Issue Of Compassion Research Articles

Title Page and Inside Cover

This is the third issue of COMPASS: The Student Anthropology Journal of Alberta. This feature includes undergraduate, MA, and PhD research of students at the University of Alberta and spans sociocultural anthropology, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology-related themes. One of the articles in this issue stems from award-winning research that was presented at the 29th Annual Richard Frucht Memorial Lecture Series and Student Conference (2023). Popovych (2023) was awarded the Second Place Prize for the Graduate Podium Presentation Category. We would like to thank our staff and all submissions for their hard work and dedication allowing this issue to come to fruition. Please send all editorial correspondence to compass@ualberta.ca

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: TAPPING INTO RESILIENCE THROUGH REFLECTIVE WRITING

Reflective writing is a powerful tool that can help healthcare providers address burnout and access inner strength. We describe the formation and functioning of a writing group for palliative care and geriatrics physicians at McGovern Medical School. The group has served several functions, including the promotion professional and personal growth. Using reflective writing and prompts, our group has explored issues of compassion, caregiving, grief, and loss. Group writing has provided a safe space for processing and letting go of professional and personal stressors related to caring for patients and to demands in our daily lives. The positive impact of the writing group has extended to caregiving and to other writing, including technical writing. This symposium is designed for healthcare professionals in all disciplines who are interested in exploring the use of reflective writing in regular practice.

Literatura, cuerpo y animalidad

En la primera parte de este texto, se exploran los orígenes del topos de la animalidad en nuestra cultura moderna; para ello se recuperan temas tratados desde la creación de la estética, y se arroja luz sobre el encuentro de la reflexión estética con la ciencia (en especial con Darwin y su teoría del origen de las especies). En la segunda, el autor asume la identidad de Rotpeter, el personaje de Kafka, y presenta el tratamiento de los animales en el escritor de Praga. En el epígrafe final se retoma el debate en torno a la cuestión animal y a la “naturaleza” en el contexto de una biopolítica de la compasión; aquí el autor apoya la discusión en dos obras de J. M. Coetzee, con el objetivo de mostrar hasta qué punto la compasión y la beneficencia pueden hallarse en el origen de una simple tutela autoritaria ejercida hacia el “otro”.

Editor's introduction

Our eighteenth issue of Compass: Journal of Learning and Teaching contains twenty-four papers representing opinion pieces, case studies, articles, conference reflections and technology reviews, all illustrative of issues affecting higher education today. This bumper issue has a broad scope, with something of interest to everyone. Read more...

Exploring Compassion in U.S. Nurses: Results from an International Research Study

Nurses in the United States value their role in providing compassionate care to their patients, the family and community. This article discusses an international survey that explored key issues of compassion in nursing, specifically qualitative findings from a sample of nurses from the United States of America. Fifteen countries participated in this survey, with a total of 1,323 completed questionnaires. The article presents the background; study methods and analysis; and results and discussion. Qualitative data from the United States nurses revealed the following findings: compassion was defined caring with listening, developing a relationship, alleviating suffering, touch, and going beyond the normal role of the nurse.Findings of this study provide some understanding of the ways in which nurses in the United States provide compassionate care.

The Gender Gaps in Identity and Political Attitudes among American Indians

While there is much research examining gender gaps in political attitudes, there is less examining how gender gaps differ within social groups. This article helps fill that void by examining gender gaps among American Indians. Using two surveys, the initial findings suggest that among American Indians, women have a stronger American Indian identity, are more likely to support women's/compassion issues, and are more likely to be Democrats. It further finds that the gender gap in party is more likely the result of the gender gap in compassion issues than in American Indian identity. Additional analysis finds that among American Indians who prioritize their American Indian identity, the partisan gender gap is reversed, with men being significantly more likely to be Democrats. Although this study finds some similarities between the gaps among American Indians and whites, it also finds some unique gaps among American Indians. This suggests the need to look at the intersectionality of gender and social groups to fully understand the gender gaps.

