Views and experiences of compassion in Sri Lankan students: An exploratory qualitative study

Abstract

Practicing compassion has shown to reduce distress and increase emotional well-being in clinical and non-clinical populations. The existing research is primarily focused on Western populations although the concepts of compassion are heavily influenced by Asian Buddhist views. There is a dearth of compassion research conducted particularly in the Asian context. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the views and lived experiences of compassion in Sri Lankan students, to understand whether compassion is a socially embraced construct in Sri Lanka, considering that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist influenced society. Participants’ views and lived experiences of compassion towards themselves and to/from others were also investigated, with a specific focus on their perceived inhibitors and facilitators of compassion. Aims were set to identify whether Western compassion-based practices could be successfully applied to Asian societies such as Sri Lanka. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis approach was used to obtain and analyse qualitative data from a convenience sample of 10 Sri Lankan students, recruited from a Psychology course. The phenomenological analysis of the semi-structured face-to-face interviews elicited three predominant themes: What compassion means to me, what I make of it, and compassion through facilitators and inhibitors. The findings suggested that participants shared a similar understanding of the concept of compassion as reflected in the Western definitions. Experiences and views of compassion were shaped by several factors including religion, culture, society, and upbringing. In general, this study revealed that participants were well aware of the concept of compassion as well as its impact on their psychological well-being. Despite this, inhibitors existed in experiencing compassion. The religious and collectivistic-cultural influences need to be further explored and taken into account when implementing Western compassion-based practices to non-Western contexts such as Sri Lanka.

A cross-cultural exploration of compassion, and facilitators and inhibitors of compassion in UK and Sri Lankan people

“…Thus, a plausible explanation of fear of self-compassion predicting higher compassion towards others in the Sri Lankan group may be that, despite the fear of treating themselves with compassion, they may have felt compelled to offer it to others, to avoid social rejection. Previous studies identified that some Sri Lankans offer compassion to others, out of obligatory and submissive reasons (Kariyawasam et al ., 2021 ).…”

“…In the same study, however, Thai participants (a Buddhist-influenced culture) were more self-compassionate than the American and Taiwanese participants. The collectivistic social dynamic in cultures such as Sri Lanka is found to inhibit people from receiving compassion from themselves and others (Montero-Marin et al ., 2018 ; Steindl et al ., 2020 ; Kariyawasam et al ., 2021 ), due to eastern cultural norms discouraging help-seeking behaviour, as seeking help is considered as a failure that brings shame to one and those around oneself (Kee, 2004 ). Thus, it seems fair to propose that whilst the Buddhist religion encourages compassion, the collectivistic cultural dynamic may be a factor that inhibits people's compassionate experiences.…”

Compassion‐based interventions in Asian communities: A meta‐analysis of randomised controlled trials

“…Therefore, it seems fair to propose that the CEAS may be a more appropriate measure of compassion. However, none of the papers included in this meta-analysis used the CEAS, although other recent research using this measure in Asian countries such as Japan (Asano et al, 2020) and Sri Lanka (Kariyawasam et al, 2021(Kariyawasam et al, , 2022 have emphasised the advantages of using this measure (Asano et al, 2020). Thus, it would be useful for future research to investigate the effectiveness of compassion-based interventions using the CEAS in Asian communities to further understand the interplay between the three flows of compassion and well-being.…”

“…Overall, this review highlights that the lack of research exploring the effectiveness of compassionbased interventions in Eastern cultures, as there were only three Asian countries that have researched this area so far. This was surprising given that many Asian countries such as Sri Lanka are familiar with compassion practice due to the significant Buddhist influence in such cultures (Kariyawasam et al, 2021(Kariyawasam et al, , 2022.…”

Affective and cognitive brain-networks are differently integrated in women and men while experiencing compassion

“…For example, its evolutionary origins, its neurobiological substrates and its relations with emotional and behavioral domains such as love, reconciliation, or cooperation ( Goetz et al, 2010 ; Kim et al, 2020 ; Novak et al, 2022 ). Social and psychosocial perspectives have also contributed to understanding the phenomenology behind compassion and the sociocultural properties that influence variations in conceptual understanding and/or behavioral expressions ( Keltner et al, 2010 ; Kariyawasam et al, 2021 ). As reasoned from the previous lines, compassion implies empathic abilities that allow inferring the suffering of others, as well as judgments, evaluation of social signals and decision making to perform helping behaviors.…”