DOI: 10.19128/turje.1910164 ISSN: 2147-2858

Exploring empathic strategy use in interactive dialogue applications: A latent profile and discourse analytic study

Kılıç Köçeri
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This study investigates empathic strategy use in interactive dialogue practices and examines how these patterns emerge across distinct profile levels. Grounded in an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, the research conceptualizes empathy not as a fixed personality trait but as a context-sensitive, interactionally constructed resource. In the quantitative phase, data collected from 350 undergraduates across multiple universities were analyzed using Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), yielding four empathic strategy use profiles: high-level, balanced, selective, and low-level. These profiles reflect not only differences in usage intensity but also divergent interactional orientations. In the qualitative phase, dialogues from structured interaction tasks encompassing problem-solving, negotiation, and emotionally loaded contexts were analyzed through interactional discourse analysis. Findings indicate that high-level profile students deploy empathic strategies to sustain interaction and foster mutual understanding, whereas low-level profile students demonstrate markedly limited interactional engagement. Balanced and selective profiles exhibited context-sensitive and strategically regulated empathic responses. Collectively, the results suggest that empathic strategies constitute a dynamic and functionally significant component of interactive dialogue competence.

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