Research Projects
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Barriers to Compassion
This line of research explores potential barriers to expressing compassion toward others. General mindful attention capacity was hypothesized not to be a significant barrier to overall compassion, but fear of expressing compassion and narcissism were predicted to significantly stifle compassion.
Key Findings:
First, we tested whether there was a correlation between mindful attention and compassionate love. As expected, the general trait of mindful attention and awareness was not correlated with the composite compassionate love score or with most of the individual facets of compassionate love. However, it was correlated with the mindful awareness facet of compassionate love. Those with greater attentional awareness in daily life also reported greater compassion-oriented mindful awareness.
To follow up, we looked at which of the compassion-related mindful awareness items were most correlated with the mindful attention trait. Mindful attention was most correlated with compassion items that most concretely and directly assessed attention and distraction.
Next, we tested whether there would be a correlation between fear of expressing compassion and compassionate love.
Fear of expressing compassion toward others arises out of beliefs regarding justice, resource security, and personal responsibility. These fears are thought to reduce compassion toward others because they involve concerns that extending compassion may signal personal weakness, threaten one’s own resources, or lead others to receive an unfair benefit.
Interestingly, and in a complementary way, fear of expressing compassion was not correlated with the mindful awareness facet of compassionate love, but it was correlated with the remaining four facets of empathic perspective taking, distress tolerance, common humanity, and kind intention/awareness, as well as with the composite compassion score.
Next, we tested whether fear of expressing compassion toward others might explain some of the variance in compassionate love that could not be explained by the trait of mindful attention. As expected, fear of expressing compassion was a significant predictor of compassionate love, and it explained a small proportion of the variance in compassionate love. Participants who expressed greater fear of expressing compassion reported lower overall compassion toward others, as well as lower scores on the facets of empathic perspective-taking, distress tolerance, common humanity, and kind intention/action.
To follow up, we also tested whether there would be an interaction between mindful attention and fear of compassion to predict compassionate love (that is, that those with both low attention and high fear of compassion would be particularly low on compassionate love, and more specifically on the facet of mindful awareness). A significant interaction was not observed.
We also tested whether the personality trait of non-clinical narcissism might be correlated with compassionate love. Contrary to our expectations, it was not.
The facets of compassion were strongly correlated with one another, as expected. Concurrently, our new five-facet measure of compassionate love was being assessed for psychometric properties.
2024_OUPRC_SURC_Brinkman_Moore_D’Agostino_Williamson_Wagner_Adkins_Tuning in or Turning Away_Mindful Attention & Fear of Compassion.pdfTakeaways:
Fear of expressing compassion involves a self-protective and defensive posture toward others that may help us understand deficits in compassion that involve level of emotional investment, ability to tolerate distress during interpersonal encounters, connecting cognitively to the experience of others, and feeling motivated to act on their behalf.
In a complementary way, the capacity to tune into the distress of others in the present moment seems to be facilitated at least in part by the attentional processes that facilitate other types of attention and environmental awareness in other tasks of daily life.
Self-reported narcissism was not a helpful indicator of self-reported compassion toward others in this university student sample.
Representative Presentation:
Brinkman, D., Moore, H., D’Agostino, S., Williamson, M., Wagner, G., Adkins, A., & Harper, A. R. (2024, April). Tuning in or turning away: Mindful attention and fear of compassion as predictors of compassionate love among university students. Paper presented at the Ohio Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference, University Heights, OH.
Spirituality as a Mediator of Religiousness & Compassion
This line of research tests whether spirituality (i.e., subjective sense of spirituality and spiritual practices) would mediate the relationship between religiousness (i.e., subjective strength of religiousness and religious service attendance) and compassion toward others.
Key Findings:
First, we tested whether our measures of religiousness and spirituality would be correlated with compassionate love. As expected, subjective religiousness, frequency of religious service attendance, subjective spirituality, and frequency of spiritual practices were significantly correlated with compassionate love.
The facets of compassionate love were correlated with one another, as expected.
The measures of religion/spirituality were correlated with one another, as expected.
We wanted to rule out the possibility that social desirability bias, which is the tendency to report attributes that will be perceived favorably by others, might influence compassionate love scores. After accounting for the trait of social desirability bias, subjective religiousness, subjective spirituality, and frequency of spiritual practices were still significantly correlated with compassionate love. Frequency of religious service attendance was significantly corelated with social desirability bias, meaning that participants may have been most likely to over-report their participation in religious services out of a desire to be evaluated favorably.
