Compassion
PSYCH 101

Hickckliff, H., & Karl, A. (2011, June) Effects of Intranasal Oxytocin on “Compassion Focused Imagery.”
American Psychology Association. (vol. 6)(pp. 1388-1396). The topic of this article is the effects of oxytocin on Compassion Focused Imagery CFI. CFI is an imagining of another “mind” being deeply compassionate to one self and the effects of self- criticism and feeling socially safe with others. The author’s conducted this study to investigate if Oxytocin (compared to a placebo) would enhance a person’s ability to create a CFI and the quality of the emotional experiences associated with it. The participants used in the experiment were healthy, non-smoking, medication free people. They also had no history of any serious psychiatric illness. The average age of the twenty six men and fifteen women was twenty six. During the experiment the participants attended two sessions. They received a nasal spray of either the Oxytocin or the placebo for the first session then the opposite spray for the second session. They then were asked how they were feeling “right now,” along with watching a thirty minute video of a nature documentary, listening to an outline of the imagery then a five minute relaxation and last the seven minutes of CFI. The results of the experiment showed the Oxytocin had no more effect on compassionate feelings than the placebo.

Wray-Lake, L., Flanagan, C., & Maggs, J. (2011, Nov) Socialization in Context: Exploring Longitudinal
Correlates of Mothers’ Value Messages of Compassion and Caution. Developmental Psychology. (Vol. 48) (pp. 250-256). The topic of this article is the correlation between a mothers’ value messages such as compassion messages and caution messages. The authors conducted this study to determine how a mother’s emphasis on compassion and caution will vary in relation to a mother’s background, the child’s age and gender, and the child’s peer, family and neighborhood environments. The children of this study ranged from fifth grade to twelfth grade in Northeast and Midwest school districts. The mothers of this study were primarily white (85%), and socioeconomically diverse with annual incomes ranging from less than $30,000 to more than $100,000. How they conducted the study was over a three year period. They reported the mother’s education level and marital status. They also asked questions regarding each value message like: “I tell my children,” “respect people no matter who they are,” and “not to judge people before you know them.” Some of the caution message questions were “stay away from the wrong crowd,” “be careful who you are kind to,” and “you can’t always trust people.” The results of this study were mothers with more knowledge of children’s friends, family religiosity, and greater concerns had greater compassion messages. Social class, race, family structure and gender predicted caution messages. Black, unmarried and less educated women had greater caution messages. And mothers of daughters also reported greater caution messages.

Stellar, J., Manzo, V., Kraus, M. & Dacher, K. (2012) Class and Compassion: Socioeconomic Factors Predict Responses to Suffering. Emotion (vol. 12) (pp. 449-459).
The topic of this article is about previous research indicating how lower-class people experience elevated negative emotions compared to their upper-class counterparts. The authors conducted this research to investigate the differences in socioeconomic class-based compassion and its activation in situations where others are suffering. The participants used in this study were seventy male and seventy eight female undergraduates from a large public university. In first study the participants completed a standard measure of social class identification. Next they rated thirty eight items with respect to how much they agreed or disagreed to the