Enhancing Compassion: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Compassion Cultivation Training Program Hooria JazaieriGeshe Thupten JinpaKelly McGonigal • Erika L. RosenbergJoel FinkelsteinEmiliana Simon-Thomas • Margaret CullenJames R. DotyJames J. GrossPhilippe R. Goldin (original) (raw)
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Enhancing Compassion: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Compassion Cultivation Training Program
Journal of Happiness Studies, 2013
Abstract Psychosocial interventions often aim to alleviate negative emotional states. However, there is growing interest in cultivating positive emotional states and qualities. One particular target is compassion, but it is not yet clear whether compassion can be trained. A community sample of 100 adults were randomly assigned to a 9-week compassion cultivation training (CCT) program (n= 60) or a waitlist control condition (n= 40). Before and after this 9-week period, participants completed self-report inventories that measured ...
Motivation and Emotion, 2014
Compassion is a positive orientation towards suffering that may be enhanced through compassion training and is thought to influence psychological functioning. However, the effects of compassion training on mindfulness, affect, and emotion regulation are not known. We conducted a randomized controlled trial in which 100 adults from the community were randomly assigned to either a 9-week compassion cultivation training (CCT) or a waitlist (WL) control condition. Participants completed self-report inventories that measured mindfulness, positive and negative affect, and emotion regulation. Compared to WL, CCT resulted in increased mindfulness and happiness, as well as decreased worry and emotional suppression. Within CCT, the amount of formal meditation practiced was related to reductions in worry and emotional suppression. These findings suggest that compassion cultivation training effects cognitive and emotion factors that support psychological flexible and adaptive functioning.
Recent years have seen a rapid growth in interest in the study of meditation and its health benefits, attention now broadening beyond simple relaxation techniques to other forms of meditation that involve the cultivation of positive mental states and emotions such as compassion. The scientific study of compassion suggests that compassion may be of crucial importance for our individual physical and psychological health. Moreover, because compassion relates fundamentally to how we as human beings relate to one another, its cultivation entails an ethical dimension that may be just as important as the medical and psychological dimension. In this article we supplement the emerging scientific literature on compassion by laying out a case for understanding compassion as a moral emotion intimately tied to the question of ethics and the cultivation of ethical sensibility. Second, we examine the individual and social benefits of compassion that support such a view. Thirdly, we describe in detail one method for the cultivation of compassion: Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT). We conclude by presenting current research programs employing CBCT and point to possible future directions in the study of compassion and its cultivation.
Springer Mindfulness Journal, 2023
Compassion science has been shaped and guided by Mahāyāna Buddhist conceptions of compassion, including the potential for compassion to be cultivated through contemplative practices and training. Despite these influences, important Buddhist perspectives and ideas about compassion are still underrepresented in the scientific literature. This Special Issue focuses on initiating a body of literature on skillful means, a foundational idea from Mahāyāna Buddhism pertaining to the enactment of compassion joined with wisdom. Arising from a seminal Think Tank centered around compassion and skillful means, scholars and trainers representing diverse perspectives were invited to contribute to a Special Issue introducing a variety of perspectives, insights, and approaches that may help to advance contemporary understanding, research, and training of compassion. This includes papers that examine skillful means within Buddhism and Christianity, empirical studies that draw on skillful means to motivate or frame tractable questions, theoretical papers that reflect on skillful means in relation to other topics in psychological science, and how common compassion practices may themselves serve as skillful means. Considered together, we believe the variety evident throughout this Special Issue highlights the potential of skillful means to serve as a broad and flexible concept that can inspire many new ideas and directions for the field.
Compassion-Based Meditation Quality Practice and Its Impact on the Positive Attitudes Toward Others
Mindfulness
Objectives The authors report on the initial development and validation of the Compassion Practice Quality Scale (CPQS), a measure to assess the quality of compassion-based meditation (CBM). It is conceptualized and operationalized via two factors measuring mental imagery and somatic perception/response. Methods The total sample was composed of 205 university students who underwent a CBM and completed pre-test/post-test assessment of compassion and related constructs. Results from a series of preliminary psychometric analyses of the CPQS were examined, including factor analysis, internal consistency, and convergent/discriminant validity. Results The data supported a 12-item and 10-item (without reference to gestures and self-instructions) CPQS of which imagery and somatic perception emerged as two significant reliable subscales, with Cronbach's alpha values of .90 and .88 respectively. Practice quality factors assessed by the CPQS correlated in expected ways with fear of compassion, imagery variables, and self-criticism, as well as predicted compassion outcome (i.e., feeling positive attitudes toward others). Conclusions Our findings contribute to identifying two key components of high-quality meditation in CBM (i.e., mental imagery and somatic perception/response) for use in pedagogical development and further research and to offer a reliable self-report measure to assess them for the first time.
Practicing Compassion Increases Happiness and Self-Esteem
Journal of Happiness Studies, 2011
The current study examined the effect of practicing compassion towards others over a 1 week period. Participants (N = 719) were recruited online, and were assigned to a compassionate action condition or a control condition which involved writing about an early memory. Multilevel modeling revealed that those in the compassionate action condition showed sustained gains in happiness (SHI; Seligman et al. in Am Psychol 60:410-421, 2005) and self-esteem (RSES; Rosenberg in Society and the adolescent selfimage. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1965) over 6 months, relative to those in the control condition. Furthermore, a multiple regression indicated that anxiously attached individuals (ECR; in the compassionate action condition reported greater decreases in depressive symptoms following the exercise period. These results suggest that practicing compassion can provide lasting improvements in happiness and selfesteem, and may be beneficial for anxious individuals in the short run.