Looking at each of the five facets of compassion, we can see that each was significantly related with at least one of the measures or religiousness or spirituality.
Mindful awareness was correlated with subjective spirituality.
Empathic perspective-taking was correlated with subjective religiousness, frequency of attendance, and subjective spirituality.
Distress tolerance was correlated with subjective spirituality and frequency of spiritual practices.
Common humanity was correlated with all four measures.
Kind intention/action was also correlated with all four measures.
In summary, we observe that while the facets of mindful awareness and distress tolerance appear to be most directly linked with participants’ sense of spirituality, the facets of empathic perspective-taking, common humanity, and kind intention/action are related to a combination of both religious and spiritual engagement. Subjective spirituality is the most consistent predictor of compassionate love among these four variables.
Subjective spirituality predicted compassionate love beyond the effect of subjective religiousness in a hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis. Therefore, we tested a mediation model of spirituality mediating the relationship between religiousness and compassionate love. Subjective spirituality mediated the relationship between subjective religiousness and compassionate love. With spirituality entered as a mediator, the indirect effect of religiousness on compassion through spirituality was a statistically significant pathway. This mediated pathway becomes a stronger predictor of compassion than the direct pathway from religiousness alone.
In summary, it appears that among our university student participants, spiritual experiences were a key mechanism through which their religious roots resulted in compassionate fruits.
2024_OUPRC_Bolden_Hailey_Prosek_Woodworth_Roots and Fruits of Compassion_Spirituality as a Mediator.pdf
Representative Presentation:
Bolden, L., Corey, H., Prosek, L., Woodworth, C., & Harper, A. R. (2024, April). The roots and fruits of compassion: Spirituality as a mediator of the relationship between religiousness and compassionate love. Paper presented at the Ohio Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference, University Heights, OH.
Grace-Focused Expressive Writing Intervention
This line of research explores the effect of a retrospective, grace-focused expressive writing intervention on self-reported state humility and state compassion.
Key Findings:
Participants (N = 133) who reflected on an experience of receiving grace retrospectively reported significantly greater state humility resulting from this experience, compared to those who reflected on experiences of giving grace and an everyday control experience. Receiving grace had a significant, moderate effect on state humility.
The effect of an experience of receiving grace on state humility was apparent especially on the facets of state humility pertaining to a) experiencing a sense of transcendence and b) awareness of egotism.
Reflecting on experiences of receiving and giving grace did not significantly impact participants’ general sense of compassion toward others in the moments after the writing intervention, compared to those who reflected on an everyday control experience.
This may have been due to the general, trait-like nature of the wording on the Compassion Scale items, compared to the state-specific approach utilized by the Experiences of Humility Scale.
Combining the three experimental groups, those who reported greater state humility also reported greater general compassion toward others, r = .23, p = .007. The kindness facet of compassion was correlated with the transcendence facet of state humility, r = .19, p = .03.
2023_OUPRC_Cornelius_Gerken_Shaffer_Ziegler_Experiences with Grace.pdfRepresentative Presentation:
Cornelius, A., Gerken, J., Shaffer, A., Ziegler, G., & Harper, A. R. (2023, March). Experiences with grace: The effect of retrospective, grace-focused expressive writing on self-reported state humility and compassion. Paper presented at the Ohio Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference, Parma, OH.
Experiences of Grace
This line of research explores the subjective experiences of receiving and giving grace and investigates various psychological barriers to extending grace to others and to the self.
Key Findings:
In a sample of university students and community adults (N = 99), the extent to which participants perceived that their parents extended grace toward them was associated with the extent to which they perceived God to have extended grace toward them and the extent to which they described having a secure attachment style. Participants with a higher self-rating on secure attachment in turn reported greater capacity to extend grace toward self.
Grace toward self was higher among those with greater secure attachment and those with lower scarcity mindset. Grace toward others was higher among those with a higher perception of receiving grace from God and those who had a lower need for closure, lower belief in a just world, and lower scarcity mindset.
In a preliminary sample (N = 53), participants with highest levels of grace toward self had the lowest levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance. High attachment anxiety and high attachment avoidance in combination (i.e., a fearful attachment style) significantly negatively predicted grace toward self.
2022_SWPA_Who Keeps the Score_Attachment and Grace-Giving.pdfRepresentative Presentations:
Gutierrez, Y., & Harper, A. R. (2022). Re-gifted: Exploring the way that people experience grace towards themself in light of attachment to their parents and God. Unpublished McNair Program thesis manuscript.
