Differences in self-compassion anD shame in patients with anxiety DisorDers, patients with DepressiVe DisorDers anD healthy controls (original) (raw)
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Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 2018
Objectives. The tendency to experience shame or guilt is associated differentially with anxiety and depression, with shame being associated with greater psychopathology. Correlational studies have shown self-compassion to be related to lower shame and rumination, and mindfulness-based interventions increase self-compassion. Therefore, mindfulness-based interventions may decrease shame. This pilot study aimed to assess the association of shame, rumination, self-compassion, and psychological distress and the effects of a mindfulness-based intervention on these measures in a clinical sample. Design. Single-group design with pre-test and post-test measures. Method. Thirty-two service users who experienced clinically diagnosed depressive or anxiety disorders in a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy programme were assessed before and twenty-two after therapy with measures of shame-proneness, external shame, rumination, self-compassion, and psychological distress. Results. Shame-proneness and external shame were positively correlated with selfcoldness, and external shame was positively correlated with stress and depressive symptoms. Self-compassion increased and self-coldness decreased, while shameproneness, rumination, anxiety, and stress symptoms decreased from pre-to posttreatment. There was no significant reduction in depressive symptoms, guilt-proneness, or external shame. Conclusion. Our preliminary findings suggest that mindfulness-based approaches may be helpful in increasing self-compassion and reducing shame-proneness in mixed groups of anxious and depressed patients. Controlled studies of the effects of mindfulness-based interventions on shame in clinical populations are warranted. Practitioner points Shame-proneness and external shame showed different patterns of relationship with depressive and stress symptoms and with self-compassion.
Self-compassion and Social Anxiety Symptoms: Fear of Negative Evaluation and Shame as Mediators
Practice in Clinical Psycholoy (JPCP), 2024
Objective: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) can negatively impact various aspects of life, incurring significant personal and societal costs. Thus, it is necessary to identify protective factors that buffer against SAD symptoms and the mechanisms underlying their mitigation. This research aims to examine the relationship between self-compassion and social anxiety symptoms among university students, specifically exploring the potential mediating effects of fear of negative evaluation (FNE) and shame. Methods: This study examined the relationships between variables through structural equation modeling (SEM) using a correlational design. The sample included 242 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students from Tehran’s public universities, selected via the convenience sampling method. Social phobia inventory, the self-compassion scale, the brief form of FNE scale, and the shame subscale of self-conscious affect questionnaire were used to collect data. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation via SPSS software, version 22, and SEM using AMOS software, version 22. Results: The results from analyzing the structural relationships indicated a direct negative effect of self-compassion on social anxiety symptoms, FNE, and shame. Additionally, FNE and shame had a positive effect on social anxiety symptoms directly (P<0.01). Investigating the significance of mediating variables indicated an indirect negative effect of self-compassion on social anxiety symptoms, passing through FNE and shame as mediators (P<0.01). The research model had a good fit and accounted for 59% of the variance in social anxiety symptoms. Conclusion: Based on the research results, increasing self-compassion can reduce social anxiety symptoms through both direct and indirect paths, by reducing the effect of FNE and shame.
Shame and Depressive Symptoms: Self-compassion and Contingent Self-worth as Mediators?
Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 2018
Research has identified the experience of shame as a relevant predictor of depressive symptoms. Building upon resilience theory, this is the first study to investigate if self-compassion and/or contingent self-worth (i.e., family support and God's love) mediate the link between shame and depressive symptoms. Participants were 109 African Americans, within the age range of 18 and 64, who sought service following a suicide attempt from a public hospital that serves mostly low-income patients. Findings suggest that shame was related to depressive symptoms through self-compassion but not through contingent self-worth, underscoring the significant role that self-compassion plays in ameliorating the aggravating effect of shame on depressive symptoms. Results highlight the value of incorporating self-compassion training into interventions for suicidal African Americans in an effort to reduce the impact of shame on their depressive symptoms and ultimately their suicidal behavior and as a result enhance their capacity for resilience.
The relationship between self-compassion and chronic depression: a cross-sectional clinical study
The Psychologist: Practice & Research Journal, 1(2), 1-13, 2018
Background: At present, depression is the world's most common psychopathology. Self-compassion is a psychological concept that has shown promise regarding its impact on psychopathology. Despite a vast literature studying the relationship between depression and self-compassion, few studies about this association were done in clinical samples. Goals: This study sought to analyze the associations between self-compassion, its dimensions and symptomatology of depression, during and after a therapeutic intervention. Methods: A non-probabilistic sampling method was used. All participants had been diagnosed with persistent depression disorder (dysthymia) and were treated in a residential therapeutic community for a period of six to eight months. The original sample was divided into two groups: during (In-Treatment) and after treatment (one-year Post-Treatment). The assessment protocol was composed of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI II), Self-Compassion Scale (SELFCS) and sociodemographic characterization. Results: The sample was composed of 63 participants, 28 females and 35 males (age: M = 32.84, SD = 10.24). Women presented lower levels of self-kindness and self-compassion (total score), and higher levels of all the negative dimensions of SELFCS. Patients with moderate or severe symptoms of depression indicated a lower total score of self-compassion as well as higher scores in all the negative dimensions; patients having undergone previous treatments showed higher levels of symptomatology of depression. The group assessed after the intervention presented higher levels of self-compassion and lower levels of over-identification, when compared to the group that was assessed still undergoing treatment. Finally, the self-judgment dimension of the SELFCS stands out as a predictor of depression for the total sample and the SELFCS's isolation dimension is a predictor of BDI's scores for the group undergoing treatment. Discussion: Although most of the results are in line with similar findings of the existing literature about the relationship between the studied variables, some were unexpected, and may guide the direction of future studies and the application of these concepts within the clinical context.
