Compassionate Love Research Articles

The Aggrieved Entitlement Scale: A New Measure for an Old Problem.

Aggrieved entitlement (AE) refers to the defensiveness and hostility majority-group members feel toward the outgroup in response to a perceived threat of lost privileges. Over the last couple of years, AE has garnered a great deal of attention in the media as well as in the empirical literature because of its connection with extremism and violence against minority groups. Yet, to date, research quantifying and measuring the construct of AE is scant. In this paper, we aim to bridge this gap. Across two studies (N1 = 813; N2 = 1,100) we explore the factor structure of the Aggrieved Entitlement Scale (AES) and examine its concurrent and divergent validity with related demographic, attitudinal, and personality factors. We found that the AES was positively correlated with racist attitudes, fear-based xenophobia, authoritarianism, sexism, transphobia, and sexual entitlement. We further found that it was negatively correlated with feminist attitudes, honesty-humility, and compassionate love. In both samples, scores were higher among men (vs. women) and heterosexual (vs. sexual minority) individuals. Finally, in contrast to our expectations, racial and ethnic minority participants scored higher in AE than White participants. Results from this work offer initial support for the use of the AES and call for more research into the topic.

The Effect of Sports Club Employees' Levels of Emotional Intelligence and Compassionate Love on Mobbing Perceptions

This research aims to reveal the effect of sports club employees' emotional intelligence and compassionate love levels on mobbing perceptions. The research study group consists of 184 personnel working in sports clubs in Izmir. The survey method was used as the data collection technique of the research. A personal information form to gather personal information of the participants, "Negative Behaviours Scale" developed by Einarsen & Raknes (1997) and adapted into Turkish by Cemaloğlu (2007) to measure mobbing perception of the participants, "Emotional Intelligence Scale" developed by Schutte et al. (1998) and adapted into Turkish by Şahin (2006), and the " Compassionate Love Scale" developed by Sprecher & Fehr (2005) and adapted into Turkish by Akın & Eker (2012) were used as data collection tools. The data gathered were analysed by using a statistical program. While the emotional intelligence levels of sports club employees were found to be a significant predictor of their perceptions of mobbing, their levels of compassionate love were found to have no significant effect.

Holy love and compassionate love: A comparison of the essential differences between the concept of love in Lutheran theology and the Buddhist concept of love

Holy love and compassionate love: A comparison of the essential differences between the concept of love in Lutheran theology and the Buddhist concept of love

마음챙김을 활용한 중학교 도덕과 수업의 현장 적합성 검토

Objectives This research endeavors to investigate the nuanced application of mindfulness, particularly concerning its directionality in field implementation. Methods In the course of this study, a mindfulness-infused moral curriculum was administered to 75 middle school students situated in Gyeonggi-do. Subsequently, students' opinions were collected, and meaningful alterations were assessed via pre- and post-testing utilizing scales gauging emotional control and compassionate love. Results While no noteworthy fluctuations were observed in emotional control scores pre- and post-course, a substantial increase was noted in both the overall compassion score and the score taking other's perspectives. Open-ended responses predominantly reflected affirmative sentiments, outweighing negative sentiments. As a positive answer, there were many opinions that it was possible to have a peaceful mind, and as a negative answer, meditation was boring and difficult. Conclusions The outcomes of this investigation advocate for the allocation of adequate temporal resources, the establishment of connections beyond the classroom, and the integration of a humanities-oriented approach as imperative prerequisites for the efficacious incorporation of mindfulness into educational contexts.

К ВОПРОСУ О ЦЕННОСТНО-СЕМАНТИЧЕСКОЙ РАЗНИЦЕ АВТОРСКИХ ПОДХОДОВ ПРИ ЛИТЕРАТУРНОЙ ОБРАБОТКЕ ПЕРВОЙ И ВТОРОЙ ЧАСТЕЙ ЭПИЧЕСКОЙ ПОЭМЫ «ДИГЕНИС АКРИТ»