Siems, M. B., Gray, K., Castaneda, J., & Harper, A. R. (2022, April). Who keeps the score?: Associations between attachment style and grace-giving. Poster presented at the Southwestern Psychological Association Annual Conference, Baton Rouge, LA.
Religious/Spiritual Practices and Compassionate Love
This study assessed particular religious practices which are associated with the development of compassionate love. Previously, we had discovered that our more religious participants were not reporting rates of compassionate love that were any different than our less religious participants. This prompted us to explore whether there are any religious/spiritual practices in particular that do tend to shape the qualities associated with compassionate love, and whether those practices shape compassionate love toward in-group and toward out-group members through different processes.
Key findings:
In a sample of university students and community adults (N = 115), compassionate love for close others was self-reported to a greater degree, on average, compared to compassionate love for strangers/humanity. Less variation in compassionate love for close others was reported among participants, which may indicate that people perceive themselves to be more capable of demonstrating compassionate love for those in their close social circles (i.e., their circles of affection; Beck, 2017), compared to those outside their typical social circles.
Communal worship practices, individual religious/spiritual practices, shared religious/spiritual practices, and congregational service practices were associated with both compassionate love toward close others and toward strangers/humanity. These patterns were consistent across the facets of compassionate love: mindfulness of others' distress, sense of common humanity with others, and kind behavioral intentions toward others (Pommier, 2011).
Communal worship practices, shared religious/spiritual practices, and congregational service practices were more significantly associated with compassionate love for strangers/humanity than with compassionate love for close others. This may indicate that these practices primarily orient practitioners toward love for those typically outside the circles of their affection. Religious practices significantly correlate, meaning that participation in one type indicates a strong likelihood of participation in the others (i.e., communal worship, individual, shared, and service ).
The following communal worship practices were most strongly associated with greater love for strangers and humanity: communal practices of offering forgiveness, listening to sermons/messages, prayers of intercession for the needs of others, prayers of thanksgiving or gratitude, and serving during worship service times.
Greater congregational service practices predicted compassionate love toward strangers/humanity beyond the impact of communal worship practices. Notably, greater engagement in service practices was associated with more mindfulness of strangers' distress and less disengagement when confronted with their pain, less sense of psychological separation from others, less indifference toward the suffering of others, and more intention to respond emotionally and behaviorally to the pain of strangers.
The relationship between congregational service practices and compassionate love for strangers/humanity was strongest for those with lowest theological defensiveness (i.e., those with a growth orientation to religious faith). The relationship between congregational service practices and compassionate love for strangers/humanity was weakest for those with highest theological defensiveness (i.e., those with a security orientation to religious faith).
Several congregational service practices were associated with greater compassionate love for strangers/humanity, including: pregnancy/maternity services, counseling services, parenting support, providing meals and food, collection and distribution of clothing/supplies, jail and prison ministry, alcohol and drug recovery support, providing financial assistance, providing help to immigrants/refugees, and providing shelter for the homeless.
Individual religious and spiritual practices (i.e., practices that people engage in throughout the week on their own) were associated with greater compassionate love toward close others and toward strangers/humanity. The practices that were particularly associated with compassionate love toward strangers and humanity included: mindfulness of the beauty of creation, mealtime prayers, reading religious literature, engaging in evangelism, forgiveness, and private prayers of adoration or worship.
Representative Presentations:
Wilson, P., & Harper, A. R. (2022, April). Actions speak louder than words: Service practices and compassion toward strangers/humanity. Paper presented at the Southwestern Psychological Association Annual Conference, Baton Rouge, LA.
Carney, A, & Harper, A. R. (2020, April). No stranger love: Theological orientation, service practices, and compassionate love. Poster presented at the Annual Mid-American Undergraduate Research Conference, hosted online due to COVID-19.
Reid, B., & Harper, A. R. (2020, April). In matters of love, does practice make perfect? Poster presented at the Annual Mid-American Undergraduate Research Conference, hosted online due to COVID-19.
Shepherd, K., & Harper, A. R. (2020, April). Practicing the love that binds us: Predictors of compassion toward close others. Poster accepted for the Southwestern Psychological Association Annual Conference, Frisco, TX. Conference canceled due to COVID-19.
