Does compassion for self or others predict violent behaviour?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Does Compassion for self and others predict violent behaviour towards self and others in a forensic population sample?
IRAS ID
213745
Contact name
Tom Pell-Hiley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Partnerships in Care
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 1 days
Research summary
The aim of the research is to explore the relationship between levels of compassion to both self and towards others and an individual's propensity to self harm and/or behave in a violent way towards others. The participants will be male and female inpatients residing in psychiatric hospitals of locked rehabilitation, low and medium levels of security. It also aims to ascertain the potential implications of treatment provision within psychiatric inpatient environments.
Interpersonal violence and self harm are well documented behaviours encountered within psychiatric inpatient populations. Despite a growing body of literature into the benefits of having compassion for both oneself and others (Brown et al, 2003; Dunn et al, 2008) and of compassion focused therapy (Laithewaite et al, 2009) there is relatively little research into the direct relationship between levels of compassion on an individual's propensity for violence towards themselves or others.
the study is aimed at male and female psychiatric inpatients with diagnoses of Major Mental Illness and/or Personality Disorder residing at five hospital sites in the South-East of England. The outcome of the study could inform types of effective treatments/therapies available for this population. Background information will be collected from participants including their section, level of security, length of stay in hospital and ethnic background. Participants will complete two questionnaires measuring self-compassion and compassion for others. It is estimated that the questionnaires will take approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Statistical analyses will be used to evaluate scores alongside the number and severity of incidents of violence of the participant towards others and themselves.
REC name
South Central - Berkshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/SC/0003
Date of REC Opinion
30 Jan 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion