From Aversive, Toward Appetitive: A Behavioral Conceptual Analysis of Compassion.

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Learn more: PMC Disclaimer | PMC Copyright Notice Behav Anal Pract . 2025 Mar 25;19(1):12–28. doi: 10.1007/s40617-025-01046-z Search in PMC Search in PubMed View in NLM Catalog Add to search From Aversive, Toward Appetitive: A Behavioral Conceptual Analysis of Compassion Hannah Kaplan-Reimer Hannah Kaplan-Reimer 1 Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, Lafayette, LA USA 2 reSOURCE, Hastings, NY USA Find articles by Hannah Kaplan-Reimer 1, 2, ✉ , Megan Duffy Cassella Megan Duffy Cassella 2 reSOURCE, Hastings, NY USA Find articles by Megan Duffy Cassella 2 , Melanie R Schanke Melanie R Schanke 1 Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, Lafayette, LA USA 3 Villanova University, Villanova, PA USA Find articles by Melanie R Schanke 1, 3 , Stephanie L Lin Stephanie L Lin 1 Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, Lafayette, LA USA 4 University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI USA Find articles by Stephanie L Lin 1, 4 , Wesley Malvini Wesley Malvini 1 Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, Lafayette, LA USA 5 University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA USA Find articles by Wesley Malvini 1, 5 , Natasha Marroquin Natasha Marroquin 1 Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, Lafayette, LA USA 6 Rethynk Coaching and Consulting, La Mirada, CA USA Find articles by Natasha Marroquin 1, 6 , Hunter Sudduth Hunter Sudduth 1 Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, Lafayette, LA USA 5 University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA USA Find articles by Hunter Sudduth 1, 5 , Vanessa B Del Águila Vargas Vanessa B Del Águila Vargas 1 Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, Lafayette, LA USA 7 Valued Actions for Change, Lima, Peru Find articles by Vanessa B Del Águila Vargas 1, 7 , Brad Parfait Brad Parfait 1 Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, Lafayette, LA USA 5 University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA USA Find articles by Brad Parfait 1, 5 , Troy DuFrene Troy DuFrene 8 Center for Compassion-Focused Therapy, New York, NY USA Find articles by Troy DuFrene 8 , Emily K Sandoz Emily K Sandoz 1 Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, Lafayette, LA USA 5 University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA USA Find articles by Emily K Sandoz 1, 5 Author information Article notes Copyright and License information 1 Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, Lafayette, LA USA 2 reSOURCE, Hastings, NY USA 3 Villanova University, Villanova, PA USA 4 University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI USA 5 University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA USA 6 Rethynk Coaching and Consulting, La Mirada, CA USA 7 Valued Actions for Change, Lima, Peru 8 Center for Compassion-Focused Therapy, New York, NY USA ✉ Corresponding author. Accepted 2025 Feb 11; Collection date 2026 Mar. © Association for Behavior Analysis International 2025. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. PMC Copyright notice PMCID: PMC13083694  PMID: 42005067 Abstract Behavior analytic practice is fundamentally prosocial, aimed at helping individuals by expanding their repertoires to be more meaningfully effective. Behavior analysis, however, has faced criticism for lacking qualities of compassionate practices such as warmth and flexibility. Recently, more attention is being paid to how we might foster such practices consistent with behavior analytic principles. A concise but comprehensive functional definition would support these efforts by making compassion directly actionable. This paper provides a brief review of the features of compassion as characterized in the behavior analytic literature, examines converging functional dimensions in a comprehensive conceptual analysis, and proposes a functional definition of compassion in terms of the interlocking functional relations involved for provider and recipient of compassion. Finally, we will explore implications of this conceptualization in terms of recommendations for creating compassionate contexts for learning and nurturing compassionate behavior. Keywords: Compassion, Empathy, Flexibility, Aversive, Appetitive Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is a science rooted in prosociality with the aim of improving the quality of life of individuals served (e.g., Baer et al., 1968 ; Biglan & Glenn, 2013 ; Schwartz & Kelly, 2021 ). Recently however, ABA, as a field, has faced fierce criticism regarding its potential contribution to lasting trauma for people receiving behavior analytic services (e.g., Kupferstein, 2018 ; Leaf et al., 2021 ; Sandoval-Norton & Shkedy, 2019 ). As these critical concerns grow in scope and salience, increasing degrees of attention are being paid to improving the standards for ethical practices (e.g., Beaulieu et al., 2019 ; Contreras et al., 2021 ; LeBlanc et al., 2022 ), particularly around the therapeutic relationship and cultural sensitivity (e.g., Fiske, 2017 ; LeBlanc et al., 2022 ; Sadavoy & Zube, 2021 ; Wright, 2019 ) in ABA. Specific repertoires being promoted for ABA practice include perspective taking (e.g., Garcia et al., 2022 ; Luciano et al., 2020 ), behavioral artistry (Callahan et al., 2019 ), flexible prompting (e.g., Leaf et al., 2014 ; Soluaga et al., 2008 ), trauma-informed care (Rajaraman et al., 2022 ), assuming a circumstantial perspective (Friman, 2021 ), and compassionate care (e.g., Fiske, 2017 ; Rohrer et al., 2021 ; Taylor et al., 2019 ). Of particular importance may be increased attention to the role of compassion, which is emphasized in the development of a healthy therapeutic relationship (Callahan et al., 2019 ; Tirch et al., 2014 ) and named as one the core foundational principles that behavior analysts should aim to embody in their ethical codes (Behavior Analyst Certification Board [BACB], 2020 ). Compassion, defined by Merriam-Webster ( 2024 ) as “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it,” is certainly not a new concept to humans. Compassion has been valued by human societies for millennia, and has been central in both Eastern and Western religious and cultural practices (see Balslev & Evers, 2010 ; Gilbert, 2020 ; Gilman, 2003 ; Lampert, 2005 ; Leaman, 2011 ; Tirch et al., 2014 ). Over time, compassion has been recognized as having an important role within the helping professions. Compassion perhaps first became a focus of healthcare specifically, in the late 1800s and early 1900s with the founding of nursing as a profession (Soto-Rubio & Sinclair, 2018 ). Although compassion was introduced to healthcare literature decades ago, there has been a notable uptick in research in the previous ten years (see Malenfant et al., 2022 ; Scarlet et al., 2017 ; Sinclair et al., 2016 ). Despite patients’ prioritized need for compassion (Heyland et al., 2006 ), reported incidents of inadequate care is a growing societal concern (e.g., see Francis, 2013 ). For that reason, society is beginning to consider compassion as an essential healthcare right, with countries like New Zealand advocating for explicit recognition of this fact (Francis, 2013 ; Paterson, 2011 ). Compassion has been emphasized as a fundamental healing component of a therapeutic relationship (e.g., Brill & Nahmani, 2017 ). The benefits also seem to extend, however, to measurable and objective health and quality of life outcomes. For example, nurses who incorporate compassionate care tend to better understand their patients’ experiences, the needs that come with it, and the appropriate treatment approach by giving their patients and families more meaningful involvement in the process (Pehlivan & Güner, 2020 ). Further, patients have better health outcomes as a result (Pehlivan & Güner, 2020 ). A provider’s compassion toward themself may also influence healthcare outcomes. For example, a qualitative study with psychologists found their practices of self-compassion such as mindfulness, self-forgiveness, and openness had an overall positive effect on their work outcomes, which they attributed to their improved therapeutic relationships with clients (Patsiopoulos & Buchanan, 2011 ). With increased scholarly attention to the benefits of compassion has come further development of products and services focused on training compassion and self-compassion (e.g.; Coyne et al., 2020 ; Germer & Neff, 2019a ; Irons