The question of the correlation between the first and second parts of the Byzantine epic poem “Digenes Akritas” is still insufficiently covered in academic literature. Thus, for example, Byzantine scholars highlight both this work’s semantic-value integrity, and the fact that the folk songs serving as the basis of it had presumably been of diachronous nature. This determines the relevance of the poem’s axiological analysis, aiming to compare its parts with one another, as well as to clarify whether the artistic organization of “Digenes Akritas” involves a certain degree of inner unity and coherence. According to the present article, the famous Byzantine epic poem, when systematically studied in such a manner, reveals itself as a work implying a fundamental difference between its various plot-compositional parts. Examining the poem in terms of the heroes’ motivational values – which are, as a consequence, decisive for the plot, – we have identified eight axiomotifs (one for the introduction, three for the first part, and four for the second one) and analyzed them successively. The results are of obvious regularity. Thus, the poem’s first part – the one depicting the main hero’s parents – presupposes a Christian value perspective (i. e., a plot emphasis put on the categories of neighbor, compassionate love, and the glory of God), while the life story of the protagonist himself focuses on such individualistic unchristian concepts as personal fame and personal honor. Digenes, even if depicted in the poem as a man of faith, turns out to be motivated only by his own interests, and never acts selflessly for the sake of other people, religious shrines or the glory of God. As a result, it is possible not only to emphasize the fact that the epic in question has been created on the basis of different folk works, but also to establish that these works have been processed by at least two separate individuals – one of them a practicing Orthodox believer, while the other a person completely alien to Christian values – and combined mechanically only later. Consequently, an axiological analysis of the poem “Digenes Akritas” allows one to understand its genesis and its semantic-compositional structure in a more complete way, while creating prerequisites for similar studies of other Byzantine folk and literary epics, among them “The Tale of Belisarius”, “The Lay of Armouris”, and the more recent “Acritic Songs”.

COVID-sumers: consumers’ feelings due Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil and potential implications for services marketing

PurposeThe changes in the service context due to COVID-19 have challenged service marketers to understand and react to consumers’ feelings that impact their shopping behavior in services. Moreover, consumers had to face a challenging situation with an impact on mental health. This study aims to assess the impact of spirituality and compassionate love as coping mechanisms that might increase hope, which, in turn, decreases anxiety. Hope also mitigates the impact of fear on anxiety. The authors also investigate the mediate effect of hope in its relationship to spirituality and well-being during the pandemic in Brazil and its potential impact on services marketing.Design/methodology/approachTo investigate the relationship between fear, anxiety, hope, compassionate love, spirituality and well-being, the authors conducted an online survey with 469 Brazilians who had been in quarantine for more than 45 days. To conduct the investigation, the authors used a purposive sampling to reach respondents due to the exceptional situation of the COVID-19 pandemic.FindingsUsing a structural equation model, the authors found that hope is a mediator with a buffer effect on the relationships between anxiety and fear and between spirituality and anxiety. Moreover, the authors found that hope mediates the relationship between spirituality and well-being, leading to greater levels of well-being. Service companies in general can benefit from using these findings to better manage their relationships with consumers during and after COVID-19 pandemic.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample included only Brazilian respondents, and pre-pandemic well-being was not measured.Originality/valueThere is evidence that traumatic events (e.g. war) influence feelings and consumer behavior. The findings suggest that the adoption of practices related to spirituality during an extreme, stressful situation has an influence on people’s hope and potentially mitigates anxiety. Increasing spirituality and hope can also benefit perceptions of well-being. Besides, in this context, the authors recommend that service providers communicate unobservable elements in a transaction (e.g. care, safety) by providing observable signals of spirituality and hope to reduce negative emotions.

How culture shapes Chinese teacher’s compassionate love

ABSTRACT Background Love could play a role in motivating teachers to help students and is closely related to students’ achievement and prosocial behaviour. Though influenced by culture, teachers’ love is not adequately studied. Purpose This study explores how Chinese teachers’ compassionate love is expressed and how situational factors such as Chinese culture and history influence or motivate teachers to perceive and express compassionate love for students. Method This study adopted a qualitative approach of narrative study by describing and investigating the experience of a Chinese middle school teacher and two middle school students and their parents during COVID-19 pandemic. Findings Chinese teacher’s compassionate love demonstrates some universal features in terms of emotional response, cognitive understanding and behaviour. Furthermore some Chinese culture-related features are also found: Chinese teachers behave in a caring and supporting way at the cost of sacrificing their own free time and comfort; an enduring long-term teacher-student relationship is valued; the Chinese culture encourages, sustains and motivates Chinese teacher’s compassionate love. Discussion Teacher’s compassionate love is a multi-dimensional concept entailing some universal traits in cognition, emotion and behaviour. The perception and enactment of teacher’s love is subject to situational factors. Some measures for compassionate love could be built into teacher’s education programme.

