Pastoral counseling and the compassionate God

Taking up a suggestion of Michael Cavanagh in a recent issue of this journal, Marcel Sarot contributes to the theological task of distinguishing conceptions of God that are psychospiritually unhelpful from those that are helpful. More specifically, he argues that the conception of God as compassionate and co-suffering is psychospiritually more helpful than that of God as blissfully impassible. In the final section, he shows that there is some empirical research confirming this conclusion.     

Prototype analysis of the concept of compassionate love

Social scientists are turning their attention to compassionate love, arguing that this kind of love may promote the greatest social good. The central thesis of this research was that compassionate love might be best understood as a prototype rather than a classically defined concept. Six studies were conducted with in Canada and the United States. In Study 1, participants generated features of compassionate love. Studies 2 and 3 revealed that some features (e.g., trust, caring) are considered more central to the concept of compassionate love than others (e.g., sacrifice, sympathy). This prototype structure was confirmed in studies of reaction time (Study 4), memory (Study 5), and logical inferences (Study 6). The implications of a prototype conceptualization of compassionate love for theorizing and research in this relatively new area are discussed.     

Effects of compassionate thinking on negative emotions

The present study compared the effect of compassionate thinking with other methods traditionally used in cognitive behavioural therapy (cognitive reappraisal, responsibility reattribution, and self-deflection). An instructional manipulation was used, and 207 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of these thinking styles or a control condition. The results revealed that participants who engaged in compassionate thinking and cognitive reappraisal reported significantly lower levels of negative emotions compared to those in the responsibility reattribution and control conditions. Furthermore, results of hierarchical regression analyses suggested that habitual use of self-compassion reduced negative emotions in all conditions. These findings suggest that self-compassion and reappraisal reduce negative emotions more than reattribution and self-deflection.     

Towards networking in counselling: a follow-up study of Finnish school counselling

A follow-up study (1990-1997) and in-depth interviews on school counselling practices and problems in Finland showed that in the last 10 years the work of the school counsellor has extended and become more diversified. This article analyses this change in school counselling in terms of the problems and core tasks of counselling and the new challenges faced by Finnish counsellors, such as dismantling the traditional gender divisions in working life and counselling for immigrants. In addition, the article examines how school counsellors have attempted to solve the problems related to their work, for example, by establishing counselling networks inside and outside the school.     

The association between compassionate goals and relational-interdependent self-construal

Although research has examined the consequences of relational self-construal (RSC), little is known about what psychological factors predict it. Four studies examined the association between compassionate goals and RSC. Study 1 showed that compassionate goals are positively associated with RSC in college students. Study 2 replicated this association among adults in romantic relationships. Studies 3 and 4 showed that compassionate goals predict increased RSC over time in college roommates. Moreover, Studies 2–4 showed that responsiveness to relationship partners statistically mediated the association between compassionate goals and self-construal. These studies suggested that people with compassionate goals have high RSCs and that they also develop higher levels of RSC by being responsive to relationship partners.     

A pilot exploration of the use of compassionate images in a group of self-critical people

Self-criticism has long been associated with a variety of psychological problems and is often a key focus for intervention in psychotherapy. Recent work has suggested that self-critics have underelaborated and underdeveloped capacities for compassionate self-soothing and warmth. This pilot study developed a diary for monitoring self-attacking and self-soothing thoughts and images. It also explored the personal experiences of a group of volunteer self-critics from the local depression support group who were given training in self-soothing and self-compassion. Although using small numbers, this study suggests the potential value of developing more complex methodologies for studying the capacity for self-compassion, interventions to increase self-compassion (including imagery techniques), and their effects on mental health.     

Moral elevation and compassionate goals predict posttraumatic growth in the context of a college shooting

Abstract

After a mass shooting, community members may experience not only distress, but also feeling uplifted or morally elevated by others’ prosocial responses to the trauma. Those experiencing elevation may be more likely to strive to support others (compassionate goals) and to endorse posttraumatic growth (PTG). However, the role of elevation in PTG, and the relative contribution of compassionate goals (both from and toward others), remains unknown. Students, faculty, and staff (N = 385) completed measures four months after a campus shooting, and a subset repeated measures at eight months (n = 82). As expected, compassionate goals toward others incrementally predicted higher PTG beyond perceptions of compassionate goals from others. Also, elevation concurrently and prospectively predicted higher PTG. Lastly, elevation mediated effects of others’ compassionate goals on PTG, as hypothesized (95% CI = 2.59 to 5.43). These findings have implications for understanding the social and emotional processes that facilitate PTG.     

Towards a model of influence of spirituality on leadership: empirical research of school leaders on Catholic schools in the Netherlands

What is spirituality? What is leadership? And what is their relationship? The article presents the concept of ‘discernment’ (Latin: ‘discretion’) as the link (tertium comperationis) between spirituality and leadership. Spirituality is a way of life in (the growth of) discernment towards human fullness, which is grounded in a moral universe (God, nature). Three elements are employed in discernment: spiritual traits (Cloninger), spiritual capital (Bourdieu) and spiritual transformation (Waaijman). The influence of spirituality on leadership is empirically tested in research among 97 leaders (principals) of Catholic schools in the Netherlands. The findings show three types of leadership, namely trustworthy guiding leadership, empowering leadership and autocratic leadership. Our model with three predictors of a spiritual life growing in discernment (spiritual traits, capital and transformation) is partially confirmed, and looks promising for future research. In the discussion, the authors reflect on trustworthy-guiding leadership from the concept of attestation of Paul Ricoeur.     

