Comparison of empathy levels, communication skills and stress coping strategies between students from psychology department and other departments

The aim of this study is to compare the students from psychology department with students from other departments, in terms of empathy, communication skills, and stress coping strategies. Furthermore, the effects of the variables, such as the sex, the age, the number of siblings, the birth order, the educational level of parents, the income status on empathy, communication skills and stress coping strategies have been investigated in this research. The sample of this study consisted of 400 university students between the ages 18-27 from neighbourhood Ayazağa, İstanbul. Coping with Stress Scale, Communication Scale and Empathetic Tendency Scale have been used as data collection devices. Meanwhile, in order to identify the socio-demographical characteristics of the individuals, a Personal Information Form has been constituted by the researcher. The results have revealed that the self-confidence levels of psychology students are higher than the mathematics students, women have higher levels of communication skills than men, and older individuals have higher empathy levels compared to those of younger individuals. No statistical significance has been detected in terms of income levels and socioeconomical status. In the discussion part, results have been discussed with the results of the recent literature and some suggestions have been made to the researchers, psychological counselors and families, based on these findings.