2020_SWPA_MAUPRC_Carney_No Stranger Love_Theological Orientation_Service Practices.pdf2020_SWPA_MAUPRC_Reid_In Matters of Love_Does Practice Make Perfect.pdf2020_NCUR_SWPA_Shepherd_Practicing the love that binds us.pdfCompassionate Love Writing Interventions
This line of research applies brief expressive writing interventions in an experimental paradigm, in order to test whether compassionate love can be experienced as a state and whether it can be momentarily influenced. Two experimental studies were designed to test whether reflecting on experiences of a) giving love, b) receiving love, and c) daily life have differing effects on psychospiritual states.
Key Findings:
In a sample of university students and community adults (N = 167), participants who reflected on experiences of either giving or receiving compassionate love, compared those who reflected on an everyday experience, reported that the experience contributed to greater self-esteem, greater self-awareness, greater closeness with others (especially for those who reflected on receiving compassionate love), and greater sense of personal spirituality. Those who reflected on an experience of giving compassionate love, compared to the others, reported that the experience led to greater self-sacrifice.
In a second sample, (N = 116), reflecting on experiences of either giving or receiving compassionate love resulted in greater feelings of closeness to others and self-awareness, compared to reflecting on an everyday experience. Reflecting on the experience of receiving compassionate love resulted in greater feelings of positive emotions and self-esteem (all medium effect sizes), compared to reflecting on giving compassionate love or an everyday experience. These findings are consistent with and expand upon prior research indicating that those who reflected upon receiving compassionate love reported greater benefits than those in a control condition, including increased self-esteem, positive mood, self-awareness, and heightened spirituality (Fehr & Sprecher, 2006).
Participants (N = 116) who reflected on an experience of receiving compassionate love reported greater state attachment security toward God, compared to participants who reflected on an experience of giving compassionate love or an everyday experience. This trend was in the hypothesized direction but was not statistically significant. The participants, overall, rated their attachment to God as relatively secure. Participants revealed more attachment anxiety toward God than attachment avoidance, which may reflect the relatively high level of religious engagement in this sample.
Participants (N = 80) who reflected on experiences of receiving compassionate love, compared to those who reflected on experiences of giving compassionate love or an everyday experience, reported a lower retribution theodicy ( i.e., belief that suffering is the result of personal wrongdoing) in the moments after the writing intervention. Participants who reflected on experiences of receiving or giving compassionate love, compared to those who reflected on an everyday experience, reported a higher overcoming theodicy ( i.e., belief that having faith can reduce suffering) in the moments after the writing intervention. These findings suggest that a brief compassionate love writing intervention can at least momentarily influence a person's psychospiritual response to suffering.
Participants (N = 80) who reflected on experiences of giving compassionate love, compared to those who reflected on experiences of receiving compassionate love or an everyday experience, reported greater mindfulness and less over-identification with distress in the moments after the writing intervention, signifying a shift in one important facet of self-compassion.
Representative Presentations:
Knight, K., & Harper, A. R. (2021, April). The impact of a compassionate love writing intervention on state attachment to God. Poster presented at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Virtual Conference.
Reid, B. (2020, April). Personal impacts of mindful compassion for others. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Psychological Society, held virtually due to COVID-19.
2021_UCLA_NCUR_Knight_The Impact of a Compassionate Love Writing Intervention On State Attachment to God.pdf2020_OPS_Thesis_Reid_Mindful Compassion for Others.pdfCross-Cultural Compassionate Love in the United States and Costa Rica
This is a mixed-methods, cross-cultural project, in which we explore manifestations of compassionate love in the United States and Costa Rica. This project involved a research trip to Costa Rica with seven undergraduate students, which allowed us to collect correlational survey data (distributed in the U.S. and C.R.) and audio-recorded interviews (conducted in Costa Rica).
Key findings:
Self-reported perceptions of one’s kindness, mindfulness, and common humanity were not associated with country of residence; however, rates of compassionate love varied within national groups. Participants from Costa Rica rated themselves higher on horizontal collectivism overall, and horizontal collectivism was associated with greater compassionate love across nationalities. Particularly, participants in the United States who scored high on horizontal collectivism had the highest compassionate love scores.
On average, participants in the United States rated the kindness facet items of a currently utilized compassion scale (i.e., Pommier's Compassion Scale, 2011) to be more acceptable (subjectively accurate) representations of compassionate love, while participants in Costa Rica rated the common humanity items to be more acceptable representations of compassionate love.
Using LIWC linguistic analysis software, themes emerged in participants' open-ended responses, when they were asked to describe compassionate love.
In the United States, participants displayed more analytic thinking and writing styles (e.g., depersonalization and use of hypotheticals) and used ‘I’ more often than ‘we,’ showcasing the perceived agency found among people in more individualistic cultures. They also used more descriptive and concrete sensory language when it came to discussing pain and suffering.