Object elicitation: A compassionate and culturally informed method for psychotherapy research

This study provides an innovative, compassionate and culturally informed method for psychotherapy research, using object elicitation with 13 participants from vulnerable groups. It examines the positive impact it has on building the research alliance, enhanced depth of sharing within qualitative research interviews and emic ways of knowing through the engagement with a culturally relevant, tangible, internalised or transitional object brought by vulnerable participants from diverse cultural contexts of origin. Results showcase how a creative and compassionate research method can promote a culturally informed research alliance with vulnerable participants, helping to build trust, rapport and relational depth; encourage elicitation of experiences; and empower emic and subjugated voices. The implications of this study make the case for the inclusion of object elicitation as a creative and compassionate method in qualitative research with traumatised and vulnerable individuals, which should be used as part of a culturally informed approach to psychotherapy research.     

Towards the Transformation Age

This article explores the emergence, systematization, and maturation of a transformation economy as the information economy eventually wanes in prominence. The author speculates as to the principles, patterns, and possibilities of this emerging economic sphere and some ways that it will retool and revision previous economic spheres. He points to the most probable arenas for wealth concentration as the transformation economy moves from fragmentation to systematization. Finally, he explores the shift from an accumulation paradigm of money to a stewardship paradigm, which those who profit from the soul economy will increasingly be called to exemplify.     

Creating and undermining social support in communal relationships: the role of compassionate and self-image goals

In 2 studies, the authors examined whether relationship goals predict change in social support and trust over time. In Study 1, a group of 199 college freshmen completed pretest and posttest measures of social support and interpersonal trust and completed 10 weekly reports of friendship goals and relationship experiences. Average compassionate goals predicted closeness, clear and connected feelings, and increased social support and trust over the semester; self-image goals attenuated these effects. Average self-image goals predicted conflict, loneliness, and afraid and confused feelings; compassionate goals attenuated these effects. Changes in weekly goals predicted changes in goal-related affect, closeness, loneliness, conflict, and beliefs about mutual and individualistic caring. In Study 2, a group of 65 roommate pairs completed 21 daily reports of their goals for their roommate relationship. Actors' average compassionate and self-image goals interacted to predict changes over 3 weeks in partners' reports of social support received from and given to actors; support that partners gave to actors, in turn, predicted changes in actors' perceived available support, indicating that people with compassionate goals create a supportive environment for themselves and others, but only if they do not have self-image goals.     

Speaking of privilege: family therapy educators' journeys toward awareness and compassionate action

This study explores how family therapy educators from privileged social locations understand issues of privilege and the process by which they integrate their personal and professional journeys to create and model equity in family therapy training and professional development. These educators developed awareness about issues of privilege and oppression and owned their privilege. Increased awareness involved personal struggles with guilt and managing internalized voices of prejudice that are constantly reinforced in society. These educators adopted a stance of action and accountability for equity. We hypothesize that the process leading to owning one's privilege involves the ability to be compassionate for others' suffering and one's own limitations.     

Revising Beliefs Towards the Truth

Belief revision (BR) and truthlikeness (TL) emerged independently as two research programmes in formal methodology in the 1970s. A natural way of connecting BR and TL is to ask under what conditions the revision of a belief system by new input information leads the system towards the truth. It turns out that, for the AGM model of belief revision, the only safe case is the expansion of true beliefs by true input, but this is not very interesting or realistic as a model of theory change in science. The new accounts of non-prioritized belief revision do not seem more promising in this respect, and the alternative BR account of updating by imaging leads to other problems. Still, positive results about increasing truthlikeness by belief revision may be sought by restricting attention to special kinds of theories. Another approach is to link truthlikeness to epistemic matters by an estimation function which calculates expected degrees of truthlikeness relative to evidence. Then we can study how the expected truthlikeness of a theory changes when probabilities are revised by conditionalization or imaging. Again, we can ask under what conditions such changes lead our best theories towards the truth.     

Towards the feeling of emergence

Emergence is a multi-dimensional notion; the meanings it has acquired span the mythopoetic to the scientific, especially as found in complex systems. Examples of emergence in Navaho and Egyptian imagery underscore its diverse cultural origins and applications as well as suggesting an underlying archetypal quality to the core concept. A brief overview of the use of this term in science starting in the 17th century helps to locate the roots of modern emergent views in the philosophy of Leibniz. Jung's own use of early systems approaches was a part of his formulations of a 'third' position associated with the transcendent function. As this paper was delivered at the 50th anniversary conference of the Journal of Analytical Psychology, aspects of the emergence of the Journal within the contents of the first issue are explored. Attention is drawn to several articles, especially a case of brief child therapy done by Robert Moody. His approach to working his case is strikingly modern and vividly demonstrates principles of emergence within the clinical setting. Following this there is a discussion of some neuroscientific research on neural body maps, pointing to the experience of feelings as an emergent process. It is suggested that feelings derive from phase transitions in the brain's body mapping states. A reconsideration of a seeming impasse in the case described by Moody leads instead to a view of the initial phase of treatment as a pre-critical period. Research findings on mirror neurons are presented in terms of the feeling of empathy. Subjective feelings are then shown to be associated with moments of emergence, especially surprise and curiosity, exemplified by a case from the author's practice.