The Self-Esteem of Pedagogy Students and Their Empathetic Understanding of Other People

Abstract

Self-esteem influences the perception of other people and the surrounding world. If it is adequate, it allows an individual to appropriately judge their potential and achieve success. An overly high self-esteem leads to undertaking tasks too difficult, whereas an overly low self-esteem causes withdrawal and defensive reactions. In the pedagogical profession, self-esteem plays an important role, and self-acceptance related to it constitutes the basis for acceptance of pupils. The ability to empathize with children and adolescents is also important. The aim of the conducted research, the results of which are presented in this paper, was to examine whether or not the self-perception of pedagogy students influences their levels of empathy towards other people.