Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Philosophy, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1975. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 345-353).

This paper explores the nature of compassion within various yoga traditions and clarifies its role through historical and textual examination. In doing so, it explores key texts within the yoga traditions that address compassion and highlight the qualities attributed to compassion. While compassion is commonly present within the texts, it varies in meaning and significance within these texts and often is not perceived as central to the text’s teachings. Initially, this paper examines teachings from the Upaniṣads that address moral conduct and the nature of transformative knowledge. Second, verses from the Yogasūtra are discussed. In doing so, this paper addresses the brahmavihāras and their understanding in Buddhist literature. Third, this paper examines verses and concepts from the Mahābhārata, in which compassion can be seen as an important theme. Then, the Yogavāsiṣṭha's view on ethics and compassion is explored. Haṭhayoga texts present a shift within the conception of compassion and address compassion as part of the yamas within the aṣṭāṅgayoga framework, a representation that carries through to the Yoga Upaniṣads. Lastly, this paper elaborates on the implications and significance of compassion within yoga, discusses the main Sanskrit terms, and addresses possible threads that demonstrate the evolution of compassion within yoga’s literature. It further argues that there is a correlation between the importance of compassion within a text to the text’s target audience as ascetics or householders. I will further demonstrate that the prominence of compassion within a text signifies the accessibility of the text, its teachings, and the practice of yoga to a wider audience.

These studies define a Buddhist conceptualization of compassion and describe the development of the Compassion Scale. The definition of compassion was adopted from Neff's (2003) model of self-compassion that proposes that the construct entails kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. The six-factor structure was adopted from the Self-Compassion Scale (2003) representing positively and negatively worded items of the three components proposed to entail compassion. The six-factors for compassion are named: kindness vs. indifference, common humanity vs. separation, and mindfulness vs. disengagement. Study 1 was conducted to provide support for content validity. Study 2 was conducted to provide initial validation for the scale. Study 3 was conducted to cross-validate findings from the second study. Results provide evidence for the structure of the scale. Cronbach's alpha and split-half estimates suggest good reliability for both samples. Compassion was significantly correlated with compassionate love, wisdom, social connectedness, and empathy providing support for convergent validity. Factor analysis in both samples indicated good fit using Hu & Bentler (1998) criteria. Results suggest that the Compassion Scale is a psychometrically sound measure of compassion. Given that Buddhist concepts of compassion are receiving increased attention in psychology (e.g. Davidson, 2006; Gilbert, 2005, Goetz, 2010) this scale will hopefully prove useful in research that examines compassion from a non-Western perspective. / text

Compassion is related to the work of counselors, yet scholars have not agreed upon a standard definition of compassion beyond a superficial dictionary explanation. A Delphi study was conducted to discover the opinions of a panel of counseling experts on the subject of compassion. The purpose of the study was to identify and define compassion as it relates to the context of professional counseling, as well as identify associated skills, attributes, and behaviors. The study also explored how experienced counselors distinguish compassion as it is experienced or expressed professionally and personally. Fifteen panelists participated in three rounds of data collection via online survey. Panelists also received feedback from subsequent rounds. Themes emerged on perceptions of compassion, skills and abilities that convey compassion, situations that create compassion obstruction, and support of knowledge, training, and education on compassion. The results indicate that assumptions exist on understanding what compassion is and how to express it in a professional manner. Results further show that compassion is an understudied and unnoticed concept that needs more examination. / Doctor of Philosophy / People generally understand compassion to be an act of understanding the pain and suffering of another person with a desire to ease their pain. However, applying the concept to the work professional counselors do can be problematic because of the codes of conduct and principles needed to keep both the counselors and clients safe. Compassion is at the heart of counseling with the goal being to help individuals and families positively focus on their mental health to improve many areas of their lives. Currently, the counseling profession recognizes the importance of compassion but needs to research this concept more fully. This study used a Delphi methodology to learn from a group of expert counselors and counselor educators how they define compassion specific to the occupation of counseling. An additional purpose was to identify things counselors do and know that express or communicate compassion in counseling settings. The group of experts revealed that counselors know the healthy boundaries needed to keep the relationships between the client and themselves healthy. Counselors also know what may get in the way of showing or feeling compassion with their clients. The results of the study did define compassion in counseling, identified ways counselors show compassion, and helped set up a way to develop compassion over the occupational lifespan.