Compassionate Love for a Romantic Partner among Brazilian College Students

Compassionate love (CL) is a recent subject of close relationships. CL is focused on enlarging beneficence to another. The present study approaches the test of the psychometric characteristics of the shortened form of the Compassionate Love Scale for a partner (CLS-P-SF) for Brazilian college students and its relationships with background and well-being variables. The sample included 217 young adults, 46.1% women and 53.9% men. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the single latent factor of the CLS-P-SF is good and has satisfactory reliability. Subsequent analysis indicated that religious involvement and love status impacted the CLS-P-SF scores. CLS-P-SF scores were significantly related to the measurement of eros and agape love styles, commitment, life satisfaction, love satisfaction, and romantic loneliness. Satisfaction with love life mediated the relationship of CL for a partner and romantic loneliness. Current findings give an insight into the mechanism underlying the relation of CL with romantic loneliness.

Humanitarian Love in Values-Based Practice and Health Professionals’ Psychosocial Outcomes: Systematic Review

IntroductionThe literature on Values-Based Practice often neglects the significance of love in therapeutic interactions, sometimes treating it as taboo or crossing professional boundaries.ObjectivesThis systematic review investigates the role of humanitarian love in the lives of healthcare professionals and its psychosocial impact, aiming to establish it as a core value in values-based practice.MethodsWe conducted a PRISMA 2020-compliant systematic review, searching databases (CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus) from inception to April 3, 2023, using PEO elements: health professionals (P), love (E), psychosocial impact (O). Two independent reviewers conducted screening, data extraction, and bias assessment. A narrative synthesis of the data was applied. The selection process is presented in Figure 1.ResultsEight articles met the inclusion criteria, comprising 1,948 participants (median age: 28.55). Humanitarian love encompassed compassionate love, self-compassion, and affection. Humanitarian love showed a negative correlation with burnout, compassion fatigue, self-judgment, and secure attachment, while positively correlating with professional well-being, professional commitment, self-care, patience, diversity acceptance, spirituality, self-kindness, and ethical values. Humanitarian love significantly influenced healthcare professionals’ psychosocial well-being. The main outcomes are presented in Figure 2.Image:Image 2:ConclusionsThis review highlights humanitarian love’s potential to enhance the psychosocial well-being of healthcare professionals and emphasizes its significance as a core value in values-based practice. Cultivating humanitarian love among healthcare professionals through research and interventions could bolster their resilience, job satisfaction, and overall fulfillment in their roles.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Meditation, Compassionate Love, and Mental Health in Later Life.

Understanding of the mechanisms by which meditation imparts beneficial effects on later-life mental health is limited. The current study assessed the role of compassionate love in mediating the relationship between meditation and mental health in later life. Using data from a nationwide web-based survey (N = 1,861), we examined the indirect effects of meditation on depressive symptoms and anxiety via compassionate love. Participants who practiced meditation (compared to those who did not) had significantly higher feelings of being loved (b = 0.11, p < 0.05); those who experienced more love had lower depressive symptoms (b = -2.10, p < 0.001) and anxiety (b = -0.99, p < 0.001). Meditation also had significant indirect effects (via compassionate love) on depressive symptoms (b = -0.23, p < 0.05) and anxiety (b = -0.11, p < 0.05). This study underscores the need for contemplative interventions that foster compassionate love to improve mental health in later life. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 50(3), 40-50.].

Measuring Spiritual Well-being using a numerical rating scale: Additional evidence of the validity of the Well-being Numerical Rating Scales (WB-NRSs).

