Gender, Empathy, and the Choice of the Psychology Major
Helen C. Harton
Patrick C. Lyons
University of Northern Iowa
We compared male and female psychology majors to psychology
minors and nonmajors to understand the trends in a growing major
in which women outnumber men. A total of 451 psychology ma-
jors, minors, and nonmajors from 4 institutions completed a ques-
tionnaire measuring empathy, career goals, and perceptions of the
importance of empathy for therapy. Perspective taking and a desire
to enter a helping profession mediated the relation between gender
and major, suggesting that personality contributes to the choice of a
psychology major. Highly empathic students may choose psychol-
ogy because they believe that empathy is important for success in
clinical and counseling psychology.
The number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in psychology
increased 59% from 1986 to 1992, mainly because of an in-
crease in the number of women majoring in psychology (Mc-
Donald, 1997). By 1995, 73% of students graduating with a
major in psychology were women (National Center for Edu-
cation Statistics, 1999). Although female enrollment in
other social and physical science majors has also increased
during the past few decades, no other major has had as great
an increase as psychology (Howard et al., 1986).
There has also been a corresponding increase in female ad-
missions to graduate study and receipt of PhDs in psychology
(Pion et al., 1996). In 1995, 72% of those graduating with a
master’s degree in psychology were women, and 63% of those
obtaining a doctoral degree in psychology were women (Na-
tional Center for Education Statistics, 1999), up from only
33% of the doctoral recipients in 1971 (Pion et al., 1996).
The primary reason for this increase, at least at the doctoral
level, is an increase in the number of women pursuing clini-
cal, counseling, and school psychology PhDs (Pion et al.,
1996).
An American Psychological Association task force (Pion
et al., 1996) investigated this changing gender composition
in psychology. Although they found no evidence that the in-
creasing participation of women in psychology led to de-
creased prestige for the profession (see also Ostertag &
McNamara, 1991) as others feared (e.g., Keyes & Hogberg,
1990), they concluded that “obtaining a better understand-
ing of the nature, magnitude, and causes of these shifts is crit-
ical for the continued health of both the discipline and the
profession” (Pion et al., 1996, p. 526).
Pion et al. (1996) suggested that an expansion in outpa-
tient mental health services during the 1970s and 1980s fu-
eled an increase in job opportunities and student interest in
the health service provider subfields of psychology (i.e., clini-
cal, counseling, and school psychology). Women’s interest in
Vol. 30 No. 1, 2003
these areas, coupled with antidiscrimination laws and a new
focus on women’s studies, may have made psychology partic-
ularly enticing and increasingly available to women. McDon-
ald (1997) agreed that at least three factors—an increased
awareness of job opportunities in applied settings, a greater
demand for psychological services, and changes in the per-
ception of psychology by students—combined to attract
more women to psychology. These changes in perceptions in-
clude the view of psychology as more profession than science
(Webb & Speer, 1985). This view may have increased
women’s interest whereas decreasing men’s, as men are more
likely than women to be interested in careers as scientists
(O’Brien, Martinez-Pons, & Kopala, 1999). Other men may
have been discouraged from entering psychology because of
the lower pay for psychologists relative to past decades and to
other sciences as well as a shrinking academic job market
(Pion et al., 1996).
Metzner, Rajecki, and Lauer (1994) used a personological
approach to study the causes of increased female participa-
tion by examining gender differences in academic pathways
and career plans for psychology majors at an urban public
university. Only two small gender differences emerged: Men
were more likely to report majoring in psychology because of
“higher grades,” and women were more likely to report “help-
ing others.” Metzner et al. concluded that more knowledge
about a psychology major’s individual characteristics is nec-
essary to understand better why women outnumber men in
psychology programs.
