The Comparison of Empathy and Self-Confidence Levels of Physical Education and Sports School Students

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Empathy
As social beings, humans cannot live alone.While human beings meet their physical needs to survive, they need other people to maintain their social life.People need to communicate and live together with others in order to lead a social life.A person needs to understand themselves and then others to be able to communicate with other people more healthily.Establishing quality and strong communication requires a wealth of knowledge and skills.Communicating otherwise may be interrupted or may not be possible.Having good communication skills means that you will be able to convey your feelings and thoughts clearly to others.Sharing your feelings and thoughts with others helps you build trust and communicate better with others (Atkinson et al., 2012).Empathy, in the process of its transition from Greek to English: The Greek term empatheia, which means "feeling inner intuitions", was first used by aesthetic theorists to mean "the ability to understand and perceive one's private, private experience".It is defined as the ability to recognize, understand and comprehend oneself and to experience the emotions of others.While empathy is communicating correctly, it is interpreting the other person's emotions without properly recognizing and understanding the other person's emotions in the communication process.From understanding other people's emotions to sales and management skills to relationships and parenting, to sharing the pain of others and mobilizing them, empathy can be found in many areas (Goleman, 2019).
stage", it reflects the opinion or approach of the society or the majority in the environment, regardless of the feelings, thoughts, or perspectives of the person himself/herself or the empathic individual.At this stage, one reacts with proverbs, idioms, or stereotypes (Özbek, 2010).
The main characteristic of this stage is that the self is at the forefront.Here, the individual prefers to give advice instead of understanding the other person and shows a critical attitude toward the other person.These reactions of the individual can be considered as an indicator of a superficial inadequate or incomplete empathy process.This inadequacy shows that the individual's individual and emotional empathy components are not fully involved in the processes (Özcan, 2012).
In "you step", the individual cognitively assumes the role of the person with whom he/she empathizes and tries to see and understand the events from the perspective of the other person.In this step, the listener (target) tries to listen and understand the event or situation described by focusing only on the feelings and thoughts of the individual he/she empathizes with (listens to) instead of expressing his/her feelings and thoughts objectively (Özen, 2015).

The Importance of Empathy in Sports
Competing within the concept of exercise and sport can lead to empathic feelings and sometimes cold feelings.The desire to win, which is present in people who play sports, can sometimes lead to a lack of empathy.In individuals with sufficient knowledge, skills, and competence, the desire to win evolves into non-empathic emotions.Increasing the unity, harmony, and understanding of order in the team can lead to an increase in the level of empathy in athletes.Therefore, it can be stated that the level of empathy in teams and the empathic tendencies of athletes are in a direct relationship.One of the factors that cause an increase in the level of success in teams is the increase in empathic tendency (Dorak & Vurgun, 2004).Because of the competition inherent in sports, it can cause antipathic emotions from time to time and empathic emotions from time to time.The ambition of athletes to win the struggle can deprive them of empathy.Nevertheless, people with the necessary training, knowledge, and skills can manage this emotion very easily (Gülle, 2015).Fans, coaches, and administrators in sports during competitions may sometimes exhibit undesirable unsportsmanlike behaviors due to the excitement and stress of the current environment.From time to time, these behaviors sometimes reach the level of aggression.From this point of view, an empathic attitude in sportive activities can reduce such behaviors.The referee who manages the game in the competition or the person who perceives what the athlete in front of him feels can make the game more enjoyable by thinking logically, even though he is under pressure and stress during the competition (Özbalta, 2018).

Self-Confidence
Self-confidence means having feelings and beliefs about the ability to make decisions and act courageously, without fear, knowing yourself and your limits.Self-confidence can be expressed as a personality trait that mediates the ability to face the difficulties we face in life and to gain the power to endure without giving up in the face of difficulties (Özçağlayan, 2012).According to Eldeleklioğlu (2004), self-confidence is one of the most important determinants of attitude and is related to situations such as loving oneself, thinking that one is sufficient, acting positively towards oneself, believing that one can control oneself, accepting oneself as one is, and knowing oneself in all aspects.
In daily life, self-confidence is perceived as a feeling of being cool, calm, and relaxed, an absolute belief in performing well and achieving a positive outcome, an absence of fear and anxiety, an absence of self-doubt, and absence of negative thoughts about failure (Harris, 2011).

