Sixty-four undergraduate teacher education majors enrolled at the University of Illinois were subjects in this study to determine the effect of various types of student stimuli on teacher response quality as measured by a five point scale for the measurement of empathic understanding developed by Carkhuff. More specifically, the study investigated whether teachers responded more or less empathically to students who were expressing either anger, depression, or joy. In addition student stimuli varied in the type of situation presented to the teacher by the student. Comparisons in quality of response were made between teachers who received training in empathic understanding and those who received no such training. Interactions among the independent variables were considered. It was concluded that happiness received the most empathy and anger the least. (Author/JMF)