et al., 2024 ; Kolts, 2016 ; Tirch et al., 2014 ; Wilson & Dufrene, 2009 ) with empirical support (see Heriot-Maitland et al., 2014 ; Jazaieri et al., 2013 ; Neff & Tirch, 2013 ). For example, self-compassion practices are being broadly disseminated as a teachable tool for improving physical and psychological well-being (Germer & Neff, 2019b ). Compassion is also being harnessed in psychotherapeutic interventions to help alleviate the suffering associated with many mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, and psychosis (Gilbert, 2020 ). For example, compassion focused therapy (CFT) (Gilbert, 2009 ; Tirch et al., 2014 ) centers around the development of compassionate repertoires toward oneself and others, and is associated with a broad and growing body of empirical support (Beaumont et al., 2012 ; Braehler et al., 2013 ; Gilbert & Procter, 2006 ; Kelly et al., 2009 ; Leaviss & Uttley, 2015 ; Lucre & Corten, 2013 ; Shapira & Mongrain, 2010 ). Despite the enthusiasm around compassion in healthcare over the past nearly two decades, the empirical literature has been notably limited in three ways: inadequate conceptual specificity of the construct of compassion, a lack of applied investigations of compassion in the healthcare context, and the missing perspectives of patients and families (see Sinclair et al., 2016 for a review). ABA, being conceptually systematic and applied (Baer et al., 1968 ), and increasingly concerned with client perspectives (e.g., Veneziano & Shea, 2023 ), may be particularly well suited to address deficits in the current scholarly treatment of compassion. Foundational to these efforts will be the further development of a behavioral conceptualization of compassion that can guide both ongoing research and systemic changes necessary for bringing client perspectives to bear. Indeed, ABA is only recently orienting to and contending with compassion as a potentially useful construct for conceptual and practical development (LeBlanc et al., 2020b ; Taylor et al., 2019 ). CFT has been integrated with clinical behavior analytic interventions in the psychotherapy context (i.e., acceptance and commitment therapy [ACT]; Tirch et al., 2014 ), but with little carryover into non-psychotherapeutic behavior analytic interventions (Carona et al., 2017 ; Gómez et al., 2021 ). For example, the word, “compassion” first appeared in a behavior analytic journal in Reed’s ( 2014 ) Behavior Analysis in Practice in his description of Dr. E. Scott Geller’s “Actively Caring for People Program,” and not again until 2016 in a description of ACT (Hoffmann et al., 2016 ). This historical disregard of compassion as an explicit aspect of ABA may be, in part, attributable to the disconnect between behavioral principles and the dominant scholarly definitions of compassion, all of which emerge from non-behavior analytic traditions. For example, Gilbert and Choden ( 2014 ) draw on traditional Buddhist thinking to define compassion as “a sensitivity to suffering in ourselves and others with a deep commitment to try to alleviate and prevent it” (p. 98). As with most definitions, compassion is cast here as a series of private, or subtle, events (i.e., sensitivity, suffering, commitment). Behavior analysis has long been conflicted on the status of such events in our analyses and interventions, even as behavior analysis increasingly informs behavioral psychotherapies (see Hoffmann et al., 2016 ; Sandoz et al., 2020 ). Sometimes events like thoughts, feelings, and intentions are omitted from analysis altogether (e.g., Baum, 2011 ), while they are at other times cast as part of the behavioral stream to be analyzed (e.g., Hineline, 2003 ), part of the context being analyzed (e.g., Dougher & Hackbert, 2000 ), or a description of the functional relationship between context and behavior (e.g., Layng, 2017 ; Lewon & Hayes, 2014 ). Thus, definitions that rely heavily on private (i.e., subtle) events, and especially that rely on complex relationships among such events, have simply not been accessible and actionable in an ABA context. Behavioral Conceptualizations of Compassion The first behavioral conceptual analysis of compassion was published in Skinner’s Cumulative Record in 1959. Here, Skinner discounts the importance of compassion as a private event and emphasizes instead actions toward another. He notes that the physiological (i.e., emotional) reactions that accompany compassionate actions may increase over time, and may even be recognized as the by-product of the operant contingency (i.e., “feelings of compassion”), rather than the antecedent cause or an operant behavior being selected for (p. 309). In this way, he discusses compassionate actions or “treating[ing] people well” (p. 311) as a product of a history of encountering countercontrol – that is, either punishing or ineffectual consequences for mistreating others. Recently, a number of behavior analytic works (e.g., LeBlanc et al., 2020a ; Luciano et al., 2020 ; Melton et al., 2023 ; Scallan & Rosales-Ruiz, 2023 ; Slim & Reuter-Yuill, 2021 ; Taylor et al., 2019 ; Werntz et al., 2023 ) have expanded upon and, in some important ways, shifted from Skinner’s initial efforts, identifying various processes involved in compassionate acts and in developing compassion repertoires. Taylor et al. ( 2019 ) center the experience of empathy, describing compassion as translating an empathic emotional response into an act that aims to alleviate suffering. Noting the lack of behavior analytic definitions of compassion and empathy, many turn to perspective taking as common to both, pointing to deictic relational responding (i.e., relating I-You, Here-There, Now-Then) as a critical repertoire involved (see Boland et al., 2021 ; Moran et al., 2018 ; Rodriguez et al., 2023 ). LeBlanc et al. ( 2020b ) extend this idea, suggesting that perspective taking and empathy function as motivating operations for compassionate behavior. They also clarify compassion in the social justice context as a generalized social operant and describe the challenge of social justice as orienting behavior to positive reinforcers for compassionate acts despite powerful negative reinforcers for avoiding others’ suffering. Slim and Reuter-Yuill ( 2021 ) emphasize the extension of empathy into compassion as involving the objective detection of others’ suffering occasioned and shaped by accompanying verbal and nonverbal behavior. Melton et al. ( 2023 ) further explicate compassion from empathy, emphasizing critical attributes as including: identification of suffering contingencies, expression of understanding of these contingencies, action to relieve suffering, and a (potentially complex) reinforcement contingency supporting the preceding behaviors. Finally, Luciano et al. ( 2020 ) specify reinforcement contingencies supporting compassion as positive and classify them further in middle level terms, describing compassion as a functional class of behaviors, selected for due to their consistency with the value of relieving suffering and including satisfying experiences of emotional connection. While these conceptualizations each offer a slightly different behavior analytic approach to compassion, they also converge around a functional perspective that goes beyond behaviors topographically characterized as compassionate (i.e., kind or prosocial). Such a functional perspective may facilitate greater degrees of compassion by allowing one to navigate an interaction based on moment-to-moment functional assessments (Sandoz et al., 2022 ). In contrast, engaging in behavior defined topographically may look compassionate, but may or may not function as compassionate to oneself or to others across time and various contexts. For example, rule-governed behaviors, such as those encouraged by policies, societal norms, and religious doctrine may encourage cooperative, kind, or otherwise prosocial behaviors that may not function as compassionate. Even when rules do precipitate compassionate behaviors, they can also foster rigidity and harm if they do not interact dynamically with direct contingencies (see Kissi et al., 2017 ). A number of patterns emerge by examining where functional perspectives on compassion converge. First, compassion is behavior, and thus can be subjected to a conceptual behavioral analysis that specifies the conditions under which behavior is compassionate. In other words, compassion, as a psychological term, can be operationally defined in terms of the conditions under which the term is used (Skinner, 1945 ). Second, compassion is behavior that