Personality Characteristics of High and Low Self-Confidence Individuals
Individuals with this self-confidence can be more sincere, warmer, and more reliable in their communication and relationships with their environment.High self-confidence helps the individual to achieve his/her life goals by providing more practical solutions to the problems encountered and being more resilient against problems (Bilgin, 2017).Self-confident people change, and even if they fail, they firmly believe that the next attempt will bring them success.In the face of life's difficulties, they do not get depressed and do not lose hope.Challenges are easily overcome and their philosophy is to set lifelong goals and work hard until they reach them.The most important characteristic of a confident person is that they are combative and productive.As they know their situation well, they know whether they are strong enough and whether the struggle is successful or not.Because they do not like to shape their lives according to the wishes of others, they prefer to make and manage their own decisions, that is, to keep everything under their control (Göknar, 2015).
Low self-confidence people hate attention and reject the praise that comes with success.People have not yet fully discovered themselves and are not aware of their talents, skills, strengths, and weaknesses.When a person does not know his or her strengths, there is no way to evaluate his or her qualities.Not knowing his or her weaknesses makes it difficult for him or her to accept himself or herself.The result of all this is the belief that nothing can be achieved (Günalp, 2007).Low self-esteem is characterized by an inability to make positive judgments, to evaluate them within one's development, to make decisions and realize creative value, to adhere to certain fixed rules, not accept or change risks that may lead to mistakes, does not focus on the strength of others or the success of others, lives on the strength of others or the success of others, pays attention to one's success, one's appearance and attention, attractive and expensive clothes or the desire to drive a car.Apart from this, the desire for cleanliness, food, and order, being the center of attention and attention, the tendency to feel important, the tendency to see loss or loss as an affirmation of personal value, such as excessive preoccupation with competition and winning, and the tendency to be workaholics who try to show others how important they are by trying to prove themselves are also characteristic of people with low self-esteem.The decline in confidence resulting from disappointments in life causes that confidence to collapse in the face of events (Ödemiş, 2014).

Place and Date of the Research
This research was conducted with the students of the physical education and sports teaching department, coaching department, and sports management department at Batman University School of Physical Education and Sports in the 2022-2023 academic year.

Type of Research
This research aims to compare the empathy and self-confidence levels of students studying at the School of Physical Education and Sports according to different variables, and the relational survey model was used to achieve this goal.This model is a screening model used to determine the existence of change and differentiation between two or more variables.In this model, it is tried to determine how there is a differentiation in variables and whether the variables change together (Karasar, 2011).

Population and Sample of the Study
The population of our research consists of 786 students studying in the departments of physical education and sports teaching, coaching, and sports management at Batman University School of Physical Education and Sports.
In the sample of the study, 400 students were selected from this population by simple random sampling method.This method gives each sample selection an equal chance of being selected in the study.The entire sample was reached in the study.

Data Collection Tools and Features
The empathy scale and self-confidence scale were used to collect data in the study.The Empathy Scale was developed by Lawrence et al. ( 2004) and adapted into Turkish by Bora and Baysan (2009).The Turkish version of the scale consists of 60 items.Twenty of these items are distractors that distract attention and prevent the person from concentrating on the purpose of the test.Therefore, the remaining 40 items are taken into consideration in scoring.The respondent marks the 4-choice questions among the options with two opposite answers, "strongly agree" and "strongly disagree".In scoring, the least empathetic answer is evaluated as 0, the most empathetic answer as 2, and the second empathetic answer as 1 point.The scores obtained as a result of this evaluation vary between 0 and 80 points.In the scoring, the answer "strongly disagree" in some questions and "strongly agree" in others indicates an empathetic response (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004).
The self-confidence Scale was developed by Akın (2007) in a theoretical framework based on Bandura's self-efficacy theory to determine the academic self-efficacy levels of high school students.By conducting a comprehensive literature review, information on the concept of self-confidence was analyzed and a theoretical basis for the scale was tried to be established.In addition to the literature review, the items in similar scales were examined and it was decided that the information that was thought to measure self-confidence was one of the items of the scale.In this process, since the items that provided the clearest information were used in the scale, questions that were considered to be ambiguous were removed.Therefore, 56 items were evaluated in total.To determine the students' choice of comprehensible and incomprehensible topics, 87 university students were used in the pilot application.As a result of the completion of this form, 8 items that were marked by 25% or more of the students and 4 items that were not thought to measure self-confidence sufficiently according to the experts were removed from the scale.The remaining 44 items were recorded on a five-point Likert scale ("1 -never", "2 -sometimes", "3 -often", "4 -usually", "5 -always"), and the validity and reliability of these items were examined (Akın, 2007).

Data Collection Method and Data Analysis
Research data were obtained by distributing empathy and self-confidence scales to the students included in the study.
The data obtained from the scales were transferred to the SPSS program and the normality of the data was determined after the data was organized.Since the skewness and kurtosis values of the data were between -1.5 and +1.5 in the normality distribution of the data set, parametric tests were used in the analysis.In the program, primarily descriptive statistics were used to indicate demographic characteristics, an Unpaired Sample t-test was applied to determine whether there was a significant difference between self-confidence and empathy levels and the variables of gender and whether they were doing sports or not, and one-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was performed to determine whether there was a significant difference between self-confidence and empathy levels and the variables of age, the department they studied, grade level, grade point average, and the sports branch of interest.