In this study, we investigated whether part of the reason
women are increasingly interested in psychology is that
women are (or at least believe they are) high in empathy,
which many people believe is a strength for those pursuing
the helping professions. Lay people and college students
alike often see psychology as more a helping profession than
a science of human behavior (Webb & Speer, 1985). This
emphasis on the helping others aspect of psychology seems
to be at least in part behind the increased participation of
women in the major (McDonald, 1997; Metzner et al.,
1994; Pion et al., 1996). Because of this common percep-
tion, those skills that are perceived to be useful for the prac-
tice of psychology will be those that students use to guide
them into the major.
Empathy is a multidimensional concept, including feel-
ings of concern for a person in need (empathic concern)
and a tendency to take the perspective of other people in
everyday life (perspective taking; Davis, 1996). Self-report
measures consistently show that women are higher in em-
pathy than men, but physiological measures generally show
19
no gender differences (Eisenberg & Lennon, 1983). One
possible reason for this discrepancy is the influence of sex
role stereotypes on self-report measures. Women may be-
lieve that they are expected to be compassionate and caring
and respond by trying to present this expectation on the
measures (Davis, 1996).
Women’s greater feelings of empathy (whether perceived,
actual, or socialized) may contribute to their interest in help-
ing professions. Women in psychology are more interested
than men in learning how to help others (McGovern &
Hawks, 1986; Metzner et al., 1994), working with children
and the elderly, and gaining practical experience in applied
settings (McGovern & Hawks, 1986). Ware and Meyer
(1981) reported that women with bachelor’s degrees in psy-
chology were more likely than men to pursue human services
occupations after graduation. However, a more recent inves-
tigation (Metzner et al., 1994) found no gender differences in
postgraduate plans.
Empathy plays an active role in several schools of ther-
apy (Keijsers, Schaap, & Hoogduin, 2000; Parloff, Waskow,
& Wolfe, 1978). It facilitates and enhances therapeutic
outcome (Keijsers et al., 2000) and is associated with satis-
faction with therapeutic work (Hall, Davis, & Connelly,
2000). In fact, female psychologists who are primarily prac-
titioners report higher empathy levels than those who are
primarily scientists, and more empathic therapists of both
genders report more satisfaction with their work (Hall et
al., 2000). Women and men who perceive themselves as
empathic may thus be attracted to a field (clinical or coun-
seling psychology) in which they see empathy playing a key
role in their success.
In this study, we investigated the characteristics of psy-
chology majors by comparing not only male and female ma-
jors, but also comparing majors to psychology minors and
majors in other disciplines at four institutions. We tested one
explanation for the increase in female psychology students,
namely that perceptions of higher levels of empathy in
women, coupled with the general belief that empathy is im-
portant for therapeutic outcome, have led women increas-
ingly to choose psychology because of their perceived ability
to excel in a psychological (helping) career. In other words,
we believe that the relation between gender and choice of a
psychology major may be mediated by empathy and a desire
to enter a helping profession.
Method
Participants
Four hundred fifty-one students participated in the study.
We recruited students through sophomore-level or higher
psychology courses at the University of Northern Iowa (a me-
dium-sized public university), Florida Atlantic University (an
urban public university), and the University of Rochester (a
northeastern private university). We also recruited students
from Introduction to Psychology courses at Monmouth Col-
lege (a small Midwestern liberal arts college) and University
of Northern Iowa. Table 1 describes the demographic charac-
teristics of the participants.
Measures
Demographic information. Students provided back-
ground information on class year, gender, ethnicity, and
whether psychology was their major, minor, or neither.
Postgraduate plans. Students indicated their postbac-
calaureate plans by ranking up to 3 choices from a list of 11

Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of Participants

a b c
Characteristics Major Minor Nonmajor

Gender
Male 26 31 36
Female 71 67 63
Class standing
First year 7 25 29
Sophomore 13 16 22
Junior 32 16 20
Senior 46 43 23
Other 2 0 5
Ethnicity
African American/Black 4 4 3
Asian/Asian American 2 2 4
Hispanic 5 0 7
White 88 92 88
Other 1 0 1
School
University of Northern Iowa 73 71 63
Monmouth College 7 20 27
Florida Atlantic University 9 10 7
University of Rochester 10 0 3

Note. Three students did not indicate their major and are not included in the table. Numbers represent
percentages of the major status category. Sections may not add to 100% due to missing data or rounding.
a
n =192. bn = 51. cn = 205.

20 Teaching of Psychology
categories (including “other” and “I am completely undecided
now”). The categories relevant to this investigation were “hu-
man service agency” and “graduate/professional school” (af-
ter which students specified what type of graduate training
they intended to pursue).
Empathy. Students self-reported levels of empathic
concern (seven items; α = .76) and perspective taking (seven
items; α = .78) using these subscales of Davis’s (1983) Inter-
personal Reactivity Index. A sample empathic concern item is
“I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortu-
nate than me,” and a sample perspective taking item is “Be-
fore criticizing somebody, I try to imagine how I would feel if I
were in their place.” Participants responded to each item on a
5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly
agree). These two scales were moderately correlated, r(443) =
.40, p < .001, indicating that they measured related, but dis-
tinct constructs.
Perceptions of empathy. A single item measured the be-
lief that empathy is important for therapy on a 5-point scale
ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Reasons for clinical or counseling psychology. Students
rated how important they believed eight items would be to a
student’s decision to become a clinical or counseling psychol-
ogist using 5-point scales ranging from 1 (very unimportant) to
5 (very important).
Procedure
Students completed the questionnaire in groups in a class-
room setting. We based the categories for the postgraduation
plans sections on Metzner et al. (1994). The demographic in-
formation and career plan items were first on all forms. On
half the questionnaires, the empathy items were next, fol-
lowed by the reasons for clinical or counseling psychology ca-
reers. On the other half, these sections were reversed. Other
questionnaire items not relevant to this article included rea-
sons for choosing the major (based on Metzner et al., 1994),
satisfaction with the psychology program, volunteer/work ex-
periences, and perceptions of empathy.
Results
Plan of Analysis
We included the maximum number of responses in each
analysis; that is, a missing value on one item did not neces-
sarily prevent a person’s responses on other items from be-
ing included in a particular analysis. For categorical data
(e.g., demographics), we computed separate chi-square
analyses for gender and major status. For continuous data
(e.g., empathy), we computed two sets of one-way
ANOVAs with gender (male, female) and major status
(psychology major, psychology minor, nonmajor) as inde-
pendent variables. We also computed two-way ANOVAs
on these data to test for interactions, but there were none.
Vol. 30 No. 1, 2003
Because of the unequal cell sizes, we obtained slightly dif-
ferent results using each method (the two-way method uses
weighted averages for the tests of the main effects), but in
no case were the conclusions from the two-way and
one-way analyses different. We present the results of the
one-way analyses here. For each group of tests (e.g., com-
parisons of reasons by gender), we held the overall alpha
level at .05 using the Bonferroni procedure (Winer, Brown,
& Michels, 1991).
Demographic Information
There were no gender differences in class, ethnicity, or
major status. Psychology majors, however, were more ad-
vanced in their college career than the nonmajors, χ2(8, N =
446) = 59.73, p < .001 (see Table 1).
Empathy
Women were higher in empathic concern, F(1, 437) =
24.48, p < .001, and perspective taking, F(1, 435) = 17.68, p
< .001, than men. Psychology majors were higher in em-
pathic concern, F(2, 441) = 4.93, p = .008, than nonmajors
and higher in perspective taking, F(2, 441) = 12.81, p <
.001, than minors or nonmajors (see Table 2).
Reasons for Clinical or Counseling Psychology
There were no gender or major differences in students’ rat-
ings of how important particular reasons were to the decision
to become a clinical or counseling psychologist. A repeated
measures ANOVA revealed that the highest rated items
were concern for others (M = 4.64, SD = 0.65) and helping
others (M = 4.64, SD = 0.69), followed by training (M =
4.49, SD = 0.69), academic success (M = 4.14, SD = 0.80)
and assertiveness (M = 4.07, SD = 0.79), independence (M
= 3.81, SD = 0.88), earnings potential (M = 3.46, SD =
1.05), and prestige (M = 3.28, SD = 1.05), F(7, 438) =
96.55, p < .001.
Empathy and a Career in the Helping Professions
Ninety-seven percent of our sample agreed or strongly
agreed that concern for others is an important factor in de-
ciding whether to be a clinical or counseling psychologist,
and 68% agreed or strongly agreed that empathy is important
for effective therapy. This finding indicates a general belief
among the sample that empathy is important for ther-
apy-related careers and suggests that students who are higher
in empathy might be more interested in these careers. Stu-
dents who expressed an interest in a counseling-type career
(graduate school in counseling or clinical psychology or a hu-
man services profession) were higher in empathic concern,
F(1, 446) = 9.33, p = .003 (M = 28.49, SD = 3.34 vs. M =
27.42, SD = 3.82), and perspective taking, F(1, 445) =
16.76, p < .001 (M = 27.24, SD = 3.66 vs. M = 25.69, SD =
4.12), than those who did not express this interest in the
postgraduate plans section.
21
 Table 2 Empathetic Concern and Perspective Taking by Gender and Major Status

Gender

Male Female Overall

Variable M SD M SD M SD

Empathetic concern
Majors 27.06 3.53 28.56 3.29 28.38a 3.36
n 48 137 185
Minors 27.12 3.14 28.56 3.01 28.10a,b 3.06
n 16 34 50
Nonmajors 25.70 4.29 28.15 3.46 27.25b 3.98
n 73 128 201
Overall 26.60c 4.02 28.42d 3.34 27.85 3.67
n 137 299 436
Perspective taking
Majors 27.06 3.53 27.42 3.58 27.36e 3.55
n 49 137 186
Minors 24.38 3.72 26.03 4.08 25.44f 3.98
n 16 33 49
Nonmajors 23.97 5.00 26.33 3.43 25.49f 4.18
n 72 127 199
Overall 25.12g 4.59 26.84h 4.18 26.32 4.00
n 137 297 434

Note. Empathic concern and perspective taking could range from 7 to 35, with higher numbers indicating higher levels of the construct. Means
within the overall columns and rows for each dependent variable that share the same subscript are not significantly different at p < .01.