The Well-being Numerical Rating Scales (WB-NRSs) can be used to assess rapidly and accurately different types of well-being. However, the spiritual well-being scale showed slightly weaker psychometric properties. This study aimed to further investigate its suitability in measuring spiritual well-being. Participants (N = 270, age: M = 32.98; SD = 15.64; 67% females) were administered a questionnaire including spiritual well-being, gratitude, compassionate love, and personality traits measures. A network analysis (based on correlations) was used to display graphically the pattern of relationships among the measured constructs (i.e. the nomological net). Results provided evidence that the scale measures spiritual well-being as defined in the literature, that is, a component distinct from faith and compassionate love, but connected to meaning in life, quality of relationships, personality traits, and gratitude. These findings confirm the WB-NRSs is a psychometrically sound and easy-to-use tool with clear benefits for both research and clinical assessment.

Meanings and implications of love: review of the scholarship of love with a sub-Saharan focus

Love, as an emotion, binds people together in social practices that are contingent on culture, historical processes, and social trends. As such, love is a perfect site to study how people interact and to understand how power, equality, and sustainability play out in human relations. Despite its importance and much attention, love as a concept and form of interaction is not fully understood, especially not across cultures. In our research, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, we show that alongside other emotions, love matters not only for passion in life or for wellbeing but also for improved resource use, increased gender equality, and, subsequently, higher food security and sovereignty – all signs of sustainability. While love is understood as a universal human phenomenon, definitions and expressions of love vary across time and cultures. Since love drives human interaction in many intertwined ways there is no single best way to define it. Yet, scholars have advanced the theory of love by identifying at least 40 major distinct but interdependent ‘love constructs’ fitting into the four main dimensions of affection, closeness, compassion, and commitment (Karandashev et al. 2022). In parallel to this and based on our review of the scholarship of love in a subset of 45 relevant academic articles from an 80-article systematic literature search of ‘love’ we find four core (and partly overlapping) types of how to speak about love as an expression and experience. These include: 1/ contextual love influenced by culture, space, and time; 2/ romantic and compassionate love; 3/ transactional love; 4/ post-humanist perspectives and ‘harmony love’. Finally, we examine love in relation to power; love-related emotions; and how understandings of love and culture impact gender relations.

Measurement invariance of the short form compassionate love scale for a romantic partner and sexuality

Compassionate love (CL), a particular kind of love, is centred on enlarging beneficence to another. A short form to assess CL for a romantic partner (CLS-P-SF) was recently developed. The CLS-P-SF is a one-dimensional measure. In this study, we examined CLS-P-SF’s measurement invariance (MI) across gender and age, and the relationship of the CL with sexuality measures. There were 1184 Portuguese participants, 48% women and 52% men, aged between 18 to 79 (M = 37.36; SD = 16.89). Confirmatory factor analyses evidenced that the one latent dimension of the CLS-P-SF confirmed an acceptable fit to the data. MI, and internal consistency were adequate. This invariance permitted to perform meaningful latent average comparisons. The effect of gender and age were not significant. CLS-P-SF was positively associated with sexual desire, love is most important, sex demonstrates love, love comes before sex and satisfaction with sex life, and negatively associated with sex is declining and sociosexuality. Findings are discussed in their relationship with existent literature. The CLS-P-SF’s brevity makes it a promising tool for researchers and practitioners.

The Effect of Compassionate Love on Peer Bullying in High School Students

Bu çalışmanın amacı lise öğrencilerinin duyarlı sevgi düzeyleri ile akran zorbalığı davranışları arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemektir. Araştırmanın örneklemini 2020-2021 eğitim öğretim yılında İstanbul ili Kağıthane ilçesinde bulunan Anadolu Lisesi ve Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi 9, 10 ve 11 sınıflarına devam eden toplam 560 lise öğrencisi oluşturmaktadır. Verilerin toplanmasında ‘Kişisel Bilgi Formu’, ‘Duyarlı Sevgi Ölçeği’ ve ‘Akran Zorbalığı Belirleme Ölçeği Ergen Formu’ kullanılmıştır. Bu araştırmada betimsel araştırma türlerinden ilişkisel tarama modeli kullanılmıştır. Duyarlı Sevgi Ölçeği Puanları ile Akran Zorbalığı, Zorba-Kurban Alt Ölçek Puanları ve Toplam Puanları Arasındaki İlişkiyi incelemek için Pearson Momentler Çarpımı Korelasyon Katsayısı ve bağımsız değişkenlerin bağımlı değişken üzerindeki etkisini test etmek için de Regresyon Analizi kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda lise öğrencilerinin duyarlı sevgi düzeyleri ile akran zorbalığı kurbanı olmaları arasında negatif yönlü istatistiksel olarak anlamlı zayıf bir ilişki olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Duyarlı sevgi ölçeği puanlarının akran zorbalığı kurban ölçeği puanları ile elde edilen regresyon analizi anlamlı bulunmuştur. Duyarlı Sevgi Ölçeği puanları akran zorbalığı kurban alt ölçek puanları üzerindeki varyansın %4’ünü açıklamaktadır.

