| $1.3 Million Fuels Compassionate Love Research - October 21, 2009 |
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$1.3 Million Fuels Compassionate Love Research KALAMAZOO, MI, October 21, 2009—The Fetzer Institute has awarded a total of $1.3 million for nine research projects to study compassionate love.The projects focus on compassionate love in a broad range of relationships—marital, parent-child, families, inter-group, and between religious and cultural groups. They were selected from a pool of 233 submitted in response to the Fetzer Institute’s request for proposals. This initiative continues the Institute’s long-term commitment to the growing field of compassionate love research, a body of work that continues to attract investigators distinguished in their fields. “We believe these projects to be cutting-edge research that will greatly contribute to our aim of better understanding how love is manifested in all aspects of human life,” commented program officer Wayne Ramsey. Since 2001 the Fetzer has supported more than 30 scientific studies on compassionate love and altruistic love. The research has addressed the evolutionary and biological foundations of love, basic science and applied social science, compassionate love in different life stages, and compassionate love in settings of trauma and war. This initial round of support has yielded more than 50 published papers in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Child Development, the American Journal of Sociology, and Developmental Psychology among others, and 32 book chapters. ### A private operating foundation based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Fetzer Institute engages with people and projects around the world to help bring the power of love, forgiveness and compassion to the center of individual and community life. Founded by broadcast pioneer John E. Fetzer, the Institute carries out its mission in a number of ways: by supporting scientific research to understand how to increase the human capacity for love and forgiveness; by convening conversations that help community leaders explore the practical application of love and compassion in their work; and by sharing compelling stories of love and forgiveness at work in the world. While the Fetzer Institute is not a religious organization, it honors and learns from a variety of spiritual traditions. www.fetzer.org RESEARCH PROJECTS Compassionate Love for Members of Other Groups: Deepening Basic Knowledge and Developing Real-World Interventions Four multi-site studies will build on previous research on a program to encourage cross-group friendships, examine the effects, identify mechanisms, and develop real-world applications, including applications between police and neighborhoods in major urban areas. Arthur Aron, PhD, Stony Brook University, New York Stephen Wright, PhD, Simon Fraser University research site Jennifer Eberhardt, PhD, Stanford University Research Site Richard Slatcher, PhD, UCLA research site Physiological and Neural Underpinning of Compassionate Caregiving in Couples This study of the physiological and neural processing dynamics of compassionate care giving to a loved one in need will link attachment style differences in caregiving behavior and physiological reactivity to partner’s emotional distress. Nancy L. Collins, PhD, University of California Santa Barbara Compassionate Love in Dating and Marital Relationships: Disentangling the Quadrumvirate This study will examine the similarities and differences between compassionate love and three other primary kinds of love (romantic love, attachment love, companionate love/liking), with a basic hypothesis that compassionate love is triggered by the partner’s distress more so than the other kinds of love, and is more highly correlated with variables such as perceived partner responsiveness, caregiving, and social support than will the other kinds of love. Beverley Fehr, PhD, University of Winnipeg Psychophysiology of Mothers’ Compassionate Love and Children’s Prosocial Development This research study will examine the psychophysiological mechanisms by which maternal compassionate love generates the capacity in their young children to develop prosocial behavior and empathic concern for others. Paul Hastings, PhD, University of California Davis Compassionate Love and Ten-Year Mortality in People with HIV This project will examine the expression of compassionate love and its relationship health behavior, disease progression, and survival in persons with HIV. Gail Ironson, MD, and Heidemarie Kremer, MD, University of Miami Growing Old Together: Compassionate Love and Well-Being in Older Adulthood This research will examine the nature of compassionate love in intimate relationships in older adults and explore how compassionate love may promote both partners’ health in a normative population of older adults in close relationships. Amy Rauer, PhD, Auburn University Everyday Acts of Compassionate Love in Dyadic Context This project will examine the expression of compassionate love in everyday acts of kindness in committed couples, the role of shared perspectives, mutuality in responsiveness, and implicit evaluations of the other with their effect on relational and personal well being. Harry T. Reis, PhD, University of Rochester Can Security-Enhancing Interventions Overcome Barriers to Compassion in Couple, Peer, and Intergroup Relationships? This project will extend previous work on attachment security and its relationship to compassion and compassionate love for all humanity, examining the effects of security priming on compassionate love within three different relational contexts– romantic relationships, small groups, and intergroup interactions. Phil Shaver, PhD, University of California Davis Mario Mikulincer, PhD, Bar-Ilan University, Israel The Influence of Compassionate Love in Adolescent-Parent Relationships This research study will examine the role of parental compassionate love toward their adolescents to achieve an appropriate balance between autonomy granting, caring, and control, and its influence on adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment and family relationships Judith G. Smetana, PhD, University of Rochester |