Al Erdynast, DBA, recently developed a reliable scoring system for the study of developmental levels of conceptions of compassion in a study conducted with a former Secretary to The Dalai Lama. Al also previously designed a research project for UCLA to study whether Tibetan refugee adolescent orphans were preserving traditional Tibetan values in exile, and conducted a pilot study for the project in Dharamsala, India.

Al has trained and mentored several generations of students in doctoral level research and is currently training new researchers during in the study of generosity with one’s talent. Generosity stems from three sets of motivations. Some motivations for generosity arise from individuals’ conceptions of worthwhile aims, or the “good.” Another set of motivations is our natural social duties and obligations to help those in need, or the “right.” A third set of motivations, “magnanimity,” generosity that goes well beyond any requirements and involves excessive risk or loss to oneself. Magnanimity arises from a love of humankind. This love connotes a heightened sensitivity to the feelings and wants of others as well as humility and unconcern with self, manifests as advancements the common good in ways that go well beyond societal duties and obligations. This study examines developmental variations of the three distinct types of generosity by exploring the use of respondents’ talents to benefit others.