MANAGING ANXIETY DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MEDITATION AND COMPASSIONATE LOVE

Abstract Background &amp; Significance Prior research has consistently established the role of meditation as a coping resource to mitigate the adverse impacts of stressful life situations on mental health. Yet, our understanding of mechanisms that transmit the positive effects of meditation on mental health among older adults is limited. Specifically, little research has examined the impact of meditation on positive emotions such as compassionate love and its subsequent effect on later-life psychological well-being. Purpose: We rely on Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions to assess the role of compassionate love in mediating the relationship between meditation practice and mental health. Methods Using data from our nationwide web-based survey (n=1,861), we conducted a mediation analysis to assess the indirect effect of meditation on mental health outcomes (depressive symptoms measured with a 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale and anxiety measured with a 6-item PROMIS Emotional Distress-Anxiety Scale) via compassionate love. Results Our ordinary least squares regression (OLS) model estimates suggest that older adults who practiced meditation (compared to those who did not) had significantly higher feelings of being loved (b = 0.11, p&amp;lt;0.05) and those who experience more love had lower symptoms of depression (b = -2.10, p&amp;lt;0.001) and anxiety (b = -0.99, p&amp;lt;0.001). We documented significant indirect effects of meditation (via compassionate love) on depressive symptoms (b = -0.23, p&amp;lt;0.05) and anxiety (b = -0.11, p&amp;lt;.05). Conclusion/Implications: Our study underscores the need for contemplative interventions that can foster compassionate love to improve mental health among older adults.

Situational assessment of empathy and compassion: Predicting prosociality using a video-based task.

Classical psychometric approaches in social science measure individuals' tendency to experience empathy and compassion. Using abstract questionnaire items, they place high demand on subjects' capacity to introspect, memorize, and generalize the corresponding emotions. We employed a Socio-affective Video Task (SoVT)-an alternative approach that measures situationally elicited emotions-and assessed its predictive power over prosocial behavior against classical questionnaires in a sample of Israeli university students. We characterized the conceptual embedding of the SoVT concerning other measures of prosocial affect and cognition, and tested group identification as an alternative precursor to prosocial behavior. Eighty participants rated their reactions to videos that presented the suffering of others or everyday scenes on scales of negative affect (providing a proxy for elicited empathy) and compassion. We then administered classical questionnaires that target empathy (the Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and compassion (the Compassionate Love Scale), as well as measures of hypothetical and real-life helping and prosocial attitudes-including conflict attitudes and intergroup bias. While compassion ratings in the SoVT failed to predict prosociality more accurately than classical questionnaires, the SoVT empathy index succeeded and correlated strongly with other precursors of prosociality. These results support video-based situational assessment as an implicit and robust alternative in the measurement of empathy-related processes.

How Love is Represented on Your Lie in April

A fundamental human right is the ability to love and be loved. This study aims to describe how types and characteristics of love are represented in the Japanese live-action movie Your Lie in April (2016). This study is a type of descriptive qualitative study because it attempted to describe the study results. The researcher used content analysis, a data analysis theory developed by (Ary et al., 2010), in order to analyze the data. Based on the research results, there are some characteristics of love depicted in Your Lie in April (2016), namely: trust, healing, growth, acceptance, companionship, teamwork, and fearlessness. In contrast, the researcher discovered two types of love, known as passionate and compassionate love. A suggestion based on these findings is to encourage and cultivate these beneficial aspects of love in actual relationships, fostering trust, growth, and acceptance, while acknowledging the various types of love that can exist.