is sensitive, both in terms of antecedents and consequences, to the behavior of the recipient of that compassion (another or, in the case of self-compassion, the self). In this way, compassion is sensitive to interlocking behavioral contingencies (IBCs; Glenn, 1988 ). Third, compassion is relevant in contexts where someone is suffering. Suffering can be defined as any behavior that participates in aversive functional relations. While effective connection and cooperation are available across conditions, compassion is specifically about responding to suffering. In other words, antecedent conditions for compassion might be described in terms of aversive functional relations 1 between the behavior of the recipient of compassion and its context. Fourth, compassion is related to, but distinct from empathy and perspective taking. While empathy describes feelings that might be elicited by others’ suffering, and perspective taking describes deictic relational responding that might be occasioned by others’ suffering, compassion explicitly refers to actions that directly impact suffering. In other words, compassion is operant behavior consequated by changes in the behavior of the recipient of that compassion. Fifth, behavior is compassionate specifically when it alleviates suffering. While compassion may not be able to fully remove sources of suffering (e.g., loss, illness, inequity, etc.), compassion fosters changes in the behavior of its recipient such that those sources of pain do not foster suffering. In other words, compassion is operant behavior that shifts the behavior of its recipient from being in aversive functional relations with the context toward more appetitive functional relations. Sixth, while the suffering of others (and certainly of the self) is often painful and naturally aversive, compassion is maintained by positive reinforcement. In other words, compassion is positively reinforced by the functional changes in the behavior of the recipient from aversive to appetitive. Seventh, compassion can emerge as a generalized operant. What follows is a conceptual behavioral analysis of compassion in terms of an explication of the contexts that distinguish compassion as a functional response class. Compassion is Behavior If compassion is approached as a psychological term (see Skinner, 1945 ), the operational analysis involves examination of the conditions under which the term, compassion, is used. First and foremost, from a behavioral perspective, compassion is behavior , or a pattern of activity of an organism. Further, compassion describes a dimension of activity typically attributed to humans (cf. Skinner, 1959 ). That is, compassionate describes a way a person can respond to the world – they can behave compassionately. In this way, compassion can be subjected to a behavioral analysis, where it is understood in terms of the contingencies under which it emerges and is maintained in different settings. In addition, compassion is behavior and thus can be directly trained by arranging the context to provide the contingencies that support it. To the extent that the topography of compassionate behavior might vary across different contexts, compassion can be approached as a functional response class, understood in terms of the contexts in which it occurs. Compassion is Sensitive to IBCs Second, compassion is behavior that is sensitive to interlocking behavioral contingencies (IBCs), which describe interactions where behavior is functionally related, with the specific nature of the functional relations being selected for by metacontingencies (Glenn, 1988 ). In other words, IBCs involve one person’s behavior creating a context for the emergence and maintenance of another person’s behavior, and vice versa, consistent with broader layers of contextual control. In this way, a compassionate interaction in a dyad can be considered as functionally related behavioral streams of both a giver of compassion and a recipient of compassion (including the possibility that roles may be dynamic as the interaction progresses). Compassion is also used, at times, to refer to a way of interacting with one’s self. With regard to self-compassion, then, the giver of compassion can also be the recipient of that compassion. In this way, the stimulus products of a person’s behavior can create the context for the emergence and maintenance of their own future behaviors. Repertoires for compassion and for self-compassion may, in fact, be closely related (Luciano et al., 2020 ). Compassion is Sensitive to Antecedents of Aversive Functional Relations in the Recipient Third, compassion is relevant to characterizing functional relations involved in an interaction in contexts where someone is suffering (see Scallan & Rosales-Ruiz, 2023 ). While related qualities of interaction like connection and cooperation are available in a range of contexts (e.g., joyful as well as painful), compassion is specifically about preventing or responding to suffering, behavior under aversive functional relations. In this way, antecedent conditions for compassion might be described in terms of aversive functional relations 2 between the behavior of the recipient of compassion and the context in which it occurs. Aversive functional relations involve conditions that facilitate behavioral rigidity and narrowed sensitivity to different aspects of context, including negative reinforcement and punishment contingencies (along with relevant motivating and discriminating antecedents), as well as their elicited functions (Hineline, 1984 ; Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group [LCSRG], 2022 ; Perrin & Neef, 2012 ). Aversive functional relations have been explored in the behavior analytic literature in terms of conditioned suppression and inhibition (Blackman, 2022 ; Estes & Skinner, 1941 ), learned helplessness (Baratta et al., 2023 ; Maier & Seligman, 1976 ; Seligman, 1972 ), and escape extinction (Chazin et al., 2022 ; Iwata et al., 1994 ). Aversive functional relations can be contrasted with appetitive functional relations , where conditions facilitate behavioral flexibility and expanded sensitivity to different aspects of context, including positive reinforcement contingencies (along with relevant motivating and discriminating antecedents), as well as their elicited functions. In this way, from a behavioral perspective, an aversive context is one that fosters suffering, and an appetitive context is one that fosters liberation from suffering. Thus, antecedents, remote and/or immediate, for compassionate behavior include a potential recipient (self or other) in a context that is functioning, at least in part, aversively. Compassion is Sensitive to Consequences of the Recipient’s Behavior Change Fourth, compassion is related to, but distinct from empathy and perspective taking. Observing a person behaving in aversive functional relations with the context (i.e., observing signs of suffering) elicits emotional responses for most people in many circumstances (e.g., anxiety, fear, sadness, anger, love). Some of these elicited emotional responses can be characterized as empathy , involving an observer’s understanding, feeling, and sharing of a person’s world while maintaining self-differentiation (see Eklund & Meranius, 2021 for a review). Another’s suffering may also evoke an observer’s perspective taking , often approached as the cognitive or understanding aspect of empathy (Eklund & Meranius, 2021 ), and conceptualized as deictic relational responding in some areas of behavior analysis (see McHugh, 2015 ). In other words, empathy and perspective taking involve accessing the manner in which a context is functioning for another (i.e., their experience). Provided the learning history yields robust empathic and perspective taking repertoires, accessing another’s experience would be evoked simply by that other person behaving in aversive functional relations with the context. Compassion, however, explicitly refers to actions that impact suffering, directly or indirectly. In other words, compassion is operant behavior, occasioned and consequated by the behavior of the recipient of that compassion, or functionally related contexts (see Werntz et al., 2023 ). This shift in behavior of the recipient of compassion may be subtle , or observable only with a history of experience with the recipient in functionally similar contexts. This shift in behavior of the recipient of compassion may also be observable only indirectly, such as via its permanent stimulus products. That said, compassion is not only