Literature Review: Background: Compassion-facilitating interventions (CFIs) seek to increase feelings of reassurance, safeness and well-being, and are suggested as a new psychotherapeutic approach to treat post-traumatic stress. Objectives: This review summarises and synthesises the literature investigating CFIs for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in clinical adult populations. Method: A systematic review of the experimental and intervention literature to date was completed using PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Knowledge databases. Results: CFIs show large to medium effect sizes in reducing PTSD in traumatised populations. However, many studies did not compare these interventions to active control conditions, and for the few studies that did, compassion-facilitating interventions were not better at reducing PTSD than the active control conditions. There was also not enough evidence in these studies to indicate a mechanism of change in these interventions. Conclusions: CFIs may be an effective intervention in PTSD, but more high quality research is needed to establish their efficacy over and above well established PTSD treatments. More research is also needed to identify the psychological mechanisms at work in decreasing PTSD symptoms Empirical Paper: Objective: Compassion-facilitating interventions are thought to be promising for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is theorised that inducing self compassion through a compassion-facilitating meditation task would interrupt the psychological processes that cause emotional distress and trauma-related intrusions that form post-trauma. Methods: A student sample (n = 72) was exposed to a trauma-film and then either listened to a neutral-emotion audio mediation or a compassion-facilitating meditation (CFM). Self-reported distress, self-compassion and self-criticism were measured at baseline, post-film, post-audio meditation and for seven days following the experiment. Measures of sympathetic arousal and parasympathetic activation were measured at baseline and during the trauma film and audio meditation. Trauma-related intrusions were measured for seven days following the experiment. Results: Lower self-reported distress and higher self-compassion were reported over the seven day follow-up, but not directly after the meditation. No statistical differences between conditions over time were found for any of the physiological measures but skin conductance was higher in the CFM group, contrary to predictions. There were also no statistical differences found between the two conditions in terms of sum daily intrusions following trauma-exposure. Conclusions: This research supports the hypothesis that facilitating self compassion can disrupt some of the observed processes post-trauma, namely felt distress, although only after a delay. These findings are relevant to the theoretical models of PTSD and future clinical interventions.

Nurses experiencing compassion fatigue (CF) are emotionally exhausted, which contributes to decreased nurse retention and patient satisfaction. The focus of this project was to identify factors that contribute to CF. A systematic review was conducted to identify demographic factors that contribute to CF in the acute care setting, clarify the types of care situations that increase CF, and describe the social support networks of nursing units influencing CF. The review included peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2007 and 2018 that focused on registered nurses in the acute care setting. Using the grading of recommendation assessment development and evaluation format, 3 articles in Level of Evidence 1 and 11 articles in Level of Evidence 3 were included in this review. Findings showed that demographic factors such as age, gender, level of education, and years as a nurse contributed to CF. Care situations that contribute to CF include mixed-acuity-level patient units and an increase in administrative duties that are not directly related to patient care. A nursing unit's social support network has a direct impact on reducing CF: Units with peer support and respect have less CF, units with managers who are active and listen to staff have lower CF, and units with a change in management or nursing practice have higher levels of CF. Implications of this study for social change include approaches to help nurses balance care of patients and administrative tasks as well as creating education on factors that lead to CF. Interventions focused on promoting a working environment in which nurses' input is valued may prevent nurses from leaving their jobs or the nursing profession, which could improve patient satisfaction with nursing care.

Tidigare studier har visat att negativa känslomässiga effekter på empatisören avtar med tiden. Denna studies syfte var att, med ett starkare mätinstrument samt en bredare population än tidigare, undersöka området ytterligare för att försöka få mer generaliserbara resultat. Deltagarna var 196 studenter varav 31 män. Genom en mellangruppsdesign besvarades en enkät där respondenterna beskrev en empatisituation och därefter fick bedöma hur denna påverkat dem. Slumpvis fick en tredjedel skatta hur effekter av empati ser ut direkt efteråt, en tredjedel hur det är nu och en tredjedel hur det är på lång sikt. Resultatet visade i linje med tidigare studier att negativa känslomässiga effekter på empatisören avtar med tiden. Det konstaterades även skillnader där kvinnor och yngre påverkas mer av empatisituationer än män och äldre. En möjlig förklaring till tidsperspektivets betydelse är att empatiska emotioner precis som alla emotioner avtar med tidsdistans från en specifik empatisituation.

