Although a growing number of studies indicate the psychological benefits of Kindness no clear definition or distinct measure of Kindness is available. A framework for considering kindness was therefore developed and a 40 item self-report questionnaire (the kindness measure) produced from it. This was completed by a sample of 165 people differing in age, gender and occupation. Responses varied enough to indicate the measure is discriminating between people. Multivariate analysis indicated three distinct aspects of kindness: Benign Tolerance (BT), Empathetic Responsivity (ER), and Principled Proaction (PP). Central to these, a more fundamental form of Kindness was also identified, that we propose to call Core Kindness (CK), that contrasts with Psychopathy, as an important aspect of personality. Differences between men and women and younger and older people lend external validity to the kindness scales and bode well for future more detailed studies. Directions for future research are proposed. Attached are the fully revised components of the paper dealing with all the very supportive and helpful guidelines from the reviewers. The paper with tables and references is now 5,404 words. Many thanks Professor David Canter Cover Letter and Word Count We are greatly encouraged by the supportive comments of both reviewers and their agreement that a measure of Kindness would be of value and that this first stage in developing such a measure is worthwhile. The paper has been thoroughly revised in response to all their comments. As follows:  Discussion added  Sections "Scale development" and "Measure" were joined under a general heading "The Scale"  Section "The Sample"-a more detailed explanation of the sample was added (see p. 6 of the manuscript)  Sections "The Scale" and "The Sample" were joined under a general heading "2. Method"  Points "The Structure of Kindness", "A Multidimensional Measure of Kindness", "Anthrophilia", and "Validity" were joined under a general heading "The Structure of Kindness"  More details of the Factor analysis have been given and the reason for using the orthogonal Varimax rotation rather than an oblique solution has been provided.  Section "Reliability" now reports scale and item characteristics with the following indicators for the total and the three scales: M, SD; mean inter-item correlation; range of item-total correlations; simple split-half reliability as well as estimates following Guttman and Spearman (see Table 1 in the Figures and Tables document). The intercorrelation of all scales was reported (see p. 10-11 of the manuscript).  We are grateful for the pointer about using the term 'anthrophilia', we also struggled with 'psychophilia', which has also been hijacked by forensic psychiatry. So we have used the term Core Kindness instead.  We appreciate the comment that Kindness may not be the opposite of psychopathy as we hypothesize but more instrumental in avoiding conflict. We take the challenge to this possibility as a further indication of the value of studying Kindness usin...

Previous attempts to determine contract killers’ behaviour have not benefited from any formal psychological framework of behavioural distinction. The Narrative Action System model (NAS model; Canter and Youngs 2009) offers an empirical basis for differentiating contract killings and examining the psychological underpinnings of different contract killer styles. The model identifies four major narrative offender types: Professional, Revenger, Hero, and Victim. The present study aims to examine whether these themes can be applied to contract killing. Content analysis of 75 contract killer cases identified 56 crime scene actions. Data were subjected to a non‐metric multidimensional scaling procedure, namely Smallest Space Analysis (SSA‐I). Findings revealed four distinct types of contract killers that could be related to the four modes of offending proposed by the NAS model. Differences in the thematic structure of contract killing offences are discussed, and implications are offered for clinical and investigative purposes.

In the spirit of the growing developments in positive psychology, there is an increasing interest in how kind people are to each other. Yet, this area lacks any strong psychometric instrument. An initial exploratory study demonstrated that a 40-item questionnaire, completed by 165 people, revealed distinct aspects of kindness when subjected to multivariate analysis. A subsequent study is reported, using the structure of the exploratory results to further clarify the conceptual framework (Study 1). The revised 45-item questionnaire was administered to 1039 individuals from the general British population. Smallest Space Analysis of the variables, supported by Factor analysis, confirmed the hypothesis of two facets to kindness, the psychological source of the action (from principles or empathy), and the form of expression (through psychological involvement or following social prescription. It also revealed an additional general, core kindness, labelled Anthropophilia. Reliable scales derived from the combinations of the two elements from each facet were identified: Affective-Socially Prescribed; Affective-Proactive; Principle-Socially Prescribed and Principle-Proactive. Intercorrelations between the scales revealed that they measure different modes of kindness. Comparisons between male and female respondents provided external validity for the questionnaire. Study 2 (N = 251) reported that the scales measure independent dimensions when correlated with similar and dissimilar concepts.