Title |
Helping the self help others: self-affirmation increases self-compassion and pro-social behaviors
|
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Published in |
Frontiers in Psychology, May 2014
|
DOI | 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00421 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Emily K. Lindsay, J. David Creswell |
Abstract |
Reflecting on an important personal value in a self-affirmation activity has been shown to improve psychological functioning in a broad range of studies, but the underlying mechanisms for these self-affirmation effects are unknown. Here we provide an initial test of a novel self-compassion account of self-affirmation in two experimental studies. Study 1 shows that an experimental manipulation of self-affirmation (3-min of writing about an important personal value vs. writing about an unimportant value) increases feelings of self-compassion, and these feelings in turn mobilize more pro-social behaviors to a laboratory shelf-collapse incident. Study 2 tests and extends these effects by evaluating whether self-affirmation increases feelings of compassion toward the self (consistent with the self-compassion account) or increases feelings of compassion toward others (an alternative other-directed compassion account), using a validated storytelling behavioral task. Consistent with a self-compassion account, Study 2 demonstrates the predicted self-affirmation by video condition interaction, indicating that self-affirmation participants had greater feelings of self-compassion in response to watching their own storytelling performance (self-compassion) compared to watching a peer's storytelling performance (other-directed compassion). Further, pre-existing levels of trait self-compassion moderated this effect, such that self-affirmation increased self-compassionate responses the most in participants low in trait self-compassion. This work suggests that self-compassion may be a promising mechanism for self-affirmation effects, and that self-compassionate feelings can mobilize pro-social behaviors. |
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Malaysia | 2 | <1% |
Ireland | 2 | <1% |
United States | 2 | <1% |
Canada | 2 | <1% |
United Kingdom | 1 | <1% |
Japan | 1 | <1% |
Philippines | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 231 | 95% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Master | 42 | 17% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 40 | 17% |
Student > Bachelor | 31 | 13% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 26 | 11% |
Researcher | 15 | 6% |
Other | 36 | 15% |
Unknown | 52 | 21% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Psychology | 123 | 51% |
Business, Management and Accounting | 11 | 5% |
Social Sciences | 11 | 5% |
Nursing and Health Professions | 10 | 4% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 10 | 4% |
Other | 20 | 8% |
Unknown | 57 | 24% |