Stigma is an individual’s devalued identity or other characteristic that may lead to stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Decades of literature show that experiencing stigma has negative effects on mental health outcomes. However, some research suggests that the experience of stigma leads individuals to cope with adversity in a meaningful way. Understanding how people benefit from adversity will help promote less distress for people who experience different types (visible or covert) of stigma. Three central questions were addressed. First, is level of distress different based on experience with stigma? Second, does having self-compassion buffer individuals with stigma, in that people with more self-compassion would have less distress than those with less self-compassion? Third, does more stigma experiences lead to more compassion toward others and contribute to lower levels of distress? To explore these questions, participants (N = 416) at a southeastern university completed on-line surveys to assess experience with stigma, compassion, and distress. Separate hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to examine whether (1) quantity of stigma, (2) directness of stigma, (3) level of visibility of stigma were related to distress. The direct experience of stigma and the lack of visibility of the stigmatizing characteristic significantly predicted higher levels of distress (b = .09, p < .01; b = .09, p < .01; respectively). In order to examine self-compassion as a moderator of the effect of stigma on distress, we conducted moderated regression analysis, with distress as the dependent variable, the centered stigma and self-compassion variables, as well as, the interaction between stigma and self-compassion, as predictors. This hypothesis was not supported. In order to address central question three, indirect effects were tested using bootstrapping (an SPSS script; Preacher and Hayes). Indirect experiences of stigma predicted compassion for others (b = .04, p < .05) which predicted less distress (b = -.32, p < .01). Given these results a follow-up study was conducted to further investigate these relationships. In a follow-up study of participants experiencing either a covert or invisible stigmatizing characteristic, self-compassion is induced by encouraging the participant to help another with the same stigmatizing characteristic. Preliminary results of the inductions effects on compassion for others, self-compassion, and distress will be presented.