occasioned by the contexts that have historically functioned aversively for a potential recipient (self or other) but also consequated by changes in those functional relations. Compassion Shifts Functional Relations from Aversive to Appetitive in the Recipient Fifth, behavior is compassionate specifically when it alleviates suffering for the recipient. Considering suffering functionally in terms of aversive functional relations suggests that any context can come to function aversively and thus, evoke suffering. Of course, one way suffering can be alleviated is via the removal of aversive contexts. This, in and of itself, can allow for other, more appetitive functional relations to emerge, supported by a history of appetitive learning and the presence of appetitive contexts. However, removal of aversive contexts is not always possible or advisable. The alleviation of suffering may still be accessible, however, via a transformation of the function of those aversive contexts. In this way, a distinction can be made between pain and suffering, where pain can function in any number of ways while suffering is, by definition, specifically aversive. Further, contexts that have been a source of suffering may continue to be painful while no longer evoking suffering. Compassion fosters such a change, where the aversive functional relations that characterize the recipient’s suffering shift toward appetitive functional relations, allowing for both the emergence of appetitives in contexts that have functioned aversively and a change in function of aversive contexts themselves. This involves increasing both the availability and accessibility of appetitives in contexts where aversive functional relations have dominated. By expanding upon the previously aversive context to include functionally accessible appetitives, the context can transform functionally and new behaviors under appetitive functional relations can emerge. In other words, compassion is operant behavior that shifts the behavior of its recipient (self or other) from being in aversive functional relations with the context to appetitive. The Aversive to Appetitive Shift Functions Appetitively for the Provider of Compassion Sixth, while the suffering of others (and certainly of the self) is often painful and naturally aversive, compassion is maintained by positive reinforcement (i.e., appetitive consequences). When the recipient of compassion is the self, the shift toward appetitive functional relations inherently allows for increased contact with appetitives. In other words, the shift from aversive to appetitive functional relations maintains future instances of self-compassion. The same is true for compassion when the recipient is another. For humans, the presence of another behaving in aversive functional relations is often aversive. In other words, responding to others’ suffering often involves joining in that suffering, working to relieve both one’s self and the other from pain. Thus, acting to reduce others’ suffering, and certainly one’s own, can easily emerge as part of a negatively reinforced response class, functioning similarly to other avoidance or escape behaviors. In this way, responses to suffering, of the self or another, can be narrow, rigid, and insensitive to how those responses are functioning more broadly. Learning compassion, on the other hand, involves contacting positive reinforcement (i.e., appetitive consequences) available when another’s behavior shifts from being dominated by aversive functional relations toward appetitive functional relations. This is distinct from Skinner’s ( 1959 ) conceptualization, which focused on aversive consequences. In other words, learning compassion involves going beyond seeking relief from contacting another’s suffering to approaching the opportunity to liberate another from their suffering, even when we cannot resolve their pain. The topography and timing of this learning will vary across people and settings. Further, compassion, being under appetitive functional relations for the provider, is characterized by breadth, flexibility, and sensitivity to the changing needs of the recipient and other aspects of context (see LCSRG, 2022 , 2023 ). A Compassion Repertoire Can Emerge as a Generalized Operant Seventh, compassion can emerge as a generalized operant (see Barnes-Holmes & Barnes-Holmes, 2000 ). While all instances of suffering involve aversive functional relations, each is unique with respect to the form and circumstances of that suffering. In this way, each instance of contact with aversive antecedents for the self or another provides an opportunity for learning to engage in compassionate behavior. Thus, each instance of compassionate behavior increases the likelihood of stimulus generalization, where compassion is more readily evoked by a broader range of aversive antecedent contexts. This may account for one aspect of the intimate relationship between compassion and self-compassion (see Luciano et al., 2020 ; Neff, 2003 ), where a growing compassion providing repertoire is extended to the self. In addition, different instances of suffering require a different array of behaviors (topographically speaking) to foster the shift from aversive toward appetitive functional relations for the recipient. Thus, each instance of compassionate behavior also increases the likelihood of response generalization, where compassion can take a variety of flexible forms. In this way, repeated opportunities for learning compassion (i.e., repeated contact with positively reinforcing consequences for facilitating shifts from aversive toward appetitive functional relations) likely involve the emergence of a robust, flexible, and generalized compassionate repertoire, accessible in novel circumstances. Further, appetitive learning is cumulative. Increased engagement in behaviors under appetitive functional relations increases the likelihood of further appetitive learning, the spread of appetitive contexts, and the accessibility of appetitive functional relations in the repertoire (LCSRG, 2022 , 2023 ). In this way, because compassionate interactions are under appetitive functional relations for both the recipient and the provider, each instance of a compassionate interaction increases the availability and accessibility of appetitive functional relations for both participants. This may account for another aspect of the intimate relationship between compassion and self-compassion (see Luciano et al., 2020 ; Neff, 2003 ), where being the recipient in a compassionate interaction may increase the availability and accessibility of appetitive contingencies for self-compassion. A Proposed Behavioral Conceptualization of Compassion Compassion, as behavior sensitive to IBCs, can be understood in terms of how it functions for both the provider and the recipient (self or other). From a contextual behavioral perspective, compassionate behavior is any behavior that shifts functional relations from aversive toward appetitive (i.e., creates functionally compassionate contexts) and is shaped and maintained appetitively by such shifts. With repeated and diverse opportunities to practice compassionate behavior, a compassion repertoire can emerge as a generalized operant, where compassionate behavior toward the self and others is readily accessible, even in novel circumstances. Action Implications: Creating Compassionate Contexts and Nurturing Compassionate Repertoires It is our hope that the behavioral conceptualization of compassion offered here might allow practitioners to examine current practices in terms of both the creation of compassionate contexts and evoking of compassionate behavior toward the self and other. Such an examination might reveal opportunities for growth across settings and stakeholders (e.g., clients, trainees, students, parents, collaborating practitioners, supervisors). Previous recommendations have been made for training core skills and competencies of compassionate care in supervision and academic work (e.g., LeBlanc et al., 2020a , b ; Taylor et al., 2019 ). Some of these recommendations specify topographically discrete behaviors such as smiling, acknowledging, making positive comments, using a reassuring tone, and nodding (Callahan et al., 2019 ; Lugo et al., 2017 ; Taylor et al., 2019 ). Other recommendations refer to more complex skills involved in developing compassionate therapeutic relationships such as navigating difficult conversations, motivating clients and families, and taking client perspectives (e.g., Denegri et al., 2023 ; Gatzunis et al., 2023 ; Melton et al., 2023 ; Rodriguez et al., 2023 ; Rohrer et al., 2021 ; Rohrer & Weiss, 2022 ; Taylor et al., 2019 ; Verojporn & Luna, 2024 ). And indeed, some skills involved in building an effective therapeutic relationship (i.e., mindful reflecting, appreciating, and asking questions with curiosity) have been effectively trained in behavior analysts using behavioral interventions (Cañón & Gould, 2022 ). Common to these recommendations, however, seems to be the assumption that these behaviors will function appetitively for the provider and the recipient. The proposed approach to conceptualizing compassion emphasizes appetitive functional relations as central to the practice of compassion, over and above discrete behaviors. Centering appetitive functional relations in this way has action implications for the practice of behavior analysis, both in terms of creating compassionate contexts for learning and nurturing compassionate repertoires. Creating Compassionate Contexts for Learning Approaching the practice of behavior analysis as an opportunity to create compassionate contexts for learning involves considering the behavior analyst as a provider of compassion. This involves the behavior analyst practicing in ways that shift functional relations for the learner from aversive toward appetitive, such that those shifts appetitively maintain and shape the behavior analyst’s ongoing practice. Ideally, to the extent that behavior analysts practice in a system of individuals co-creating IBCs, behavior analytic practices that shift context toward appetitive functional relations can foster growth for all involved. For example, behavior analysts can explore creating compassionate contexts to support learning for clients, trainees, and themselves. Compassionate Contexts for Client Learning Creating compassionate contexts for client learning involves making more available opportunities to shift client behaviors toward appetitive functional relations. While the form of these practices may vary considerably across clients, there is functional consistency in interventions that center appetitives. Regardless of their form, compassionate behavior analytic interventions might involve increasing accessible and available appetitives in the client’s learning contexts, creating an appetitive therapeutic relationship, and building the client’s repertoire for appetitive learning. While many standard practices may function to foster appetitive practice contexts, appetitive therapeutics, and appetitive learning processes for some clients throughout the intervention, compassionate behavior analytic practice may involve making this an explicit functional goal. Perhaps the most simple way to begin creating a compassionate context for client learning is to increase the appetitives that the client can access at any one moment. Assessing for accessible appetitives would, from this perspective, go beyond a typical reinforcer preference assessment, presenting preferred contexts at key points during practice sessions and identifying those that are currently functioning appetitively. That is, assessing throughout the intervention not only preference in terms of latency, frequency, and duration of contact, but also the extent to which contexts foster breadth and flexibility in the repertoire (i.e., novel behaviors, sensitivity to novel contexts, shifting easily among contingencies) when contacted. Preferred contexts might include items (e.g., toys, books, food), activities (e.g., games, outings, tasks), or interactions (e.g., gazing, touch, conversation). And, each of these contexts will vary in (1) how appetitive they are for a particular client, in a particular setting, in a particular moment, (2) what behaviors are required to contact them, and (3) how much response effort those behaviors require. Compassionate behavior analytic practice may involve persistent assessment of breadth and flexibility to ensure a range of accessible appetitives that vary in potency and required response into the practice context. This not only makes the shift to appetitive functional relations more accessible but also increases the client’s experience of choice, or degrees of freedom (Goldiamond, 1976 ). In this way, standard preference assessments (e.g., Hagopian et al., 2004 ; Johnson & Graff, 2023 ) could be adapted to include observations of breadth and flexibility (i.e., novel behaviors, sensitivity to novel contexts, and shifting easily among contingencies) when putative reinforcers are contacted. Of course, the importance of access to appetitives extends beyond the explicit practice context into every aspect of the client’s environment. With this in mind, compassionate practice often involves advocating for client’s needs and preferences (e.g., physiological, interpersonal, intrapersonal) at varying levels (e.g., individual, cultural, societal) to be met as fully as possible (see Cianci & Sevon, 2023 ; Dettmering & Hodzic, 2024 ; see Sadovy & Zube, 2021 for works on Compassion and Social Justice in Behavior Analysis). Creating compassionate contexts for client learning also might involve integrating appetitives into the practitioner–client relationship itself. In other words, the quality of interactions with clients can foster a shift in context from aversive toward appetitive functional relations. Recently, there has been an increasing emphasis on training behavior analysts to build a therapeutic relationship with caregivers, often with an emphasis on compassion (e.g., Cañón & Gould, 2022 ; Fiske, 2017 ; LeBlanc et al., 2020b ; Taylor et al., 2019 ). The current perspective suggests the practitioner–client relationship might be of similar, if not more, importance. Traditionally, establishing the practitioner–client relationship in behavior analysis has focused on presession pairing, noting that aspects of the practice context, including the practitioner, may function aversively in and of themselves (e.g., Carbone et al., 2007 ; Sundberg & Partington, 1998 ). Further, many clients and caregivers enter behavior analytic services with significant aversive learning experiences in their history, which make aversive learning more prominent in their repertoire. Presession pairing involves establishing the practitioner as appetitive prior to practice sessions, and has been operationally defined to include proximity, praise, reflection, imitation, initiation, and creativity (see Lugo et al., 2017 ). Presession pairing consistent with Lugo and colleagues’ definition seems to be easily trained to mastery with direct care staff (e.g., see Ensor et al., 2023 ; Gormley et al., 2020 ; Lugo et al., 2017 ). Further, presession pairing seems to be preferred by clients to other conditions (e.g., free play; Lugo et al., 2019 ), and to result in fewer interfering behaviors (Ensor et al., 2023 ; cf. Lugo et al., 2019 ). Emphasizing compassion in presession pairing might involve watching for increased breadth and flexibility in the functional relationship between practitioner and client, indicating that the practitioner is functioning appetitively. Other approaches have emphasized the relationship beyond the presession period, emphasizing maintenance of rapport. For example, behavioral artistry (BA; Foxx et al., 1985 ; Fox, 1998 ) has been proposed to describe skills of behavioral artists, or “natural” behavior analysts (Foxx, 1998 ; p. 14), including effective communication, interpersonal connection and sensitivity, humor, orientation to opportunity and challenge, creativity, among others. BA skills are not only rated as desirable by caregivers but also associated with high quality service delivery according to expert ratings (Callahan et al., 2019 ). Thus, compassionate behavior analytic practice may involve explicit emphasis on the establishment and maintenance of an appetitive therapeutic relationship not only with caregivers but also with clients. Not only can such interactions foster appetitive contexts in the moment, but they can sensitize clients to relational appetitives (i.e., social reinforcers), which can then be generalized to relationships with caregivers, peers, family members, teachers, and so on. Beyond making appetitives available and accessible in the learner’s context and the practitioner–client relationship, creating compassionate contexts for client learning involves an explicit focus on appetitive learning as a repertoire. In some ways, this simply involves emphasizing the contextual perspective that distinguishes behavior analysis from other positions on behavior. That is, behavior