In Costa Rica, participants exhibited more clout in their writing styles (i.e., conveying social status), showcasing the intragroup/intergroup dynamics and focus on in-group loyalty found operating in more collectivistic cultures. They also used more narrative-oriented ways of responding, more communal statements (using ‘we’ more often than US participants), as well as more words and phrases having to do with negative/uncomfortable emotions when discussing pain and suffering; themes that emerged included certainty and determinism.
Themes from a 50-minute semi-structured interview with a 32-year-old Costa Rican female school teacher from a small town in central Costa Rica indicate that compassionate love has several shaping forces and key characteristics.
One’s understanding of love:
1) is developed through personal experience (e.g., shifts in perspective due to trauma and experience).
2) is developed through relational and cultural influences (e.g., family upbringing, vocational experiences).
3) corresponds with cognitive and emotional states (e.g., core values, subjective spiritual experiences).
Compassionate love can be described in the following ways:
1) Love for others requires self-love.
2) Love for others creates a shared emotional experience of belonging.
3) Love for others respects individuality and autonomy.
4) Love for others involves attuned action.
Representative Presentations:
Brittain, M., Nunez, G., Gray, K., Siems, M., Wilson, P., Gomez, M., & Harper, A. R. (2021, April). Love’s shaping forces and defining features: A thematic analysis. Poster presented at the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences Undergraduate Research Colloquium at Southern Nazarene University, Bethany, OK.
Palmer, P., & Harper, A. R. (2020, February). Love knows some bounds: Lay conceptualizations of compassionate love in the United States and Costa Rica. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, New Orleans, LA.
Marquis, M., & Harper, A. R. (2019, November). Mapping the terrain of compassion: Rates of compassionate love across dimensions of culture. Poster presented at the Oklahoma Psychological Association Annual Conference, Oklahoma City, OK.
2021_SBS_Love's Shaping Forces and Defiing Features_A Thematic Analysis.pdf2020_SPSP_Palmer_Love Knows Some Bounds.pdf2019Fall_OPA_Marquis_Mapping the Terrain of Compassion.pdfTheological Orientations and Compassionate Love
This line of research explores the existential functions of religious/spiritual beliefs and practices, in light of opportunities to develop compassionate love, both toward in-group members and out-group members. This research draws on Existential Theory, Terror Management Theory, and Dr. Richard Beck's work on security-focused (theologically defensive) and growth-focused (existentially aware) theological orientations.
Key Findings:
In a sample of university students and community adults (N = 124), self-reported compassionate love was not significantly correlated with religious service attendance or with theological defensiveness. Theological defensiveness was positively correlated with religious service attendance and biblical conservatism. Importantly, the Compassion Scale (Pommier, 2011) does not differentiate between love toward in-group members and love toward out-group members. Differences among types of religious service experiences may explain the lack of association between service attendance and compassionate love.
In a study exploring the associations between theological orientations, personality characteristics, and compassionate love, with participants recruited from two universities (N = 487), the personality trait of extraversion partially mediated the relationship between security orientation and acts of kindness. Openness to experience partially mediated the relationship between growth orientation and perception of common humanity.
Applying and testing an existential tradeoff model (Van Tongeren, Davis, Hook, & Johnson, 2016)., a security-focused orientation to religious faith among participants (N = 273) was associated with lower depression (i.e., greater personal well-being, consistent with a buffering hypothesis) and lower sense of common humanity (i.e., lower potential for collective well-being).
Representative Presentations:
Harper, A. R., & Palmer, M. (2019, October). Love and fear in the mortal body of believers: Existential tradeoffs of religious commitment and theological orientations for practices of compassionate love. Paper presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Annual Conference, St. Louis, MO.
Marquis, M., Harper, A. R., & Wright, R.W. (2019, April). Two roads to love: Compassion through religious orientation and personality characteristics. Paper presented at the Southwestern Psychological Association Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM.
Palmer, M., & Harper, A. R. (2019, February). ‘But the greatest of these is love’: Implications of theological orientation for compassionate love. Paper presented at the Texas National McNair Research Conference, Denton, TX.
Janka, K., Pound, M., Carney, A. & Harper, A. R. (2018, April). Reaching up and reaching out: Implications of theological orientation for compassionate love. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Psychological Society, Edmond, OK.
