本研究主要目的在探討大學生邁向成熟的同儕人際關係過程中，容忍性與同理心發展的性別與年級差異。受試為352位大學生，主要的研究工具為測量容忍性的問卷，以及測量同理心的人際反應指標與情緒同理心問卷。結果發現：在容忍性方面，大學生在因應四種不同個體問差異（人口背景、人格特質、與趣、嗜好、想法、態度、價值觀）時，年級愈高，屬於自我相對狀態的比例有增加的趨勢，意即容忍性發展愈好；在同理心方面，女性大學生在人際反應指標中「身心憂急」因素的表現高於男性大學生。性別與年級存在交互作用，交互作用來自於大一以及大二、大三男生在「身心憂急」的表現高於大四男生，但是女性大學生在此因素的表現卻沒有年級差異。在人際反應指標中的「觀點取替」因素方面沒有性別差異存在，大二、大三學生在「觀點取替」的表現比大一要高，大四學生亦同樣比大一要高，在人際反應指標之「幻想力」與「同情關懷」兩個因素上，沒有任何顯著效果出現。在情緒同理心方面，男女大學生的表現沒有顯著差異，大二、大三學生在情緒同理心的表現比大一要高。
本研究根據研究果討論這些發現的可能原因，並提出大學生同儕人際關係的輔導啟示與未來研究的建議。

The purpose of this study is to investigate the sex and grade differences in the development of tolerance and empathy. Subjects were 352 college students. The research instruments were a tolerance scale which measured the tolerance of people dealing with the four aspects of inter─individual differences, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index（IRI）and the Questionnaire Measure of Emotional Empathy （QMEE）which measured the empathy. The results show：In the sex and grade differences of tolerance, in how the higher grade college students deal with the four aspects of inter─individual differences（demographic background, personal traits, interests & hobbies, ideas、attitudes & values）, the higher percentage belongs to the egorelative state which means a better development of tolerance. In the findings of empathy, the personal distress of the IRI of female college students is higher than that male of students. There is an interaction between sex and grade differences；the personal distress of the first, second, and third grade of male college students is higher than the fourth grade ones, ye there are no grade differences between female college students on this factor. On the perspective─taking factor of the IRI, there is no sex difference on this factor, yet the perspective─taking of the second、third and fourth grade college students is higher than the first grade ones. There are no significant effects on the fantasy an the empathic concern factors of the IRI. As to the findings of the QMEE’S, there is no sex difference, yet he emotional empathy of the second and the third grade college students is higher than the first grade ones.
The possible reasons for the above findings are discussed in the paper. According to these findings, there are counseling implications for peer interpersonal relations and suggestions for future research.