Master of Arts - Psychology / A traumatic event is characterised by a situation that involves the actual or threatened death or injury to one’s self or others (Hesse, 2002). Figley (1999) described traumatic stress from another perspective in that individuals exposed to a traumatised person, may experience emotional upset and may become a victim, indirectly of the traumatic event. Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) emerges suddenly and without warning. The sufferer of STS often experience feelings of confusion and helplessness. Compassion fatigue, an equivalent to STS first made appearance in studies of job burnout in the helping professions to describe a decline in compassionate feelings toward patients or clients in need. Compassion fatigue has since been widely used external to the occupational context, thus in the wider social community (Kinnick, Krugman & Cameron, 1996). In literature, a clear frame is presented by the Constructivist Self Development Theory and focuses on the multifaceted interaction between the ind ividual and the environment. According to this theory individuals construct their own realities. The self is the seat of the individual’s identity and inner life, which encompasses four interrelated aspects: selfesteem, ego resources, psychological needs and cognitive schemas. Traumatic experiences are encoded in the verbal and imagery systems of the memory. Adaptation to trauma reflects an interaction between life experiences and the self (McCann & Pearlman, 1990). Neurotic anxiety, Type A syndrome, locus of control, flexibility, and introversion as the five personality traits, guide an individual’s responses to stress (Cherniss, 1980). Not only personality traits, but also career goals and previous experiences may influence an individual’s suscep tibility to stress. In contrast, coping strategies are influenced by social support such as family involvement and friends, and the load of stress on the individual (Harel, B. Kahana and E. Kahana, 1993). Freud suggested that fixation on trauma is biolo gically based and posttraumatic stress disorder is associated with complex abnormalities in several biological systems (Van der Kolk and Saporta, 1993). When considering the complexity of our biological system combined with the complexity of the human psyche, trauma counselling is energy consuming on both the victim and the counsellor. An additional theory explored was the Psychoanalytical theory which focuses on the intrapsychic processes and infantile conflict (Brett, 1993). Three basic assumptions are the core of the psychoanalytic theory, according to Meyer, Moore and Viljoen (1997). These are: psychosocial conflict, biological and psychological determinants, and mechanistic assumption based on natural sciences and indicates that an individual functions like a mechanism with energy and the functions thereof. Considering the difference between compassion fatigue and burnout, numerous researchers indicate the importance of distinguishing between these concepts. Figley (1999), indicates burnout as a result of emotional exhaustion and specifies that it also has a gradual emergence, in contrast to compassion fatigue which emerge suddenly and is associated with feelings of hopelessness and confusion, although the recovery rate is faster than that of burnout. According to Maslach (1982), burnout is: a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishments. Burnout may also be a logic outcome of lower levels of autonomy, control over practice, collaborative working relationships, and organisational trust as indicated by Spence Laschinger, Shamian and Thomson (2001. According to Hesse (2002), organisations may introduce interventions to assist employees in combating symptoms of compassion fatigue and burnout, or the foreseeing event of these symptoms occurring. These are: reduction of the number of caseloads each trauma counsellor are responsible for and provision of supervision and group support programmes to assist employe es in rendering these effects. Furthermore, organisations should ensure adequate benefits, staff development opportunities, regular leave, informed consent as a standard organisational policy to inform new counsellors of the risks involved in trauma counselling and expressive staff meetings An unfavourable effect may be caused by suffering therapists to their organisations in that the quality and effectiveness of the organisation's work may be compromised. Therapists who do not address compassion fatigue and burnout are likely to experience more disruption of their empathic abilities, resulting in frequent incomplete therapies (Waldrop, 2003). The objective of this research is to determine the organisational responses towards compassion fatigue and burnout in trauma counsellors. A comparison between organisational responses across multiple organisations model will be made to explore the effects of the various responses. Furthermore, the study will investigate the influences of organisational responses on compassion fatigue and burnout considering the influences individual differences of the trauma counsellors may have. The need to establish the organisational responses towards compassion fatigue and burnout in any given organisation may assist researchers, employees and organisations alike to proactively intervene in such incidence. Not only is it ethical to intervene but potential problems concerning employees may also become legality. The Occupational Health and Safety Act is a legal guide provided for employees and employers alike. Concerning the research design, a quantitative approach was employed to reach the research objectives. The target population for this study included counsellors working with trauma survivors. No volunteer counsellors were used for the reason that different responses are associated with volunteer counsellors beyond the scope of this study. The sample comprised of 25 (n) trauma counsellors in total. The total sample of 25 counsellors participating in the study, 19 were female and five (5)were male, with one response missing. The method of data collection was by means of structured questionnaires, more specifically, compassion fatigue and burnout was measured through the Professional Quality of Life: Compassion Satisfaction and Fatigue Subscales – Revision III (ProQol – RIII) and the Organisational questionnaire which was constructed by the researcher. The reliability scores of the ProQol – RIII obtained by the researcher indicated the first subscale, compassion satisfaction .92, the burnout subscale with an alpha of .62 and lastly compassion fatigue subscale with an alpha of .66. All statistical analysis was obtained with the assistance of the SAS Programme (SAS Institute, 2000). Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data of the different organisations (Kerlinger & Lee, 2000). Content analysis was used to describe each organisation and organisational responses to compassion fatigue and burnout. Profiles for each organisation were developed ant in that the relationship between organisational responses and possible compassion fatigue was examined. The most prominent results were the following: Unanimous responses to no provision of primary interventions such as change of line of authority (70%), restructuring of organisational units in order to prevent monotony (76%), establishment of reward systems (81%), and information regarding issues concerning the Occupational Health and Safety Act (81%). Agreement among respondents that organisations do not providing time management training (86%), conflict management training (86%), focus groups or support groups (80), and health promotional activities such as weight-watchers (75%) were reached. Unanimous agreement was also observed regarding organisations not providing in-house counselling or referrals were. All organisations have average to low compassion satisfaction scores and all organisations tend to have average to high compassion fatigue with burnout being lower for all organisations except Organisation 1 with a tendency of higher burnout. Due to not finding phenomenal significant relationship between the organisation profiles when addressing the predictive power of organisational responses, the predictive power when individual differences are accounted for, became irrelevant. Janik (1995), stipulates that employees in every domain are at risk of developing compassion fatigue. These include correctional officers, counsellors, psychologists, social workers, emergency response personnel, and medical staff. We as employees and employers must unite to assist each other in combating these phenomena.