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 2013
Self-compassion, involving self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness, appears well-suited to soothing feelings of threat following negative events and thereby reducing depressive sequellae. Study 1 found a strong negative association between self-compassion and depressive symptoms in 335 university students and evaluated four markers of threat that potentially mediate this relation. a test of multiple mediation revealed shame as a significant mediator, along with rumination and self-esteem. in Study 2, shame-prone students recalled an experience of shame and then were randomly assigned to (1) write about it self-compassionately, (2) express their feelings about it in writing, or (3) do neither. Participants completed their assigned task three times in one week. immediately after writing, participants in the self-compassion condition reported less state shame and negative affect than those in the expressive writing condition. at two-week follow-up, participants in the self-compassion condition alone showed reductions in shame-proneness (d = .53), and depressive symptoms (d = .49). it appears that self-compassion promotes soothing, "hypo-egoic" (leary, 2012) responses to negative outcomes that reduce threat system activation and depressive symptoms.
2021
Objectives: The lack of self-compassion and shame-proneness may both be associated with a wide range of mental disorders. The aim of this study was to compare the levels of compassionate self-responding and shame-proneness in samples of patients with borderline personality disorder, eating disorders, alcohol-addiction and in healthy controls.Methods: All three clinical groups and healthy controls were administered scales measuring self-compassion (SCS) and shame-proneness (TOSCA-3S). Differences in compassionate self-responding and shame-proneness were analyzed and effect sizes were calculated.Results: All three clinical groups were found to have significantly lower compassionate self-responding and significantly higher shame-proneness than healthy controls. The magnitudes of difference in compassionate self-responding and shame-proneness, between all clinical groups and healthy controls, were moderate to large.Conclusions: We hypothesize, that implicit belief in self as a permanent...
Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 2010
Objectives. The objectiveofthis study was to explore the meaning and experiences of compassion and self-compassion for individuals with depression and anxiety. Design. An interpretative phenomenological analysis(IPA) epistemology and methodologyw erea dopted as the study was focused on understanding the meaning and experiences of participants towards self-compassion from existing theory. Methods. Te nparticipants wereselected based on a Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders ,4th ed.-text revision diagnosis of depression or an anxiety disorder. Individuals weree xcluded from this study if they had additional diagnoses which impacted significantly on their disorder or on ethical grounds if participation was seen as psychologically distressing. Participants completed as emi-structured intervieww ith questions were based on existing self-compassion research. Interviewsl asted an hour and were analysed using IPAm ethodology. Results. Participants' reflections suggested that they sawc ompassion having two central qualities: kindness and action. Participants reported that they thought having compassion for themselves felt meaningful in relation to their experiences and useful in helping with their depression or anxiety.H owever, participants reflected that they felt being self-compassionate would be difficult either because the concept itself felt challenging to enact or their experience of psychological disorder had negatively impacted on their ability to be self-compassionate. Conclusions. Participants' positiveperceptions of self-compassion offer encouragement to clinicians as it appears people can connect with the concept meaningfully as wellasseeing it as being useful. Clinicians focusing on self-compassion maygain greater efficacy when they incorporate both aspects within interventions. Findings about the difficulties associated with self-compassion provide valuable information as to why people find it difficult to adopt which can be used in the development of future clinical interventions.
Mindfulness, 2021
Objectives The objectives of this study were to explore whether avoidance and activation mediate the relationship between self-compassion and depressive symptoms. Research investigating these mechanisms may help identify potential intervention targets for preventing depression. Methods A cross-sectional survey design was employed involving 242 non-clinical Australian adults (188 females, 54 males) ranging from 18 to 76 years (M = 24.99, SD = 9.07). Participants completed online Self-Compassion Scale, Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale, Reward Probability Index, and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales. Results Avoidance and activation were found to be significant mediators of the relationship between self-compassion and depressive symptoms. This indicates that self-compassion may influence depressive symptoms through the mechanisms suggested to operate in a behavioral model of depression, specifically avoidance and activation. Conclusions These findings linking self-compassion to activation and avoidance with depressive symptoms are promising. Further research with larger, representative, non-clinical and clinical populations, as well as the collection of prospective data, could help establish the causality of these links.
Fears of Compassion in a Depressed Population Implication for Psychotherapy
Journal of Depression and Anxiety, 2014
Background: While psychological therapies for depression have advanced in the last 20 years, still many people respond only partially and remain vulnerable to relapse. Insight into the limitations of our psychological therapies might be obtained from recent research that has revealed, in nonclinical populations, that some people can be fearful of positive emotions especially affiliative and compassion-focused ones. Aims: This study explores the fears of compassion in a clinical population and their associations with selfcriticism, self-compassion and depression, anxiety and stress. Method: 53 depressed patients completed a series of self-report scales. Results: Fears of compassion, particularly for oneself and from others, were strongly linked to self-criticism, depression, anxiety and stress, and negatively associated with self-compassion and self-reassurance. Conclusions: Since compassion and the affiliative emotions associated with compassion play a fundamental role in emotion regulation, individuals who are blocked or fearful of accessing these emotions are likely to be struggle with emotional regulation and the psychotherapeutic process. Research on the fears of compassion and affiliative emotions suggests these are important therapeutic targets.