师、执业工程师和工程教育工作者的移情能力。通过使用工程特定的共情场景，EES将克服工程形成中的当前问题，即一般的共情知识与其在工程学科中的作用之间的脱节。通过了解移情在工程中的作用，工程师将能够更好地理解他们工作的背景、价值观和驱动力，并与那些受他们工作影响的人联系和沟通。这些特点将使工程师能够更好地全面服务社会。该项目还将把PI引入工程教育领域，并增加研究工程同理心的研究人员的数量。目前，很少有研究描述工程实践和教育中的共情表现场景，也没有定量的量表来评估工程师在工程具体场景中的共情能力。EES的发展将受到两个关键研究问题的推动：在工程具体情况下，共情是如何在概念上被感知、体验和表现的？工程的具体情况是否可以用来衡量工程学生、教师和从业人员的同理心？同理心的三个构念：认知构念、情感构念和行为构念，以及工程中的同理心模型，为EES的发展提供了理论指导。利用这一框架，研究团队将与实践工程师和工程教育工作者进行半结构化的焦点小组，以获得在工程实践和教育活动的特定背景下对移情思想、情感和表现的详细描述。焦点小组叙述将被分析，以产生在工程共情的总体主题。由此产生的主题将用于开发大量关于工程特定场景中的移情的问题。这个初始问题集将经过专家和新手的审查，小组成员之间的编码协议将用于选择问题集进行初始验证。通过对工科学生对EES的反应进行验证性因子分析，确定EES的初始验证性和可靠性。这项提议的完成将导致一个量化评估工具，EES，将被公开，以便工程教育者和雇佣工程师的公司可以使用该工具来反思和指示移情培训的有效性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The problems engineers are called to solve are complex, not just from an intellectually rigorous perspective, but also from the myriad of societal, ethical, and human elements that must be considered in the solution. To this end, empathy is an essential skill needed by engineers to understand these complex problems and provide solutions that meet the needs of society. Empathy, however, is devalued within dominant engineering culture and largely not included in collegiate engineering formation. To correct this gap in engineering formation, more researchers must study empathy in engineering and create interventions and tools related to empathy training for engineers. To be able to assess and equip a more empathetic engineer, empathetic capabilities relevant and specific to engineering must be measurable. The aim of this project is to create an Engineering Empath Scale (EES) to measure empathy in pre-career engineers, practicing engineers, and engineering educators. Through the use of engineering specific empathetic scenarios, the EES will overcome a current issue in engineering formation, a disconnect between knowledge of empathy generally and its role within the discipline of engineering. Through knowledge of the role of empathy within engineering, engineers will be better able to understand the context, values, and driving forces of their work and relate to and communicate with those impacted by their work. These traits will allow engineers to better holistically serve society. This project will also introduce the PI to the field of engineering education and increase the number of researchers studying empathy in engineering. Currently, few studies describe scenarios of empathetic displays within engineering practice and education and no quantitative scale exists to assess an engineer’s empathetic abilities in engineering specific scenarios. The development of the EES will be driven by two key research questions: How is empathy conceptually perceived, experienced, and shown in engineering specific situations? and Can engineering specific situations be used to measure empathy in engineering students, faculty, and practitioners? Theoretical guidance for development of the EES comes from the three constructs of empathy: cognitive, affective, and behavioral, and a model for empathy in engineering. Using this framework, the research team will conduct semi-structured focus groups with practicing engineers and engineering educators to obtain detailed descriptions of empathetic thoughts, emotions, and displays within the specific context of engineering practice and education activities. Focus group narratives will be analyzed to produce overarching themes of empathy in engineering. The themes that result will be used to develop a large set of questions regarding empathy in engineering specific scenarios. This initial question set will go through expert and novice review and coding agreement between panel members will be used to select the question set for initial validation. Initial validation and reliability of the EES will be determined through confirmatory factor analysis of engineering students’ responses to the EES. Accomplishment of this proposal will result in a quantitative assessment tool, the EES, to be made publicly available so that engineering educators, and companies that employee engineers, can use the tool for reflection and indication of empathy training effectiveness.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.