analysts understand client behavior in terms of its interaction with the immediate and historical context in which it occurs. Despite this being fundamental to behavior analytic theory and practice, applying this perspective is challenging when client behaviors are aversive to the practitioner. In the narrowing and rigidifying context of aversive client behavior, practitioners are likely to take on what Friman ( 2021 ) calls a blame perspective , where client behavior is attributed to a personal flaw of the person. Here, the blame perspective is contrasted with the circumstantial perspective that is fundamental to behavior analytic practice. In this way, compassionate behavior analytic practice centers the circumstantial or contextual perspective, where every observed behavior is the exact right behavior considering the immediate circumstances in light of the client’s learning history. Approaching learning this way naturally emphasizes appetitive over aversive functional relations in the learning environment, encouraging consideration of observed behavior with acceptance and curiosity. Creating compassionate contexts for learning also involves a commitment to expanding repertoires using appetitive functional relations to support learning. This is likely to be most challenging when the client is engaging in behaviors that are under aversive functional relations and are aversive to the person programming contingencies (which often come together). In this way, compassionate behavior analytic practice can be contrasted with an emphasis on identifying and decreasing “behavioral excesses,” which are essentially behaviors targeted for reduction because they come with (and are insensitive to) social, physical, or other costs (e.g., Powers et al., 2011 ; Scallan & Rosales-Ruiz, 2023 ). Focusing on behavioral excesses increases the dominance of aversive functional relations, reducing access to the appetitive contingencies that characterize compassion. Thus, compassionate practice can also be contrasted with the programmed or protocolized use of aversive consequences (i.e., negative reinforcement, negative punishment, or positive punishment) even as compassion explicitly involves aversive antecedents. Several established and emerging behavioral procedures emphasize teaching valuable skills under appetitive functional relations rather than eliminating behaviors judged to be excessive. For example, Functional Communication Training (FCT; e.g., Carr & Durand, 1985 ; Tiger et al., 2008 ; see Ghaemmaghami et al., 2021 ) involves assuming the functional significance of all behaviors in the repertoire, and establishing and reinforcing functional replacements for those behaviors with substantial costs. Although FCT is often combined with explicit extinction procedures (e.g., Jarmolowicz et al., 2009 ) or even punishment procedures (e.g., Fisher et al., 1993 ; Hagopian et al., 1998 ) to facilitate larger and faster reductions in costly behaviors, the current conceptualization suggests that such procedures can threaten the compassionate context by reducing the salience and effectiveness of appetitive functional relations. While interventions that employ aversive consequences may eventually give way to interventions that emphasize appetitive learning (and, long term, result in alleviation of suffering), this conceptualization would suggest that these interventions are never the only option. Instead, increasing the appetitive repertoire in contexts that have functioned aversively transforms the function of those contexts to be neutral or even appetitive. Though such a reduction in functionally equivalent but costly behaviors can always be described in terms of extinction processes , even without extinction procedures , the emphasis in a compassionate practice is on programming to expand one’s repertoire using appetitive functional relations. Building upon this approach, compassionate behavior analytic practice assumes that the functional class of any behavior in a repertoire can be expanded upon, allowing for the emergence of contextual sensitivity (i.e., effective stimulus control) through contact with natural contingencies, and the selection of a functionally equivalent, but less costly behavior. For example, the Enhanced Choice Model (ECM) is a modification to Skills-Based Treatment (Rajaraman et al., 2021 ; Staubitz et al., 2022 ) that further deemphasizes extinction in the treatment of dangerous behavior, relying heavily on preference and abstaining from physical guidance (Rajaraman et al., 2021 ). In ECM, access to typical skills practice contingencies, noncontingent relational appetitives, and options to leave the therapy context eliminates the need for escape extinction procedures. Not only does ECM allow for increased access to a range of reinforcers with varied levels of demand, it reduces aversive antecedents as motivating operations. Indeed, emerging data suggest that clients choose to spend most of their time in skills practice (i.e., the demand condition; Rajaraman et al., 2021 ). Here, Rajaraman and colleagues ( 2021 ) hypothesize that clients seem to prefer contingent over noncontingent reinforcement. In this way, compassionate behavior analytic practice may assume that learning under appetitive functional relations is always possible and preferable, particularly under aversive antecedent conditions, and has inherent appetitive value. This assumption of the availability and preference of appetitive learning is consistent with the emerging focus on assent in ABA (Abdel-Jalil et al., 2023 ; Breaux & Smith, 2023a , b ; Dettmering & Hodzic, 2024 ; Flowers & Dawes, 2023 ; Rodriguez et al., 2023 ). Compassionate Contexts for Practitioner Learning Trainees and practitioners will also thrive more readily in compassionate contexts for learning. Regardless of how long a person has been practicing behavior analysis, ideally their repertoire is continuing to evolve to meet the needs of clients and other stakeholders. Compassionate behavior analytic practice might assume that this professional behavior analytic repertoire will develop best in contexts that expand upon their existing repertoires and offer access to noncontingent and contingent appetitives, relational appetitives, and easy ways to opt out of programmed contingencies altogether so that they can access unprogrammed appetitives. Implications might include broad and frequent assessment of the behavior analytic repertoire along with specific intervention to foster appetitive learning contexts for trainees and practitioners. In this way, maintaining compassionate context for practitioner learning might involve frequent assessment of the professional repertoire, regardless of their level of training or expertise. Such assessment would identify (1) how the repertoire is meeting the current needs presented by the context (i.e., clients, stakeholders, payers, setting, etc.), (2) what appetitives (noncontingent, contingent, relational) are available and accessible to the practitioner, and (3) where their professional repertoire is in need of expansion. Constriction of the professional repertoire may be observed both in terms of skills involved in meeting the needs presented by the context, and in terms of discriminating accessible and available appetitives. In addition to behavior analytic professional competencies (e.g., Carr et al., 2013 ; Novak et al., 2019 ; Reed & Henley, 2015 ; BACB, 2024 ), assessment of practitioner functioning might include direct assessments of what is intriguing, pleasurable, inspiring, or meaningful in their work across a range of clients, intervention formats, and settings, along with how accessible those experiences are. For example, Werntz et al. ( 2023 ) offer a structured assessment of aversive and appetitive contingencies in the workplace. Such assessments could also be adapted from existing stimulus preference assessments in the OBM context (e.g., Blackman et al., 2022 ; Daniels & Bailey, 2014 ; Novak et al., 2019 ; Sipila-Thomas et al., 2022 ; Waldvogel & Dixon, 2008 ; Wilder et al., 2007 , 2011 ; Wine et al., 2012 ). For example, adaptations might build on conceptual work exploring values in the workplace (see Herbst & Houmanfar, 2009 ; Sandoz et al., 2023 ). Once constriction in the practitioner repertoire is identified, the goal becomes maintaining a compassionate context to support practitioner’s appetitive learning. First, compassionate behavior analytic practice will involve incorporating a range of practitioner appetitives that vary in potency and accessibility into