Editor's Introduction Compass 13

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The Denial of the World from an Impartial View

Starting point: And remember, he who rebukes the world is rebuked by the world. (Kipling 1895, 116) The above quote describes the mechanism which ensures that the affirmation of the world prevails. Positively minded people have a better survival value and the survivors are always right. But are the survivors also the winners? Not from a Buddhist point of view, which suggests that we should rather leave the wheel of reincarnation.Type of Problem: Is our perception of suffering and risk distorted? How would an impartial observer evaluate the world?Method: Two metaphors with the same structure (a happy majority and a suffering individual) but different messages are examined. The first suggests denying the world out of compassion; the second suggests limiting compassion and affirming the world.Using an impartial perspective, the issue of compassion is transformed into an issue of risk. After this transformation the denial of the world can be expressed in terms of uncertainty-aversion.Result: From a strictly hedonistic and impartial perspective it is uncertain if life’s chances outweigh the risks. There is no indisputable metric for measuring risks and no reliable forecast. Given this uncertainty the denial of the world cannot easily be dismissed as being irrational.

A snapshot review of culturally competent compassion as addressed in selected mental health textbooks for undergraduate nursing students

The recent scandals involving poor healthcare put nurses under the spotlight in an attempt to understand how compassionate they are towards their patients. The aim of this article is to investigate how compassion is embedded in the textbooks of the undergraduate mental health nursing degree. A snapshot review of key textbooks used, was conducted through the distribution of a list of textbooks and search terms to a panel of mental health teachers in four United Kingdom (UK) universities. They were asked to comment on the list’s completeness, and the terms’ suitability, comprehensiveness and sensitivity regarding culturally competent and compassionate care. Relevant data were extracted independently by each author followed by meetings to compare and discuss their findings and engage in deeper levels of analysis. The review found that despite the fact that few textbooks touched on a number of the search terms none of them directly addressed the issue of compassion or culturally competent compassion. This means that mental health undergraduate nurses may not be adequately prepared to provide culturally competent compassion. Culturally competent compassion is not something we are born with. Imaginative teaching methods, good textbooks, good role models and opportunities to practice what one learns under supervision is required to nurture compassion in order to re-establish itself as the essence of nursing. Key textbooks need to be revised to reflect the virtue of culturally competent compassion.

Gender Stereotypes, Information Search, and Voting Behavior in Political Campaigns

It is still unclear exactly how gender influences vote choice. Using an information processing perspective, we argue that instead of directly influencing vote choice, candidate gender guides the amounts and types of information that voters search for during a campaign, and that effects of gender on vote choice ultimately come from differences in information search influenced by candidate gender. Using two unique experimental datasets, we test the effects of candidate gender on vote choice and information search. We find that subjects change their search based on a candidate’s gender, seeking out more competence-related information about female candidates than they do for male candidates, as well as more information related to “compassion issues.” We also find that evaluations of candidates’ traits and issue positions are important predictors of subjects’ vote choice.

A Personal Reflection on Negotiating Fear, Compassion and Self-Care in Research

With this paper, I discuss the unexpected, the corporeal and the emotional. I attend not only to the issues of fear and integrity in research of the ex-gay movement in North America, but also to related issues of compassion, self-care and violence. I explore my commitment to communicate empathically with and think compassionately about a group of people who are politically and ideologically quite different from me. In the process of shifting my approach, I began to doubt my ability to write critically about the topics at hand. I faced significant cognitive dissonance as I shared moments of celebration with people who had found relief in the movement. Finally, as I internalized the thousands of pages of ex-gay literature, the dozens of face-to-face interviews and the countless email and instant message exchanges, I began to seriously ponder the violence I had done to myself in the name of research.