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The research is limited to the students studying in the "Department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching and Coaching at Batman University School of Physical Education and Sports".

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The research is limited to the 2022-2023 academic year.

Results
In this part of the study, tables, and interpretations of the data obtained from the scales are given.This section includes the results of the analysis of the empathy and self-confidence levels of the students according to the variables of gender, age, the department they study, the class they study, grade point average, whether they do sports or not, and the sports branch they are interested in.To determine the differences between the empathy and self-confidence levels of the students and the gender factor, a t-test was performed for the related sample and a statistically significant difference was observed between the empathy levels and the gender factor [t(399)= .248,p<05].While the average empathy level score of male students was X ̄ =43.40, the average empathy level score of female students was X ̄ =39.46.The mean empathy levels of male students were higher than those of female students.
No statistically significant significance was found between the self-confidence levels of male students and the gender factor [t(399)= 1.22, p>05].While the mean score of self-confidence levels of male students was X ̄ =104.90, the mean score of self-confidence levels of female students was X ̄ = 108.66.When Table 4 is examined, it is seen that the difference between the empathy levels of the students and the department they study is not statistically significant [F(3, 396)=1.08,p>.05].While the lowest mean between empathy levels and the department they study is X ̄ =39.92 in the coaching department, the highest mean is X ̄ =43.76 in the Physical Education and Sports Teaching department.
It is also seen that there is a statistically significant difference between the self-confidence levels of the students and the department they study in [F(3, 396)=4.79,p<.05].It can be said that the self-confidence levels of the students included in the study vary significantly depending on the department studied.It was seen that the mean level of self-confidence was X ̄ =114.36 for the students of the Department of Coaching, X ̄ =106.69 for the students of the Department of Sports Management, and X ̄ =99.84 for the students of the Department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching.It was revealed that the difference between the empathy levels of the students and the grade they studied was statistically significant.F(3, 396)=4.79,p<.05.It can be said that there is a statistically significant change in the empathy levels of the students according to the grade they study.It was determined that the mean empathy levels of 1st-grade students X ̄ =36.80, 2nd-grade students X ̄ =44.99, 3rd-grade students X ̄ =37.13, and 4th-grade students =44.95.
It shows that there is a statistically significant difference between the self-confidence levels of the students and the grade they study [F(3, 396)=2.90, p<05].The mean level of self-confidence was found to be X ̄ =97.90 for 1st-grade students, =109.99 for 2nd-grade students, X ̄ =110.80 for 3rd-grade students, and X ̄ =107.17 for 4th-grade students.While the mean empathy level of the students with a GPA between 1.50-2.00was the lowest with X ̄ =38.75, the mean empathy level of the students with a GPA of 3.01 and above was found to be X ̄ =43.85.The average self-confidence level of the students with an academic grade point average of 1.50-2.00was X ̄ =105.21, the average of the students with an academic grade point average of 2.01-2.50 was X ̄ =110.57, the average of the students with academic grade point average of 2.51-3.00 was X ̄ =104.88 and the average of the students with an academic grade point average of 3.01 and above was X ̄ =102.49.To determine whether there is a statistical difference between the empathy levels of the students and the variable of whether they do sports or not, a t-test was performed for the related sample [t(399)= .217,p> .05].While the mean empathy level score of the students who do sports is X ̄ = 41.86, the mean empathy level score of the students who do not do sports is X ̄ = 41.33.
To see whether there is a statistical significance between the self-confidence levels of the students participating in our research and the variable of whether they do sports or not, a related sample t-test was conducted.According to the result obtained, it was determined that self-confidence levels did not change according to whether or not to do sports [t(399)= .641,p> .05].While the mean self-confidence level of the students who do sports is X ̄ =105.96, the mean self-confidence level of the students who do not do sports is X ̄ =108.72.It was determined that there was no statistically significant difference between the sports branch and empathy levels [F(3, 396)=.385, p>.05].The mean empathy level of the soccer branch X ̄ =41.02, the basketball branch X ̄ =41.59, the volleyball branch X ̄ =44.38, the swimming branch X ̄ =43.28, the racket sports branch X ̄ =40.62, and the other sports branches X ̄ =40.67.The difference between the self-confidence levels of the students participating in the study and the sports branch variable was not statistically significant [F(3, 396)=1.12,p>.05].It was found that the average self-confidence level of the football branch was X ̄ =103.08, the basketball branch average was X ̄ =104.14, the volleyball branch average was X ̄ =106.18, the swimming branch average was X ̄ =106.15, the racket sports branch average was X ̄ =113.24 and other sports branches average was X ̄ =113.03.

