compassion presentation revised

Compassion Of Other Lives ScaleC.O.O.LDr. John ChangChristopher H. Bolton

Compassion

• “The feeling that arises in witnessing another’s suffering and that motivates a subsequent desire to help.” – Goetz et al. (2010)

• “Being moved by another’s suffering and wanting to help.” – Lazurus (1991)

• “Feeling sorrow or concern for others along with a desire to alleviate their suffering.” – Steller et al. (2011)

How We Define Compassion• Compassion – the unconditional empathy for someone’s suffering,

consequently leading towards a desire to alleviate that suffering.

• Two Components:• 1) Empathy• 2) Alleviate Suffering Behaviors

• Why must empathy occur before the action to Alleviate another’s Suffering?• If the one person is expressing behaviors that alleviate someone else’s

suffering WITHOUT FIRST expressing empathy, then this behavior is being acted out of Altruism.

Empathy vs. Altruism• Altruism• Unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others,

consequently leading to an action to improve the welfare of others.

• More of a Social Desirability Component

• Compassion• the action of being aware of, being sensitive to and vicariously

experiencing the feelings and thoughts of another, consequently leading to an action to alleviate someone’s suffering.

Step By Step Process

1.) Create initial questionnaire with many items pertaining to Empathy and Alleviate Suffering Behaviors.

-56 items2.) Administer to as many individuals as possible

-354 undergraduate ESU students

3.) Based on item analysis, determine TWO FACTORS:• Which items measure the same construct?• How statistically significant (strong) are the

items?

Exploratory Factor Analysis

What floats in water?

•Bread

•Apples

•Very Small Rocks

•Cherries

•A Duck

Items

What Floats In Water?

Does Float: Does Not Float:

Methods• Subjects• 354 Undergraduate ESU Students

• Item Examples• Empathy:

• I am caring to others.• 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 (Likert Scale)

• I understand people’s feelings.• Alleviate Suffering Behaviors:

• I would give to a homeless person sitting on the sidewalk.• I don’t have to be paid to help others.

• Initial questionnaire had 56 Items!

Methods (Cont.)

• Procedure• C.O.O.L. Questionnaire administered to students

within various majors in a classroom setting.• Mostly given within Intro to Psychology classes.• By using Exploratory Factor Analysis: • Researchers determined how well items measured the two

factors: Empathy and Alleviate Suffering Behaviors.

Results

• Items• 26 Total Items• 13 Items measuring Empathy• 13 Items measuring Alleviate Suffering Behaviors

Results (Cont.)

• Factors:• Empathy + Alleviate Suffering Behaviors =

Compassion of Other Lives

Results (Cont.)

• Chronbach Alpha (How consistently Items related)• Empathy

• Alpha = .89

• Alleviate Suffering• Alpha = .897

• Test-Retest Reliability• Empathy

• Test-Retest = .98• Alleviate Suffering not yet determined.

Future Directions• Validity• Convergent Validity

• Measure of Emotional Empathy Scale• Discriminate Validity

• Correlates of Delinquency Scale

• Reliability• Implement further Test-Retest Reliability

Future Directions (Cont.)• Employment Criteria• Nurses and Medical Doctors• Clergy• Teachers• Mental Health Practioners