Encyclopedia
Cross-cultural psychology evaluates how cultural factors influence people’s behaviour and mental processes. Cross-cultural psychology aims to understand individual differences and commonalities, and to develop an appreciation, respect, and knowledge of cultures distinct from one’s own. Compassion refers to the emotional response of understanding, empathising with, and desiring to alleviate or reduce the suffering or distress of others. Compassion involves noticing the pain or difficulties another person is experiencing and being motivated to help, often characterised by acts of kindness, support, and caring. This entry explores the intersection of these two concepts, illustrating how insights from cross-cultural psychology can contribute to fostering compassion.
- cross-culture
- cross-cultural understanding
- cross-cultural psychology
- compassion
- compassionate world
This entry introduces cross-cultural psychology and compassion, and explores the link between the two. Cross-cultural psychology is a branch of psychology that evaluates how cultural factors impact people’s behaviour and mental processes. Cross-cultural psychology aims to foster our understanding about differences and commonalities across cultural groups. Compassion, whose word origin is “to suffer together”, is commonly understood as recognising the suffering and distress of others, with a commitment to alleviate or reduce the suffering. Globally, the importance of both cross-cultural psychology and compassion has been increasingly recognised as of late. Cross-cultural psychology is important today for numerous reasons, some of which include that as societies are becoming increasingly multiculturally diverse, in order to better address individual needs (e.g., mental health services) it is imperative to pay attention to and understand diverse worldviews and behaviours. To better understand such worldviews, those in the helping professions must be able to challenge assumptions that are common in a narrow focus on Western, middle-class Caucasians, which has been the dominant view for some time (e.g., research fields) [1][2]. As compassion can lead someone to take action to alleviate suffering, it can also lead to a higher awareness of mental health, higher quality of healthcare, and increased professional ethics and social harmony [3][4][5]. The authors will discuss how these two concepts of multiculturalism and compassion are linked, and inform each other.
This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/encyclopedia4040098
References
- Shiraev, E.B.; Levy, D.A. Cross-Cultural Psychology, 8th ed.; Routledge: London, UK, 2024; p. 546.
- Kirmayer, L.J.; Worthman, C.M.; Kitayama, S.; Lemelson, R.; Cummings, C.A. (Eds.) Culture, Mind, and Brain: Emerging Concepts, Models, and Applications; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2020.
- MacBeth, A.; Gumley, A. Exploring compassion: A meta-analysis of the association between self-compassion and psychopathology. Clin. Psychol. Rev. 2012, 32, 545–552.
- Fotaki, M. Why and how is compassion necessary to provide good quality healthcare? Int. J. Health Policy Manag. 2015, 4, 199–201.
- Gilbert, P. The Evolution and Social Dynamics of Compassion. Soc. Personal. Psychol. Compass 2015, 9, 239–254.