2019Fall_SSSR_Harper_Palmer_Love and Fear in the Mortal Body of Believers.pdf2019_UGRS_SWPA_Marquis_Two Roads to Love.pdf2019_UNT McNair_Palmer_Theological Orientation and Compassionate Love.pdf2018_UGRS_OPS_Theological Orientation & Compassionate Love.pdfCorrelates of Compassionate Love
In order to better understand how compassionate love functions in relation to other psychological and relational constructs, we have conducted basic correlational research investigating the associations of compassionate love with measures of personality characteristics, psychological distress, attachment styles, philosophy of self, and psychological flexibility. In this line of research, university students and community adults (Ns = 124-273) responded to self-report questionnaires.
Key Findings:
Compassionate love was positively correlated with the personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. Extraversion and neuroticism were not significantly correlated with general compassionate love. Personality traits accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in compassionate love, beyond the impact of recent psychological distress. These findings suggest that personality traits and basic temperaments may shape the expression of compassionate love, resulting in characteristic responses that are both biologically and environmentally facilitated, even in the midst of changing stressors. Looking at the facets of compassionate love:
Extraversion was correlated with greater sense of common humanity with others.
Agreeableness was correlated with greater mindfulness of others' distress and greater kind intentions/actions toward others.
Conscientiousness was correlated with greater kind intentions/actions toward others.
Negative emotionality was correlated with greater kind intentions/actions toward others.
Openness to experience was correlated with greater sense of common humanity, mindfulness of others' distress, and kind intentions/actions toward others.
In one sample, compassionate love shared a weak correlation with symptoms of depression and was unrelated to other markers of psychological distress (i.e., anxiety, stress). In another sample, anxiety and compassionate love shared a weak positive relationship. This suggests that mental health status, and anxiety processes in particular, may not significantly interfere with the development of compassionate love.
Attachment styles were associated with compassionate love, with consistent results between an initial sample and a replication sample. Secure attachment was positively correlated with compassionate love, and dismissive and fearful attachment styles were negatively correlated with compassionate love. Those who had secure and preoccupied attachment styles scored higher on compassionate love compared to those with fearful and dismissing styles. These patterns hold when investigating the impact of attachment styles on compassionate love toward strangers. Looking at the facets of compassionate love:
Secure attachment was negatively correlated with the three negative subscales of indifference, separation, and disengagement.
Dismissive attachment was positively correlated with indifference, separation, and disengagement and negatively correlated with kindness and mindfulness.
Fearful attachment was positively correlated with indifference, separation, and disengagement.
Compassionate love moderated the relationship between psychological distress and attachment responses. Generally, fearful attachment increased as psychological distress increased. However, those who reported the lowest compassionate love had the highest levels of fearful attachment compared to others, especially when experiencing lower levels of psychological distress. Likewise, the relationship between psychological distress and secure attachment was moderated by compassionate love. Those with relatively high compassionate love were more likely to express secure attachment when psychological distress was low. However, those with relatively low compassionate love reported lower attachment security, regardless of level of psychological distress.
Compassionate love (and particularly the behavioral kindness facet) was associated with a strongly relational sense of self (as contrasted with liberal individualism; Slife, O’Grady, & Kosits, 2017). Secure attachment mediated the relationship between strong relationality and compassionate love. These results were replicated in a second sample.
Compassionate love was associated with psychological flexibility, drawing upon the Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) literature. Looking at the correlations between subscales, compassionate love was most strongly associated with two dyads from the ACT Hexaflex model: centeredness (i.e., present moment awareness and self-as-context) and engagement (i.e., clarified values and committed action). This suggests that even in the midst of psychological distress, as experienced via distressing internal experiences and fusion with difficult thoughts, there are psychological pathways through which compassionate care can be extended to others.
Representative Presentations:
Bolden, L., Brinkman, D., Ntia, Z., & Harper, A. R. (2023, March). Bonding in love: Associations between compassion and two measures of relational orientation. Paper presented at the Ohio Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference, Parma, OH.
Corey, H., Remmert, B., & Harper, A. R. (2023, March). Associations between compassion and psychological distress. Paper presented at the Ohio Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference, Parma, OH.
Reid, B., Marquis, M., & Harper, A. R. (2019, April). Stranger danger and compassionate care: Implications of attachment style for compassion toward the other. Poster presented at the Oklahoma Psychological Society Annual Conference, Edmond, OK.
Costanzo, P., & Harper, A. R., (2019, April). Does perfect love drive out fear? Emotional distress, attachment, and compassionate love. Paper presentation as part of 'The wound is where is the light exits: Human frailties and compassionate love' symposium at Southwestern Psychological Association Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM.