the practice context. Second, practitioners are likely to thrive most in contexts where at least some of the appetitives available and accessible to practitioners are relational in nature. This involves providing the cultural context for peer to peer, supervisee–supervisor, practitioner–client, and practitioner–caregiver to be appetitive in nature. Third, as with FCT (Tiger et al., 2008 ) with clients, compassionate behavior analytic practice assumes the functional significance of practitioner behavior, and that the functional class of practitioner behavior can always be expanded upon to foster flexibility in the repertoire and allow for improved contextual sensitivity. In this way, with appetitives sufficiently available and accessible, the practitioner’s skills can be selected for by the needs of their clients, coworkers, setting, and other aspects of the practice context. Fourth, just as in ECM (Rajamaran et al., 2021 ; Staubitz et al., 2022 ), practitioners are likely to benefit from ongoing access to not only typical behavior analytic practice contingencies but also noncontingent relational appetitives (e.g., nondirective play time with clients, connection with coworkers, attention from supervisors), and easy options for leaving the practice context (i.e., break to assess and meet personal needs). This may involve building both flexibility and sufficient coverage into practice schedules to allow for practitioners to pause periodically to choose their next step. Fifth, practitioners are likely to benefit from ongoing training in a variety of procedures with a strong conceptual foundation and from explicit support for flexible implementation of these procedures based on the moment-to-moment responding of the client (see Leaf et al., 2016 ). This may involve softening pressures for predetermined behavioral indicators of “progress,” building in frequent opportunities for cooperative consultation with other practitioners, and empowering practitioners at all levels to observe responses to programming broadly and recommend changes where needed, in addition to improving access to training. Sixth, practitioners are likely to benefit from access to variable and flexible skill-building opportunities (e.g., shadowing, audio/video webinars, in person conferencing, attending training workshops, one-on-one mentorship, coworking, reading and discussing scientific literature). Because individual resources can limit access to many such learning opportunities, compassionate contexts for behavior analytic practice may incorporate the cost of such opportunities into the budget as necessary operating expenses. Seventh, practitioners are likely to benefit from explicit support for tracking how they are relating to the context in any moment, and resourcing themselves to remain in or return to appetitive functional relations with the context. In other words, compassionate contexts for behavior analytic practice will train and maintain self-compassion repertoires of its practitioners. Nurturing Compassionate (and Self-Compassionate) Repertoires In addition to offering a compassionate context for learning in general, behavior analysis can directly nurture a repertoire of compassionate behaviors in both clients and practitioners. For one, the kind of social behavior that compassion affords is frequently a target for clients of ABA (e.g., perspective taking, Peters & Thompson, 2018 ; empathy, Sivaraman, 2017 ; prosocial behavior, Creem et al., 2022 ). In addition, many practitioners would require training to effectively create a compassionate context for learning. According to the current conceptualization, growing such a repertoire would involve building a functional class of behaviors that, while topographically distinct, all shift functional relations for a recipient from aversive toward appetitive, and are shaped and maintained appetitively by such shifts. Nurturing such a class of behaviors would involve training several component behaviors: discriminating functional relations in terms of how aversive or appetitive they are, discriminating shifts in functional relations from moment to moment, and transforming functional relations to be increasingly appetitive. With multiple exemplars across a range of recipients and contexts, these components would likely integrate into compassion as a generalized operant (see Barnes-Holmes & Barnes-Holmes, 2000 ). Discrimination of Functional Relations on a Continuum from Appetitive to Aversive Appetitive functional relations are central to the phenomenon of compassion with regard to the behavior of both recipient and giver of compassion. In this way, building a compassionate repertoire first involves learning to discriminate functional relationships between context and behavior. For a practitioner or trainee, this builds on the skills involved in functionally analyzing behavior informally in naturalistic settings (e.g., observing a child thriving in one setting to determine what features of that context might be incorporated into more challenging settings). Discriminating functional relationships differs somewhat from discriminating contingencies, however, as functional relationships (see Hayes & Fryling, 2023 ) are characterized as bidirectional, dynamic, and inclusive of the whole complex stream of activity of the organism (e.g., both respondent and operant behaviors). In this way, discriminating functional relations involves observing the convolution (or co-evolution) between an ongoing stream of behavior and the dynamic context in which it occurs, and discriminating its movement along a continuum from aversive to appetitive. Discriminating aversive functional relations involves discriminating narrowness and rigidity – observable in functional persistence of avoidant behavior (e.g., running, fighting, hiding, and fawning) and insensitivity to contextual changes. Discriminating appetitive functional relations involves discriminating breadth and flexibility – observable in the functional variability of seeking, exploring, and engaging behavior and sensitivity to contextual change. Nurturing a compassionate repertoire (i.e., including both compassion and self-compassion) thus involves opportunities (1) to closely observe behavior (one’s own and that of another) unfolding in and with the changing context, (2) to identify indications of breadth and narrowness, flexibility and rigidity, particular to the person and the setting, and (3) to watch for shifts in functional relations along the aversive–appetitive continuum. Although all learning histories will involve exposure to a range of functional relations around one’s own and other’s behavior, most do not foster discrimination of the dynamic context–behavior relationship. This requires explicit practice for most practitioners and trainees, who are more used to abstracting from the stream of behavior one or more topographically discrete behaviors to inform a molecular, linear analysis (e.g., into a 3- or 4- term contingency). And of course, for parents, clients, or other stakeholders, watching behavior from a functional perspective at all might be an entirely new skill. In addition, some clients’ and practitioners’ histories are characterized by lack of privilege – that is, a high ratio of aversives to appetitives (see LCSRG, 2022 ), which can make detecting and discriminating appetitives more difficult, even when they become more available. That said, there is no reason that moment-to-moment discriminations of molar functional relationships between streams of context and behavior cannot be trained. Training discrimination of functional relations with one’s own behavior would involve not just exposure to contexts that vary from aversive to appetitive in function but also explicit support for noting the functions of those contexts – that is, what behaviors occur in a particular context compared to another and how behaviors shift as the context shifts. This would likely involve training the learner to tact their process , understood behaviorally as the flow of elicited behaviors such as emotions, bodily sensations, memories, and urges to act that tend to be more keenly responsive to slight changes in context. Indeed, emotions and other subtle behaviors can serve as descriptors of the functional relation at hand (see Layng, 2017 ; Skinner, 1957 for discussion of emotions as contingency descriptors or tactors). Gradually, the learner can come to tact not just a particular aspect of their behavioral stream, but the constriction or expansiveness in their experience (i.e., degrees of