Contemplative education, an emerging field, aims to develop spiritual competence in schools to equip students with social and personal skills for a more aware and sustainable society. This article outlines a conceptual approach to spirituality and spiritual competence from an educational psychology perspective, defining their components. It links contemplative education to a specific view of the relationship between subject and object of knowledge. The authors critically review scientific evidence on mindfulness-based training programs, the most widespread secular form, and briefly discuss the connection between contemplative education and spiritual tradition. They also suggest considerations for designing future research.
Cannabis users show deficient emotional recognition and a dampened reaction to negative stimuli, according to a study validating the Spanish version of the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET). A group of 116 participants from a Cannabis Social Club completed the MET and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) while under the effects of cannabis and were compared to 86 university students as a control group. The MET cognitive empathy scale showed low internal consistency, while the emotional empathy scale showed high internal consistency. Overall emotional empathy scores were similar between groups, but the cannabis group scored lower with negative stimuli. These results confirm deficient emotional recognition in cannabis users and a dampened reaction to negative stimuli for the first time.