Compassion in Context

Lavelle, Brooke D.

doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190464684.013.2

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…This is facilitated by practices that aim to extend compassion from close ones to neutral people, to strangers, to persons who have caused harm, and, ultimately, to all beings. These practices, albeit in different forms, are common in all Buddhist traditions and in many secular programs adapted for clinical and social settings (Lavelle, 2017).…”

Section: Forms Of Compassion and The Weight Of Moral Judgmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ready to help, no matter what you did: Responsibility attribution does not influence compassion in expert Buddhist practitioners.

Fucci,

Abdoun,

Baquedano

et al. 2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Within western social psychology and neuroscience, compassion is described as being conditioned by costbenefit appraisals, such as the attribution of responsibility for the causes of suffering. Buddhist traditions maintain the possibility of cultivating and embodying unconditioned and universal forms of compassion. Whereas a growing body of empirical literature suggests that Buddhist-inspired compassion-based programs foster prosociality and well-being in healthy and clinical populations, there is no evidence that such compassionate disposition toward others can become unconditioned from moral judgment. To address this question, we collected and integrated self-report and behavioral data from expert Buddhist practitioners and trained novices using a previously validated within-subject experiment that manipulates contextual information to influence moral judgment toward suffering others and a newly designed approach-avoidance task. We found that context manipulation impacted responsibility and blame attribution in both groups and that experts' reported willingness to help was higher and less influenced by context, compared to novices. Partial correlation networks highlighted a negative relationship between blame attribution and willingness to help in novices, but not in expert practitioners. Self-reported willingness to help was correlated to reaction times when approaching suffering stimuli. Approach behavior was modulated by context in novice, but not in experts. This study provides initial evidence of a dissociation between moral attributions and prosocial attitude in expert Buddhist practitioners and challenges established evolutionary accounts of compassion in western psychology. Public Significance StatementThis study provides initial evidence for a dissociation between moral judgment and prosocial attitude in expert Buddhist practitioners. Findings are in line with Buddhist theories on compassion and contemplative training and expand established theories in social psychology.

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Section: Forms Of Compassion and The Weight Of Moral Judgmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ready to help, no matter what you did: Responsibility attribution does not influence compassion in expert Buddhist practitioners.

Fucci,

Abdoun,

Baquedano

et al. 2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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“…Descriptions of such training, and its benefits, are often attributed to (practitioners of) the Mahayana branch of Buddhism [5,6]. This tradition has strongly influenced and deepened our contemporary understanding of compassion, and provided a basis for the development of compassion-focused meditation approaches, which have become increasingly mainstream and accessible, even to those with no previous background in these practices [7]. Compassionate behavior (including the subjective state of compassion) is typically understood as being directed outwards, toward other (suffering) beings.…”

Section: Compassion Self-compassion and Psychopathologymentioning

confidence: 99%

A bioelectronic route to compassion: Rationale and study protocol for combining transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) with compassionate mental imagery

Kamboj

Peniket²,

Simeonov³

2023

PLoS ONE

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Background The vagus nerve (VN) is a neural nexus between the brain and body, enabling bidirectional regulation of mental functioning and peripheral physiology. Some limited correlational findings suggest an association between VN activation and a particular form of self-regulation: compassionate responding. Interventions that are geared towards strengthening self-compassion in particular, can serve as an antidote to toxic shame and self-criticism and improve psychological health. Objective We describe a protocol for examining the role of VN activation on ‘state’ self-compassion, self-criticism, and related outcomes. By combining transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) with a brief imagery-based self-compassion intervention, we aim to preliminarily test additivity versus synergy between these distinct bottom-up and top-down methods for putatively regulating vagal activity. We also test whether the effects of VN stimulation accumulate with daily stimulation and daily compassionate imagery practice. Methods Using a randomized 2 x 2 factorial (stimulation x imagery condition) design, healthy volunteers (n = 120) receive active (tragus) or sham (earlobe) tVNS plus standardized (audio-recorded) self-compassionate or sham mental imagery instructions. These interventions are delivered in a university-based psychological laboratory in two sessions, one week apart, as well as being self-administered between sessions by participants at home. Pre-stimulation, peri-stimulation and post-imagery measures of state self-compassion, self-criticism and related self-report outcomes are assessed in two lab sessions, separated by a week (Days 1 and 8). Heart rate variability is used as a physiological metric of vagal activity and an eye-tracking task assesses attentional bias to compassionate faces during the two lab sessions. On Days 2–7, participants continue their randomly assigned stimulation and imagery tasks at home, and complete state measures at the end of each remote session. Discussion Demonstrating modulation of compassionate responding using tVNS would support a causal link between VN activation and compassion. This would provide a basis for future studies of bioelectronic approaches to augmenting therapeutic contemplative techniques. Clinical trials registration ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier: NCT05441774 (Date: July 1st 2022). OSF registration https://osf.io/4t9ha.

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“…Several secular programs have emerged in recent years that have adapted forms of meditation training from Buddhist traditions for people to learn to cultivate more unconditional, inclusive, discerning and sustainable qualities of loving care and compassion to empower their relationships, service and action (Lavelle, 2016(Lavelle, , 2017. Such qualities of love and compassion are associated with practices of awakening in Asian Buddhist cultures.…”

Section: Adapting the Relational Orientation Of Buddhist Practice For...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Compassion and Skillful Means: Cultural Adaptation, Psychological Science, and Creative Responsiveness

Condon

Makransky

2022

Mindfulness

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In this article, we will address two distinct, but interrelated aspects of "skillful means" that can inform compassion training: (1) the historical precedent and need for adapting meditation practices to meet new cultural contexts, and (2) the need to express compassion flexibly in ways that creatively meet the specific contexts, mentalities, and needs of particular persons and situations. We first discuss ways that the doctrine of skillful means was employed by Buddhists to rationalize the repeated adaptation of Buddhist teachings to meet the culturally situated mentalities and needs of diverse Asian peoples. Then, in continuity with that history of Buddhist adaptation, we explore how theories from modern psychological science, such as attachment theory, can be newly drawn upon to support adaptation of relational frameworks operative in traditional Buddhist cultures of compassion training for modern contexts. Finally, we draw on theories from cognitive science, namely situated conceptualization, that provide a tractable framework for understanding skillful compassion as embodied emptiness-involving the relaxation of pattern completion mechanisms, which helps open up greater discernment and presence to others, so that care and compassion can be more unrestricted, creative, and directly responsive to the person and situation at hand.

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Compassion in Context

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

Ready to help, no matter what you did: Responsibility attribution does not influence compassion in expert Buddhist practitioners.

Ready to help, no matter what you did: Responsibility attribution does not influence compassion in expert Buddhist practitioners.

A bioelectronic route to compassion: Rationale and study protocol for combining transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) with compassionate mental imagery

Compassion and Skillful Means: Cultural Adaptation, Psychological Science, and Creative Responsiveness

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