Discussion
According to gender, age, department, grade, grade point average, participation in sports, and sports branch of interest, this study compared the empathy and self-confidence levels of students in the physical education and sports, coaching, and sports management departments at Batman University School of Physical Education and Sports.
In our study, it was shown that there was a statistically significant relationship between the students' empathy scores and the factors of gender and class.Female students' empathy scores were found to be lower than male students' scores.Also, there is a strong correlation between the pupils' empathy scores and the class variable.Students in the first grade displayed higher levels of positive empathy than those in the third, fourth, and second grades.Students in the second grade had the highest mean empathy level, while those in the first grade had the lowest.It was shown that there was no statistically significant relationship between students' empathy levels and their age, academic GPA, participation in sports, or favorite sports branches.
Male participants displayed less empathic tendencies than female ones, according to Temizyürek (2019).The amount of empathic inclination found in female managers is higher than the level of empathic tendency found in male managers, according to Şenkaya (2018).There was no statistically significant correlation between age and empathic tendency in the study Empathic Tendency of Preschool Administrators, which evaluated the empathic tendency levels of administrators.
It was observed that there was no significant difference or relationship between the self-confidence levels of the students and their gender, age, grade point average, sports status, and sports branches they were interested in.The self-confidence levels of the students and the department they studied, however, were found to differ statistically significantly.It was shown that coaching had the highest average self-confidence level while physical education and sports teaching had the lowest average self-confidence level.Also, a statistically significant difference between the students' self-confidence levels and the class variable they studied was discovered.
In his study titled The Impact of Sports on Self-Confidence Levels of University Students, Sert (2022) discovered a statistically significant difference in the self-confidence levels of university students according to the factors of gender and athletic status.According to the age variable, it was decided that there was no significant difference.Şar et al. (2010) looked at university students' self-confidence levels with the gender variable and the department they were enrolled in.The study's findings revealed a substantial correlation between students' self-confidence levels and their gender as well as between their self-confidence levels and the departments they studied in.As a result, it was seen that men had higher levels of self-confidence.
In Sert's (2022) study "The Effect of Sports on Self-Confidence Levels of University Students", it was found that there was a statistically significant difference between the self-confidence levels of students depending on gender and sports activities.On the other hand, it was determined that the age variable did not show any evidence of a significant difference.Şar et al. (2010) looked at whether the gender and department of a student's studies had any impact on their degree of self-confidence.The study's findings showed that there was a statistically significant difference in the students' levels of self-confidence based on both gender and key characteristics.Under the context of these findings, it was noted that men had higher levels of self-confidence.Soner (2000) discovered that successful students had more faith in their ability to succeed academically than failing ones.Doru (2017) found that failing students had higher levels of self-confidence than academically successful ones.

Table 1 .
Results of t-test in terms of empathy and self-confidence levels and gender variable

Table 2 .
Descriptive statistics of students' empathy levels according to the age variable According to Table2, it is understood that the difference between the empathy and self-confidence levels of the students and the age variable is not statistically significant [F(3, 396)=1.01,p>.05],[F(3,396)=1.19,p>.05.].In other words, the empathy and self-confidence levels of the students do not change significantly with the age variable.The lowest mean between empathy and age variable was X ̄ =38.61 for 18-21-year-olds, while the highest mean was X ̄ =43.71 for students over 30 years of age.The mean self-confidence level of 18-21-year-old students are X ̄ = 100.91,22-25-year-old students are X ̄ = 109.40,26-29-year-old students is X ̄ = 105.49,and 30+-year-old students is X ̄ = 106.48.

Table 3 .
ANOVA results of students' empathy and self-confidence levels according to the age variable

Table 4 .
Descriptive statistics of students' empathy and self-confidence levels according to their major variable

Table 5 .
ANOVA results of students' empathy and self-confidence levels according to the department they study

Table 6 .
Descriptive statistics of students' empathy and self-confidence levels according to the grade variable

Table 7 .
ANOVA results of students' empathy and self-confidence levels according to the grade variable

Table 8 .
Descriptive statistics of students' empathy and self-confidence levels according to GPA variable

Table 9 .
ANOVA results of students' empathy and self-confidence levels according to the GPA variable

Table 11 .
Descriptive statistics of students' empathy and self-confidence levels according to the sports branch variable

Table 12 .
ANOVA results of students' empathy and self-confidence levels according to the variable of average sport branch