Introduction: Experiences of Psychiatric Hospitalization

This issue of Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics focuses on the experience of psychiatric hospitalization. It contains 13 different first hand accounts of the experience of psychiatric hospitalization as well as commentaries from two ethicists who have different but personal experiences with psychiatric hospitalization. Except for abortion, it is hard to think of another part of the health care system that is more controversial. Some accounts would lead to the conclusion that psychiatric hospitalization is like imprisonment of the innocent without trial. Several of the narratives contained in this issue report experiences that involved substantial mistreatment by almost any standard. Another perspective sees psychiatric hospitalization as an opportunity to benefit from the skills, technology, and wisdom of highly trained professionals. Although none of the authors of the narratives in this issue would recommend psychiatric hospitalization as an alternative to a vacation in the Hawaii, several of the narratives in this issue do report on the positive sides of hospitalization. In many ways psychiatric hospitalization reflects the dilemma that the Belmont Report noted in its description of the principle of respect for persons. “Respect for persons incorporates at least two ethical convictions: first, that individuals should be treated as autonomous agents, and second, that persons with diminished autonomy are entitled to protection. The principle of respect for persons thus divides into two separate moral requirements: the requirement to acknowledge autonomy and the requirement to protect those with diminished autonomy.” On one hand, it is hard to see how one can respect the autonomy of individuals and at the same time pressure them to give up their liberty for a period of time with little guarantee that it will ultimately benefit them. On the other hand, people in crisis are hardly in a situation to make the autonomous responsible decisions that the Belmont Report appears to envision. It is fundamental to the psychiatric approach to the most serious mental illnesses that the individuals so afflicted often have severe impairments to their judgment. Thus there is reason to feel that they have diminished autonomy and they need to be protected from any mistakes in their own judgments. On the other hand, an increasing number of people who have had the experience of mental illness contest that viewpoint. Their perspective is perhaps best captured by the slogan that many would feel is only a slight exaggeration “My diagnosis is your delusion.” How to best respect the autonomy of people with mental illness when they are in crisis is thus a very controversial ethical issue. There are, however, other basic issues that these narratives raise. One fundamental one is the issue of compassion. Over and over the writers talk about the need to feel that someone understands and cares about their situation. They seek someone who will see another human being in their suffering, someone who will appreciate that however strange their behavior may be, their feelings are ones that others might have in a similar situation. They want to be

Mal-estar na cultura: corpo e animalidade em Kafka, Freud e Coetzee

O texto possui três partes. Na primeira o autor assume a identidade do personagem Rotpeter, de Kafka, e escreve sobre a questão dos animais no escritor de Praga. Na segunda parte faz-se uma incursão sobre as origens da questão da animalidade na nossa cultura moderna. Para tanto o autor retoma questões tratadas desde a fundação da Estética, assim como ilumina o encontro entre a reflexão estética e a ciência (com estaque para Darwin e sua teoria da origem das espécies). Na conclusão o texto mostra como esse debate em torno da questão animal e da "natureza" pode ser pensado no contexto do tema biopolítico da compaixão. Nesse momento retoma-se duas obras de J.M. Coetzee, mostrando em que medida a compaixão e a caridade podem estar na origem de uma simples tutela autoritária do "outro".

Multivariate analysis of reasons for death penalty support between male and female college students: empirical support for Gilligan’s ‘ethic of care’

Among a convenience sample of college students, the authors found an unexpectedly large difference in death penalty support between men and women, with only 45% of women supporting capital punishment in contrast to 71% of men. Reasons for supporting or opposing capital punishment varied by gender as well, with men holding more retributive and utilitarian views. Of the measures used in this study, women appeared to respond more to issues of compassion, caring, and mercy, thus providing inferential support for Gilligan’s ‘ethic of care’ hypothesis (1982).

Hope and Probability: Patient Perspectives of the Meaning of Numerical Information in Cancer Communication

Although the complexities inherent in human communication make it a difficult target for empirical investigation and systematic interpretation, it is well recognized that patient-provider communication can have either a powerfully negative or positive influence on the experience of cancer. Drawing on an extensive data set derived from interviews with 200 cancer patients, the authors examine the impact of information provided in numerical form within cancer care communications from the patient perspective. In this context, they present findings related to various uses and abuses of numbers within cancer care communication, and illustrate how numerical information constitutes a specialized communication form with considerable potency for shaping the cancer experience. In particular, accounts of the thematic relationship between numbers and hope, from the perspective of those on the receiving end of cancer care, provide a unique perspective from which to interpret issues of compassion, caring, and informed consent.

The Compassion Strategy: Race and the Gender Gap in Campaign 2000

Recent studies have shown that social issues, and not those directly linked to women's interests, seem to drive the gender gap in presidential vote choice. Some of these compassion issues are associated with the plight of racial minorities in the media and in the minds of average citizens. Drawing on theories of gender role socialization, we predict that traditional partisan stands on racial issues may help to explain the gender gap. Specifically, we hypothesize that the gap emerges because men and women react differently to cues about how compassionate candidates are toward vulnerable social groups. In one experiment, we manipulate news information regarding George W. Bush's commitment to blacks versus women. The gender gap is maximized when Bush takes the traditional Republican stance, while it is reduced significantly when Bush espouses a more moderate position. The gender gap is unaffected by variation in the position that Bush takes on women's issues. In another experiment, we also find that the gender gap emerges when traditional partisan appeals are racialized. Finally, exposure to the 2000 Republican National Convention, with its message of racial inclusion, boosted evaluations of Bush among women but not men.