Loving-kindness and compassion meditation: Potential for psychological interventions
Mindfulness-based meditation interventions have become increasingly popular in contemporary psychology. Other closely related meditation practices include loving-kindness meditation (LKM) and compassion meditation (CM), exercises oriented toward enhancing unconditional, positive emotional states of kindness and compassion. This article provides a review of the background, the techniques, and the empirical contemporary literature of LKM and CM. The literature suggests that LKM and CM are associated with an increase in positive affect and a decrease in negative affect. Preliminary findings from neuroendocrine studies indicate that CM may reduce stress-induced subjective distress and immune response. Neuroimaging studies suggest that LKM and CM may enhance activation of brain areas that are involved in emotional processing and empathy. Finally, preliminary intervention studies support application of these strategies in clinical populations. It is concluded that, when combined with empirically supported treatments, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, LKM and CM may provide potentially useful strategies for targeting a variety of different psychological problems that involve interpersonal processes, such as depression, social anxiety, marital conflict, anger, and coping with the strains of long-term caregiving.
Cognitively Based Compassion Training
Oxford Handbooks Online, 2017
Recent research has examined the beneficial impact of kindness-based meditation practices, including cognitively-based compassion training (CBCT). Here we provide a theoretical and practical account of CBCT and review the emerging evidence that it affects the brain and body in ways that are relevant for health. Initial research demonstrated that CBCT alters immune function and stress physiology, and augments empathy as well as the neural activity supporting it. More recent studies indicate that CBCT is differentially effective, depending on the population that practices. We suggest directions for future research to best examine the apparently complex effects of CBCT on health and well-being.
The Effectiveness of a Pilot Self-Compassion Program on Well Being Components
Psychology, 2017
Self-compassion is a newly developed construct in the field of positive psychology while a plethora of studies highlighted its beneficial outcomes on people's psychological prosperity. This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of a self-compassion training program on self-compassion, positive and negative affect, depression, anxiety, stress, life satisfaction and subjective happiness as well as to contribute to knowledge by investigating whether changes in self-compassion can significantly predict changes in aspects of well being. A sample of 74 students of Social Sciences is randomly assigned to either the intervention (N = 33) or a control group (N = 41). The intervention group participated in a psycho-educational training program aiming to teach them how to be more self-compassionate in challenging situations whilst the control group received no training. The results showed that the intervention group experienced increases in self-compassion, positive affect, life satisfaction as well as subjective happiness and decreases in negative affect, depression, anxiety and stress scores, compared to the control group which reported no changes. These findings suggest the vital role self-compassion plays on psychological well-being and the effectiveness of focused intervention programs. Other possible implications and recommendations for future research are also considered.
“How to Teach and Practice Compassion and Self-Compassion”
The objective of this presentation is to explore how to use Compassion and Self-Compassion, and how those can be integrated into your personal life and your work with clients as well as for the therapist’s own well-being in order to prevent burnout or empathy fatigue, and what may become depletion of the social interest. Two main learning objectives for the presentation: (1) Participants will learn how to define compassion and differentiate compassion from empathy; and how to use compassion as a psychological skill, and how to place compassion in the continuum of the Social Interest. (2) Participants will learn how to practice Compassion on daily basis towards others and self, and how to cultivate compassion in therapy. Participants will also be able to define and understand subtle differences in terms used such as: Mindfulness, Therapeutic Mindfulness, Awareness, Acceptance, Empathy, Loving-Kindness, and Compassion. Specific Adlerian concepts and techniques that will be addressed are Encouragement and Resilience, and how nurturing and encouraging language, just as in Mindful Compassion, is more effective than criticism and punishment a context of Social Interest Summary of Presentation: Introduction Discovering Compassion and its roots. What is Acceptance, Compassion, and Self-Compassion, and what it is Not? Compassion Burnout vs. Empathy Burnout Primary two emotions involved that motivate us to help others are: empathic concern, which is focused on others, and a desire to relieve their suffering; and personal distress, which is focused on self, and a desire to relieve own discomfort with other’s suffering, leading to withdrawal by desire to protect oneself from negative emotions. Comparison with Adlerian Vertical and Horizontal Striving towards a goal. Differences between Self-Esteem and Self-Compassion. Self-Compassion creates feelings of encouragement, accepting what is in the present moment, and accepting being “good enough”, vs Self-Esteem which creates feelings of contingent self-worth, narcissism, ego-defensive anger, and prejudice. Similarity of Paul Gilbert-Social Mentality Theory and Alfred Adler Gemeinschaftsgeful (Social Interest/Community Feeling) Self-Compassion as a motivational tool, vs self-criticism. Motivation behind self-criticism comes from fear of being worthless, but motivation behind Self-Compassion comes from the desire of well being and health, while emphasis is on self-accepting and not-self improvement, creating emotionally supportive environment, accepting being “good enough” which promotes change and growth. Self-Compassion is linked to motivation, greater intrinsic motivation and desire to learn and grow, personal accountability, more effective coping, greater compassion and focus on others, attachment security, family systems. Current relevant research behind Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Exercise: Loving - Kindness and Self-Compassion meditation