The forest and the trees: Examining the association of self-compassion and its positive and negative components with psychological functioning

By K. Neff, Phoebe Long, Marissa C. Knox, O. Davidson, A. Kuchar, Andrew P. Costigan, Zachary H. Williamson, Nicolas Rohleder, István Tóth‐Király, Juliana G. Breines. Self and Identity, 2018

215 citations recorded by the source corpus.

ABSTRACT This paper presents two studies focusing on the link between psychological functioning and self-compassion as measured by the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), especially in terms of SCS components that represent increased compassionate and reduced uncompassionate behavior. Study One examined this association in seven domains – psychopathology, positive psychological health, emotional intelligence, self-concept, body image, motivation, and interpersonal functioning – and found that while reduced negative self-responding had a stronger link to negative emotionality and self-evaluation than positive self-responding, they were roughly equivalent predictors in other domains. Study Two examined the association of compassionate and reduced uncompassionate behavior with sympathetic nervous system and inflammatory activity after stress, and found they equally predicted salivary alpha amylase and interleukin-6 levels in individuals after a stressful situation. Overall, results suggest that both compassionate and reduced uncompassionate self-responding are central to self-compassion and that both help to explain its link to healthy psychological functioning.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/73b0a2d7a5f25b2700a0e886cfd7a1946e9b4bab

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Clinical Psychology

1. K. Neff
2. C. Germer
3. F. Sirois
4. Mark R. Leary
5. Lisa M. Yarnell
6. F. Raes
7. Juliana G. Breines
8. Laura Barnard

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

1. K. Neff
2. C. Germer
3. F. Raes
4. Mark R. Leary
5. S. Shapiro
6. Laura Barnard
7. J. Curry
8. F. Sirois

Citations in the corpus

• Self-Compassion: Theory, Method, Research, and Intervention. (2022, background): “Self-compassion and self-construal in the United States, Thailand, and Taiwan.”