Dawson, J.D., & Harper. A. R. (2019, April). Exploring the sandbox of compassion: Attachment security, strong relationality, and compassionate love. Paper presentation as part of 'The wound is where is the light exits: Human frailties and compassionate love' symposium at Southwestern Psychological Association Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM.
Palmer, M., & Harper, A. R. (2019, April). Whose well-being counts...Yours, mine, or ours? Applying an existential tradeoff model. Paper presentation as part of 'The wound is where is the light exits: Human frailties and compassionate love' symposium at Southwestern Psychological Association Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM.
Wing, S., & Harper, A. R. (2019, April). Compassionate frailty: Associations among emotional distress, personality, and compassionate love. Paper presentation as part of 'The wound is where is the light exits: Human frailties and compassionate love' symposium at Southwestern Psychological Association Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM.
Banks, B., & Harper, A. R. (2018, April). Love can’t be forced: Psychological flexibility as a predictor of compassionate love. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Psychological Society, Edmond, OK.
Cornelius, J., Costanzo, P., Massey, S., & Harper, A. R. (2018, April). How is your relationship?: Associations between interpersonal attachment and compassionate love. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Psychological Society, Edmond, OK.
Wing, S., Scott, B., & Harper, A. R. (2018, April). Temperamental love: Effects of personality and emotional health on compassionate love. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Psychological Society, Edmond, OK.
2019_UGRS_OPS_Stranger Danger and Compassionate Care.pdf2019_SWPA_Symposium_The Wound is Where the Light Exits.pdf2018_UGRS_OPS_Emotional Health_Personality_Compassionate Love.pdfRelationship Weekend Program Evaluation
Love Lab collaborated with Renew Counseling Center to assess the effectiveness of Relationship Weekend, a program for seriously dating and engaged couples at the University, which utilizes the evidence-based PREPARE/ENRICH marital preparation curriculum.
Key Findings:
On average, individuals who had participated in the relationship enrichment program at least once within the past 18 years (N = 78) provided favorable ratings for each session of the program. The Love Language portion of the program was rated as most helpful, while the Financial Planning portion was reported to be the least helpful. Participants who were no longer with their relationship program partner found the sessions to be less helpful than those who had remained with the same partner, and males found the program to be less helpful than females.
The PREPARE/ENRICH curriculum highlights nine domains of relationship quality: closeness, communication, flexibility, conflict, sexuality, spirituality, personality, parenting, and leisure activities (Olsen et al., 2012). Among individuals who had participated in the relationship enrichment program at least once within the past 18 years (N = 78), their current overall relationship satisfaction could be predicted by high scores on the domains of shared spiritual satisfaction, partner's reliability as a personality trait, affection/sexual satisfaction, mutual flexibility, effective communication, subjective closeness, and shared leisure time.
Representative Presentations:
Alcera, J. A., Banks, B., Brooks, H., Cloud, S., Vaughn, S., & Harper, A. R. (2017, April). Our love is here to stay: Investigation of relationship satisfaction and relationship qualities. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Psychological Society, Edmond, OK.
Vaughn, S., Cloud, S., Brooks, H., Banks, B., Alcera, J. A., & Harper, A. R. (2017, April). Love in the making: evaluation of relationship enrichment program. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Psychological Society, Edmond, OK.
Alcera, J. A., Banks, B., Brooks, H., Cloud, S., Vaughn, S., & Harper, A. R. (2017, March). Investigation of relationship weekend satisfaction and relationship quality. Paper presented at the Southern Nazarene University Undergraduate Research Symposium, Bethany, OK.
2017_OPS_Relationship Qualities and Satisfaction.pdf2017_OPS_Relationship Weekend Program Evaluation.pdfRomantic Breakup as a Sacred Loss/Desecration
Prior to pivoting to a focus on compassionate love, my line of research applied Dr. Annette Mahoney's Relational Spirituality Framework, longitudinally examining the role of psychosocial coping methods, religious/spiritual appraisals, and religious/spiritual coping methods in the long-term adjustment of emerging adults following non-marital romantic breakup.