Temporal changes of compassion in accounting and business students in an English course: a longitudinal study in higher education

PurposeTo measure the dynamic features of compassion as an emotional and behavioral construct, the present research used a univariate latent growth modeling (LGM) approach within the structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. The aim was to trace the dynamic development of compassion longitudinally in accounting and business students during a three-credit English course at university.Design/methodology/approachThe suggested method ensures the measurement invariance over time, deals with the first order latent variable, traces its growth and takes into account the measurement errors. This longitudinal analytical method was used to explore the initial state and the growth of compassion in four points of time during a language course. The data were collected from 60 adult accounting and business students in four time phases using Sprecher and Fehr's Compassionate Love Scale and were analyzed in Mplus 8.4 with univariate LGM.FindingsThe model fit was accepted and the invariance of the latent factor was confirmed over time. The negative covariance between intercept and slope (second-order latent variables) suggested that lower initial scores in L2 learners' compassion show a faster increase in compassion over time as the mean of slope is larger than that of the intercept. L2 learners who started off at a higher level of compassion showed a slower change in compassion over time. This can be at least partly explained by the teacher's motivating role or learners' compassion but needs to be further explored in complementary qualitative phases for deeper insights.Originality/valueIn the present research, awareness was raised of the developmental nature of compassion as an emotional and behavioral construct essential to the accounting and business profession. The great strength of this research lies in the dynamic approach to the compassion construct and the LGM used to capture the temporal growth of compassion and how it evolved through the L2 course.

Self-Compassion and Compassionate Love Are Positively Associated with Sexual and Relational Well-Being Among Expectant and New Parent Couples.

Pregnancy and the postpartum period can be a challenging time for many couples' relationships. Outside of pregnancy and the postpartum period, being more attentive and sensitive to one's own suffering (i.e., high in self-compassion) and showing love that centers on another person's well-being (i.e., compassionate love) has been linked with greater sexual and relationship satisfaction and lower sexual distress. Both self-compassion and compassionate love may benefit couples during the perinatal period by facilitating more adaptive coping and greater responsiveness to one's own and one's partner's needs. The goal of this study was to examine associations between self-compassion and compassionate love and sexual and relationship satisfaction and sexual distress in two samples of (1) expectant (n = 102) and (2) new parent (n = 102) couples. During pregnancy, self-compassion and compassionate love were linked with higher relationship and sexual satisfaction and lower sexual distress. In the postpartum, higher self-compassion and compassionate love were associated with greater relationship satisfaction, but were less consistently linked with sexual satisfaction and sexual distress. Consistent with theory, self-compassion and compassionate love may allow expectant and new parent couples to adjust to the demands of new parenthood more easily, with benefits for their sexual and relationship wellbeing. Given our data and the established benefits of self-compassion and compassionate love for facilitating adjustment during stressful life events, educating couples about the importance of fostering self-compassion and compassionate love during pregnancy, and after the baby is born, may cultivate resilience which, in turn, may promote stronger relationships.

Compassionate love parenting training to reduce stress in caregivers of children with special needs: An experimental study

Caregivers of children with special needs experience a high workload, which causes stress and low quality of life. A compassionate love attitude amongst caregivers is needed to improve the quality of parenting. This study aims to develop a compassionate love parenting training program to reduce stress among children with special needs caregivers. The method employed was Pre-experimental Design, with One-group Pre-test-Post-test. The research participants were 40 care­givers identified using the purposive sampling technique. In the pre-test, the stress level of the caregivers was measured using the Parental Stress Scale with 24 items (α = .828). The data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon test to observe the differences between the pre-test and post-test of two dependent samples. The results show that the stress score decreased significantly, with Z = -2.023 and with a significance level of .043 .05. It is demonstrated that regular training in compassionate love parenting reduced the stress felt by caregivers of children with special needs. The implementation of compassionate love parenting training in special needs therapeutic centers is important, as it is one of the intervention methods that has been proven to reduce the level of stress to optimize the growth of the child.