The Evolution of the Gender Gap

Most studies of the gender gap focus on the greater attraction of the Democratic party for women than for men. Scholars and journalists first noticed the gender gap in connection with the 1980 presidential election (Mueller 1988). Thus, initial explanations of the gender gap centered on how Ronald Reagan's opposition to abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment led women to be less likely than men to vote for Reagan. These women's issues, however, were subsequently found not to explain the gender gap, since men's and women's positions on these issues tended to be the same (Cook, Jelen, and Wilcox 1992; Mansbridge 1985). Subsequent explanations for the gender gap turned to issue areas where men's and women's positions diverged, such as use of force abroad or at home and compassion issues (Conover and Sapiro 1993; Fite, Genest, and Wilcox 1990; Shapiro and Mahajan 1986; Smith 1984). Feminist attitudes also were debated as the source of the gender gap (Conover 1988; Cook and Wilcox 1991). Finally, varying economic positions and differences in weighting economic factors in voting decisions also have been argued to underlie the gender gap (Chaney, Alvarez, and Nagler 1998; Erie and Rein 1988; May and Stephenson 1994; Miller 1988; Seltzer, Newman, and Leighton 1997; Welch and Hibbing 1992). Despite the focus on different sets of issues, most research still attempts to explain why women have a greater attraction to the Democratic party than do men. Scholars are increasingly using a longitudinal perspective to understand the origins of the gender gap, and these researchers are finding that the greatest movement in partisan preferences in recent decades has occurred among men who left the Democratic party more quickly than did women (Kaufmann and Petrocik 1997; Kenski 1988; Miller 1991; Wirls 1986). In addition, men's and women's voting patterns diverged before the 1980 election. Men were more likely than women to vote for George Wallace in 1968 and Richard Nixon in 1972 (Norrander 1999). To better understand the long-term evolution of the gender gap two factors need to be considered. First, changes in partisan preferences have been greater in the

Who Gives to the Poor? The Influence of Religious Tradition and Political Location on the Personal Generosity of Americans toward the Poor

Americans vary widely in their ideas about causes of and solutions to poverty, and differ as well in what compassion to the poor should look like. Few researchers have examined the complex issue of compassion. Most who have suggest that conservative Protestantism has lagged behind Catholicism and more liberal Protestantism in generosity or commitment to the poor. This article examines the giving habits of Americans to organizations which help the poor and needy, using religious and political measures to test the conventional view that devout Catholics and liberal Protestants are the friends of the poor, and that politically conservative Christians are indifferent or hostile toward them. The results suggest that religion and religiosity do increase giving to the poor, but that there is no support for the conventional wisdom about conservative Protestants. Indeed, the evidence suggests theological and political conservatives are currently more generous in this particular form of charitable giving.

Gender Stereotypes and the Perception of Male and Female Candidates

We investigate the origins of voters' expectations of greater female competency on issues, such as dealing with poverty or the aged, and greater male competency on military and defense issues. We contrast two alternative explanations: gender-trait stereotypes, emphasizing a candidate's gender-linked personality traits; and gender-belief stereotypes, placing greatest importance on the differing political outlooks of male and female candidates. We test contrasting predictions from these two approaches with data from an experiment in which 297 undergraduate participants were randomly assigned to hear about a male or a female candidate with typically masculine or feminine traits. Overall, there was stronger support for the trait approach. Warm and expressive candidates were seen as better at compassion issues; instrumental candidates were rated as more competent to handle the military and economic issues. Moreover, masculine instrumental traits increased the candidate's perceived competence on a broader range of issues than the feminine traits of warmth and expressiveness. Finally, there was some limited support for the belief approach with gender-based expectations about the candidates' political views affecting their rated competency on compassion but not other types of political issues.

Gender Differences in Policy Preferences: A Summary of Trends From the 1960s to the 1980s

Gender Differences in Policy Preferences: A Summary of Trends From the 1960s to the 1980s