coercion vs. degrees of freedom; de Fernandes & Dittrich, 2018 ; Goldiamond, 1976 ; Linnehan et al., 2023 ) that characterizes aversive and appetitive functional relations, respectively. Notably, the person responsible for training a compassionate repertoire or creating a compassionate context for any learning would have to be able to track functional relations for the learner. Training discrimination of functional relations with others’ repertoires, clients or trainees, would proceed similarly – observing others’ behavior in contexts that vary from aversive to appetitive in function and watching the behavioral shifts that vary with changes in context. Subtlety , from an interbehavioral perspective, is a product of the history of the observer with the person reacting in similar ways in similar contexts (Kantor, 1953 ). Thus, as observation continues and the experience with a particular learner grows, the subtlety of behaviors like emotions, bodily sensations, memories, and urges to act gradually decreases, making them increasingly perceivable to the observer (see Sandoz et al., 2020 ). As more and more of the learner’s stream of behavior becomes perceivable, the functional relations in which their behavior participates become increasingly discriminable. This kind of sensitivity is pivotal in fostering appetitive learning processes and for teaching a person to track their own process and functional relations. With exposure to multiple exemplars across learners and settings, skill at perceiving functional relations with others’ behaviors would also likely emerge as a generalized operant. Finally, to foster a compassionate repertoire, training to discriminate and tact functional relations would occur appetitively – that is, with positively reinforcing consequences and appetitive motivating and discriminating antecedents. This stands in contrast to a learning history where discriminating functional relations is trained aversively – for example, where subtle behaviors and the contexts associated with them are monitored for threat as part of an avoidant repertoire maintained by negative reinforcement (Dymond & Roche, 2009 ). Instead, nurturing compassion would mean that discriminating and tacting of functional relations, even those that are aversive, would be trained appetitively. Nurturing a compassionate repertoire would thus involve training to track appetitively the subtle currents in one’s own stream of behavior and, perhaps more challengingly, those in another’s. Further, the emergence of these skills may be interdependent, where appetitive tracking of the functional relations around one’s own behavior allows for more sensitivity to the changing functional relations around others’ behaviors, and vice versa. In an interaction (i.e., where IBC’s are dominant), simultaneous tracking of functional relations around one’s own and another’s behavioral streams reveal them as inseparable as the two streams convolve (that is, co-evolve). Transforming the Shifts in Functional Relations Around Others’ Behavior to Function More Appetitively The current conceptualization defines compassionate behaviors as those that shift the recipient’s behavior to be in more appetitive functional relations with the context. Further, the functional class of compassionate behaviors is maintained and its members shaped by that shift. Thus, in addition to learning to discriminate functional relationships between context and behavior (i.e., on a continuum from aversive to appetitive), compassion involves the establishment of shifts in others’ behavior toward appetitive functional relations as, themselves, appetitive. How appetitive it is for a person to observe another behaving in increasingly appetitive functional relations with the context likely varies widely without intervention, however. For those whose histories have been characterized by competition for limited resources (limiting the likelihood of them serving as appetitives; see Goldiamond, 1976 ), and/or punishment for failing to compete successfully, appetitive functional relations around others’ behavior would function as neutral or even aversive. In this way, training a compassionate repertoire might involve direct training to make shifts in others’ behavior more appetitive. Contexts transform in function to be more appetitive in a number of ways. Most simply, contexts can become more appetitive by bearing a formal similarity to or being in close spatiotemporal proximity with an already appetitive context (Kantor, 1924, 1926 ). Thus, nurturing a compassionate repertoire in a learner might involve first exposure to transitions in functional relations for another from aversive to appetitive where the learner gains increased access to appetitives as the other person does. Gradually, the learner might progress to training where contexts that become available to the other with the shift in functional relations are also appetitive for and available to them. Contexts can also become more appetitive by being delivered to another as a consequence for their behavior (Singer-Dudek et al., 2011 ). Thus, a next step might involve observing others engaged in compassionate behavior. Exposure to exemplars where a model’s behavior is reinforced by a shift in the functional relations around another’s behavior from aversive toward appetitive may transform the function of such shifts. Finally, contexts can become appetitive for verbal learners through relating to an already appetitive context (see Sandoz et al., 2021 ). For example, verbal learners exposed to direct pairings between others’ increased access to appetitives and their own access to appetitives may tact the functional relationship, creating a track (see Hayes et al., 1986 ) that facilitates transformation of function in and generalization to novel contexts. Verbal learners may also be sensitive to direct instruction regarding the rewards of compassion as part of a behavioral skills training (BST; see, e.g., Gatzunis et al., 2023 ; Nohelty et al., 2024 ) protocol or informal exposure to popular culture efforts to inspire compassion (e.g., Griffin, 2022 ). Lastly, verbal learners may benefit from direct training to enhance fluency with deictic relational responding, where simultaneous coordinating and distinguishing “I” and “you,” “here” and “there,” and “now” and “then” (see Rodriguez et al., 2023 ; Taylor et al., 2019 ; Vilardaga, 2009 ) allows for increased access to functions associated with you–there–then. In other words, learners who engage in deictic relational responding may be able to contact appetitive functions experienced by another more quickly and remotely. For example, much clinical and traditional compassion training involves extending compassion to people who are not physically present as part of a compassion practice (e.g., Don et al., 2022 ; Hutcherson et al., 2008 ; Irons & Heriot‐Maitland, 2021 ; Jazaieri et al., 2013 ; see Salzberg, 2004 ). Conclusion Taylor et al. ( 2019 ) conclude their seminal paper on compassionate care in behavior analysis by quoting Friman and colleagues ( 1998 ): “Imprecision of a term… is not sufficient justification for… avoidance [of the term] when the phenomenon to which it refers is so vast and so central to the psychology of human beings” (p. 153). And indeed, behavior analysis has recognized compassion as vast and central to the psychology of our practitioners, our trainees, our clients, and the parents and other stakeholders in our work. Even without a precise behavior analytic definition, compassion in behavior analysis has been the topic of texts, training workshops, empirical studies, conceptual discussions, and now this special issue. It is our hope that this conceptual analysis will support existing activities, inspire new developments, and provide a foundation for flexible integration of compassion into all aspects of work for every behavior analyst. Funding This project was not funded by a third party Availability of Data and Materials Data and materials are not available for this project because none were collected. Declarations Informed Consent This project did not require informed consent. Competing Interests To the knowledge of this manuscript’s authors, there are no competing interests, including financial gains, that will result from the publication of this work. Conflicts of Interest There are no known conflicts of interest. Research Involving Human Participants and/or Animals This project did not involve research with human participants and/or animals. 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