Key Findings:
Among university students who had been "heartbroken" by a romantic breakup within the past 48 months (N = 276), their appraisals of the breakup as a sacred loss/desecration predicted post-breakup anger, subjective distress, stress-related growth, and spiritual growth. Use of post-breakup religious/spiritual coping methods predicted post-breakup subjective distress, stress-related growth, and spiritual growth. Positive and negative religious/spiritual coping methods offered unique contributions to individuals’ post-breakup adjustment, beyond the use of non-religious/spiritual coping methods. Religious/spiritual coping mediated links between sacred loss/desecration appraisals and positive post-breakup adjustment (i.e., greater stress-related growth and spiritual growth). Additionally, greater certainty of belief that participants would marry their ex-partner was found to predict greater sacred loss and desecration appraisals.
Among university students who had been "heartbroken" by a romantic breakup within the past 48 months (N = 276), their qualitative responses revealed that their appraisals of the breakup involved the themes of loss, violation, and spiritual significance. Additionally, their descriptions of their post-breakup functioning included themes involving problems with adjustment, internalizing negative beliefs, deep pain, ambivalence, confusion, difficulty moving on, and spiritual struggles related to their pre-breakup sexual involvement. They also revealed themes involving post-breakup stress-related growth and spiritual growth. They described utilizing a variety of post-breakup religious/spiritual coping methods, including theistic and nontheistic spiritual methods, methods that failed to yield spiritual change, methods that contributed to spiritual struggles, and a combination of both positive and negative religious/spiritual coping.
Among university students who had experienced the breakup of a romantic relationship (N = 445), participants' level of pre-breakup sexual intimacy and sacred loss/desecration appraisals of the breakup were associated with greater post-breakup maladjustment (i.e., anger and subjective distress). Sacred loss/desecration appraisals fully mediated links between pre-breakup sexual intimacy and post-breakup maladjustment. Additionally, the indirect effect of sexual intimacy on post-breakup maladjustment through sacred loss/desecration appraisals was moderated by religious conservatism. For participants with moderate or high religious conservatism, sacred loss/desecration appraisals mediated the effect of pre-breakup sexual intimacy on post-breakup anger and subjective distress. These findings suggest that for young adults who have more conservative views of the Bible, engaging in non-marital sexual intimacy may have especially painful repercussions, should the relationship end.
University students' (N = 113) appraisals of their breakup as a sacred loss/desecration and religious/spiritual coping methods were longitudinally associated with areas of post-breakup adjustment (i.e., greater subjective distress, greater anger) and growth (i.e., greater stress-related growth, greater spiritual growth) one year later. Mediation analyses highlighted that religious/spiritual coping resources (i.e., measured with the RCOPE) mediated longitudinal links between sacred loss/desecration appraisals of the breakup and subsequent adjustment (i.e., levels of subjective distress) and personal growth (i.e., levels of stress-related growth) a year later. These longitudinal findings highlight the psychological power of religious/spiritual appraisals and religious/spiritual coping methods in the context of non-marital romantic relationships and breakups.
Representative Publications:
Hawley (Harper), A. R., Mahoney, A., Pargament, K., & Gordon, A. K. (2015). Sexuality and spirituality as predictors of distress over a romantic breakup: Mediated and moderated pathways. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 2, 145-159. doi: 10.1037/scp0000034
Hawley (Harper), A. R., & Mahoney, A. (2013). Romantic breakup as a sacred loss and desecration among Christians at a state university. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 32, 245-260.
Representative Presentations:
Hawley (Harper), A. R. (2015, March). Becoming one: An exploration of premarital sexual activity and biblical conservatism among college students. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Psychology and Wesleyan Theology, Wesleyan Theological Society, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Mount Vernon, OH.
Hawley (Harper), A. R. & Mahoney, A. (2014, August). Sounds of a breaking heart: A descriptive study of university students’ post-breakup appraisals, adjustment, and coping. Poster presented at the 122nd Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
Hawley (Harper), A. R. & Mahoney, A. (2013, November). Spiritually risky sex: Predictors of post-breakup anger and subjective distress. Poster presented at the 47th annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Nashville, TN.
Hawley (Harper), A. R. (2013, March). I will praise you in this storm: An analysis of post-breakup responses from college students, in light of Wesley’s reflections on suffering. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Psychology and Wesleyan Theology, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA.
Hawley (Harper), A. R. (2012, November). Heartbroken: The implications of religious/spiritual appraisals for post-breakup well-being. Paper presented at the 7th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Health, Religion, & Spirituality, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN.
1_JPC 2013_Hawley & Mahoney.pdf4_Mediated and Moderated Pathways.pdf_APA 2014 Poster_Sounds of the Breaking Heart_AH_7-21-14.pdfARH_2013_Prelim_SHANKLIN_Presentation.pdf