Gender, Personality, Career Interests, Discussion

and the Psychology Major
According to Baron and Kenny (1986), to show that per-
sonality and interest in the helping professions mediate the
relation between gender and the choice of the psychology
major, we must show relations between gender and em-
pathic concern, perspective taking, and interest. We have
already presented data showing that women were higher in
empathy than men. Women were also more likely to indi-
cate a career interest in human services or clinical or coun-
seling psychology than men (47% vs. 25%), χ2(1, N = 434)
= 18.53, p < .001.
The second criterion for mediation is to show a relation
between gender and choice of major. A greater percentage of
psychology majors (74%) than nonmajors (including minors,
65%) were women, χ2(1, N = 438) = 3.99, p = .046. (These
percentages are slightly different from those in Table 1 be-
cause this analysis did not include participants who did not
indicate their gender.)
Finally, if there is mediation, gender should no longer
predict major status when empathy and interests are in-
cluded in the model. We predicted choice of major (psy-
chology vs. nonpsychology) using logistic regression, with
gender, empathic concern, perspective taking, and interest
in a helping career as predictors, χ2(4, N = 434) = 40.25, p
< .001, –2LL = 541.26, PAC = 62%. Only perspective
taking (β = .11, Wald = 12.75, p < .001) and interest in a
helping profession (β = .72, Wald = 11.63, p = .001) inde-
pendently predicted choice of major. Thus, empathy, or at
least the perspective-taking component of empathy, and de-
sire to help others mediated the relation between gender
and the psychology major.
Psychology majors reported more concern for others and a
greater tendency to take other people’s perspectives than did
minors or nonmajors, suggesting that personality may con-
tribute to the choice of a psychology major. Another possibil-
ity is that taking psychology courses may lead students to feel
more empathy, but we find this possibility less likely for at
least two reasons. First, researchers assume that empathy is a
stable trait (Davis, 1996), and thus it is not likely to change
significantly during the college years. Second, although we
did not have a measure of how many psychology classes stu-
dents had taken, we did know their class status. If taking psy-
chology courses causes students to report more empathy and
perspective taking, psychology majors who have been in col-
lege longer (and likely have taken more psychology courses)
should be higher in empathy than those earlier in their col-
lege career. There was no relation between class standing and
empathic concern or perspective taking, however, either
overall or for male and female psychology majors separately.
This finding suggests that empathy likely precedes the choice
of the major and is not a consequence of taking more psychol-
ogy courses.
Empathy and the Increasing Percentage of Women
in Psychology
Perspective taking and an interest in the helping professions
mediated the often-discussed relation between gender and
choice of the psychology major. Women (and particularly em-
pathic men) may be attracted to psychology because of their
self-perceived higher levels of empathy and the belief shared by

