RESEARCH PROJECT

The research projects funded in this area aim to better understand how conditions, behaviors and attitudes centered on the good of the other can be fostered, leading to greater health and well-being for all. Altruistic love, as used here, is a self-giving, caring love and concern for others, the kind of love that is a central feature in many spiritual traditions.

26 research projects were funded under the Fetzer Institute request for proposals, Scientific Research on Altruistic Love and Compassionate Love.

• Altruistic Love and Compassionate Care in L'Arche
  
  
• Attachment Theory, Compassion, and Altruism
  
  
• Benevolent Love and Marriage
  
  
• Brain Circuitry of Altruistic Love
  
  
• Compassionate Love and Social Support in Early Marriage
  
  
• Compassionate Love in the Family: An Observational Study of Marital
  Support, Caregiving, and Prosocial Sibling Interaction in Early Childhood
  
  
• Compassionate Love within HIV-Affected Families:
  Caregiver, Patient, and Family Well-Being
  
  
• A Content Analysis of Altruistic Love on Television
  
  
• The Development, Antecedents, and Psychosocial Implications
  of Altruism in Late Adulthood
  
  
• Emergent Altruism: Community Dynamics
  
  
• Empathy and Altruism in Health Professionals:
  Effects of a Social Cognitive Spiritual Training Program
  
  
• How Close Partners Shape One Another's Selves and Ideals
  
  
• The Impacts of Religious, Intellectual, and Civic Engagement on Altruistic Love
  and Compassionate Love as Expressed Through Charitable Behaviors
  
  
• Love and Compassion: Acts of Moral Exemplars
  
  
• Love of Humanity: Concomitants and Consequences
  
  
• Loving-Kindness Meditation for Persistent Pain
  
  
• Mapping Altruistic Love in an Urban African-American Housing Community:
  The Social Production of Love Moral Meanings of Altruistic and Compassionate
  Love Among Recipients of Caregiving
  
  
• A National Study of Altruistic Attitudes and Behaviors
  
  
• People on War: Qualitative Data Analysis
  
  
• A Prototype Analysis of Lay Conceptions of Compassionate Love
  
  
• Religiousness and Service in Adolescent Development of Altruism and Compassion
  
  
• Spiritual Practices and Altruistic Love: Two Studies of Alcoholics Anonymous Members
  
  
• Spirituality in the Lives of Compassionate Clinicians Working in Hospitals
  
  
• Volunteerism, Community, and Compassionate Acts Among Older Adults
  
  
• Warmth-Based vs. Conscientiousness-Based Virtues, Altruistic Personality Traits,
  and Expressions of Altruistic and Compassionate Love