The relationship among the components of self-compassion: a pilot study using a compassionate writing intervention to enhance self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness
- Self-compassion has been theorized to have three components, each with a positive pole and a negative pole: self-kindness versus self-judgment, common humanity versus isolation, and mindfulness versus over-identification. Neff (Self Identity 2:85–101, 2003a) proposes that they mutually influence each other, however, this proposition has not been tested yet. We conducted a pilot study to see if improvements from training one component spilled over to the other two—and whether these trainings had an impact on well-being. 80 participants completed 8 weeks of self-compassionate writing exercises to enhance either self-kindness, common humanity, or mindfulness. Trait self-compassion was assessed using the six-factor model of the self-compassion scale. To address issues of alpha-error-inflation, the false discovery rate was fixed at 5%, and critical p values were adjusted accordingly. Participants in the mindfulness condition reported increased total self-compassion (p = .009), which was accompanied by increased self-kindness (p = .027) and lower isolation (p = .045). Participants in the common humanity condition reported improved total self-compassion (p = .018), lower over-identification (p = .045), and higher life-satisfaction (p = .049). The training in self-kindness failed to improve self-kindness or any other factor. These findings provide initial evidence that the components of self-compassion mutually enhance each other. They also emphasize the importance of mindfulness within the conceptualization of self-compassion.
Author: | Aljoscha DreisörnerORCiDGND, Nina Mareen JunkerORCiDGND, Rolf van DickORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-637386 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00217-4 |
ISSN: | 1573-7780 |
Parent Title (English): | Journal of happiness studies |
Publisher: | Springer Science + Business Media B.V |
Place of publication: | Dordrecht [u.a.] |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2020/01/19 |
Date of first Publication: | 2020/01/19 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2022/10/20 |
Tag: | Common humanity; Compassionate writing exercises; Mindfulness; Self-compassion; Self-kindness; Well-being |
Volume: | 22 |
Issue: | 1 |
Page Number: | 26 |
First Page: | 21 |
Last Page: | 47 |
Note: | Open Access funding provided by Projekt DEAL. We thank Joost van Ginkel and Johannes B. Heekerens for their helpful comments during data analysis. |
HeBIS-PPN: | 502090057 |
Institutes: | Psychologie und Sportwissenschaften / Psychologie |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 15 Psychologie / 150 Psychologie |
Sammlungen: | Universitätspublikationen |
Licence (German): | Creative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0 |