22 Teaching of Psychology
the majority of our sample that high levels of empathy make
one well suited for a career in clinical or counseling psychology.
Any increase in female participation in the psychology major
may then be a function of the extent to which characteristics
such as empathy differ by gender. Future research should ex-
amine other potential mediators and moderators of the gen-
der–major relation, including personality variables and
childhood and adolescent experiences, to provide further in-
formation about why students choose the psychology major.
Research should also focus on the perception of psychology as
practice versus science and how this perception may relate to
the gender distribution of the psychology major. Because men
are more interested in science careers than women and have
higher mathematical self-efficacy (which is necessary for a ca-
reer in science; O’Brien et al., 1999), they may be drawn to psy-
chology as a science more than women.
We measured two components of empathy in this study,
empathic concern and perspective taking. Although women
and psychology majors were higher than other students on
both components, only perspective taking mediated the rela-
tion between gender and choosing the psychology major. The
tendency to see things from another’s point of view seems to
be more important in predicting an interest in psychology
than concern for others alone. Perspective taking is less heri-
table than empathic concern (Davis, Luce, & Kraus, 1994)
and may be affected by childhood experiences that encourage
children to take others’ points of view (Peterson &
Skevington, 1988). Perhaps these childhood experiences
lead students to be more interested in psychology.
Limitations
There were at least two confounds in our study that sug-
gest caution when generalizing these results. First, majors
were more advanced in their education than nonmajors or
minors. Although this condition did not seem to affect the
personality measures, length of time in school may affect ca-
reer goals. Second, the Monmouth College sample consisted
of a smaller percentage of majors than the samples from the
other institutions. Unfortunately, there were restrictions in
the classes we could survey, and we had little knowledge
about the proportion of majors, minors, and nonmajors in the
courses until after we administered the surveys. We could not
control for these demographic confounds because of the
small cell sizes that would result from dividing the sample by
all possible independent variables. Future research should
control for such variables and compare the characteristics of
majors in liberal arts colleges and research universities.
Implications for the Teaching of Psychology
Simply stating that women outnumber men in psychology
programs does not necessarily help educators address why or
what to do about the gender distribution. Understanding the
mediators of the relation between gender and the choice of
the major can. Given that perspective taking and a desire to
enter a helping profession are guides to choosing the psychol-
ogy major for both women and men, to try to balance the gen-
der ratio, academics should (a) target those men who may be
high in perspective taking, perhaps by emphasizing an under-
Vol. 30 No. 1, 2003
standing of others in program descriptions, and (b) work to
change the public perception that psychology is a profession
rather than a science.
Although psychology departments do not seem to be in
the position of needing to attract more students (see Mc-
Donald, 1997; Shepperd, 1993), a consumer-driven inter-
pretation of our results suggests that departments should
respond to student interests by offering more applied classes
in areas such as clinical psychology or behavior analysis. In-
ternships and experiential learning activities in the commu-
nity may also be valuable experiences for students
interested in these areas. At the extreme, however, these
remedies may lead to further dichotomization of psychol-
ogy, eroding the strength of psychology’s broad base (see
Howard et al., 1986). Departments may have to choose be-
tween offering a liberal arts, scientific-based major that may
not fit the expectations and desires of many students and
offering an increasingly “occupationalized” major that
moves psychology away from its traditional underpinnings
(for curricular recommendations relevant to this discussion,
see Brewer et al., 1993).
The perception of students that psychology is a profession
rather than a science has several disadvantages. Psychology
departments may attract students who would be better
served in other majors that are more professionally based,
such as social work, and lose students who are interested in
the scientific method but do not associate that approach with
psychology, eventually impacting the quality and quantity of
research in psychology. A decrease in the number of psycho-
logical scientists may stymie the progress of research on ther-
apeutic interventions as well as the understanding of human
behavior in general, ironically leading to a less effective prac-
tice of psychology. The field may also decline in prestige and
impact with the public (see Howard et al., 1986).
Psychology faculty generally seem to hope that students
who are initially attracted to the profession of psychology will
come to realize and embrace the importance of the scientific
method for all branches of psychology (see Friedrich, 1996),
but whether they do is an empirical question and one to
which we do not know the answer. Although student
misperceptions about psychology decrease with class stand-
ing, they remain considerable (e.g., Gardner & Dalsing,
1986), and both students and their parents perceive psychol-
ogy as more profession than science (Webb & Speer, 1985).
What can instructors do to curb this perception? Brewer
et al. (1993) suggested that instructors should emphasize
scientific thinking in the classroom. Statistics and method-
ology courses can help (Friedrich, 1996), as can having stu-
dents write essays promoting the scientific method in
psychology (Friedrich, 1990). Another way to emphasize
the scientific applications of psychology to students is to ex-
pose them to psychologists other than academics and prac-
titioners. Although most academics and many practitioners
are also practicing researchers, students may focus on one
role to the exclusion of the others. Introducing students
early and often to other opportunities for psychology ca-
reers (e.g., doing research in industry, for a political re-
search group, or for a nonprofit organization) may also help
attract men and women who are more interested in the sci-
entific dimension of psychology.
23
 Conclusions
This study provides new insight into who chooses to be-
come a psychology major and gives a positive portrait of the
prototypical major: an empathic person who wants to help
others. Women may outnumber men not because male and
female psychology majors are “different,” but because women
are more likely to perceive themselves as high in characteris-
tics such as empathy that both men and women believe are
important for success in clinical and counseling psychology.
This increased emphasis by students and the general public
on the practice of psychology at the expense of the science of
psychology may have effects on student recruitment and sat-
isfaction as well as the contributions, effectiveness, and pres-
tige of the field.
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Notes
1. We thank Marty Bourgeois, Scott Clair, and Jon Grahe for their
assistance with data collection and Adam Butler and Jon Grahe
for their comments on a previous draft of this article.
2. Send correspondence to Helen C. Harton, Department of Psy-
chology, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA
50614–0505; e-mail: harton@uni.edu.
Teaching of Psychology