Teaching social skills to children - and doctors

New study shows empathy ends colds sooner

Nov 18, 2009
bubble 4 comments
Submitted by: Paula Schwed

 Now comes fresh news that the patients of empathetic doctors recover more quickly from the common cold. A study published by the British Psychological Society shows their illness was shorted by approximately one day! The more research is done on the power of social and emotional skills, the more evidence we have that competencies like empathy enrich our lives. This is why it's so important to equip children with these skills from an early age, so they get a head start on happiness.

Learn more about teaching social skills to children

Related topics: British Psychological Society research


Empathy and social and

On December 14th, 2009 cristy mccrery says:

Empathy and social and emotional learning skills should be taught in medical school. These days, you have some doctors who could care less about their patients and more about making a quick buck. As a paying customer, I want to feel comfortable, I don't want to feel like I'm being judged, and I want them to believe me when I say I'm not feeling good. Empathy can be hard to pick up on if you've never been taught how to be empathetic.

Stress and SEL

On November 20th, 2009 Tony Smith says:

Very interesting!  At first, I was thinking that the empathetic doctor must have made the patient feel more relaxed and less stressed.  My next thought was that the lowering of stress is an obvious factor in the decreasing of the length of sickness.  To my surprise the research study indicates that stress level was a controlled variable!  I thought that was interesting because it tells me that SEL really does have an impact on illness recovery even when there are no changes made in the level of stress an individual is experiencing.  Im interested to see what further research is conducted to replicate the same results.

<3

On November 19th, 2009 Liz Mester says:

Attitude is everything and there's no better feeling than someone who understands you!   

Amazing

On November 18th, 2009 Bridget Laird says:

Stepping into the shoes of people helps you talk and deal with them in a different way. The study is no suprise to me!