Understanding and Watering the Seeds of Compassion

Abstract

The authors call for a broad agenda to create comprehensive models and research on the development and promotion of empathy and compassion. This wish would lead to a new level of developmental/ecological understanding of the growth of compassion as well as effective policies and practices and interventions that nurture caring, compassion, and service to others in our schools and communities. The authors define empathy and compassion, briefly discuss the outline of early developmental processes, and call for basic research on these essential aspects of human development. The authors conclude by discussing the need to develop new ways to promote empathy and compassion in families, schools and communities.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to our many colleagues who have contributed to our thinking on this topic. They include Patricia Broderick, Kamila Dvorakova, Larissa Duncan, Doug Coatsworth, Elaine Berrena, Alexis Harris, Joy Mitra, Patricia Jennings, Robert Roeser, Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, Joan Halifax, and Richard Davidson. We thank Edna Bennett Pierce for the generous support she has provided that has nurtured these ideas over the past decade.