Compassion flows.
Recent research on giving ourselves more compassion to help address psychological distress and extending compassion to others, including those we dislike.
Hello, and welcome to the 4th Compassionate Nature post and given the name of the Substack it’s probably time that some recent compassion research featured after three posts around psychological research relating to environmental themes.
Before getting into the selected studies it is probably worth starting with a definition of compassion, as it may mean different things to different people and within psychological literature there are several definitions.
The definition that resonates most with me is from Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) where compassion is “a sensitivity to suffering in self and others with a commitment to try to alleviate and prevent it” (Gilbert, 2017). This definition I think helps differentiate compassion from other similar terms, such as empathy or kindness, as it highlights the intentional awareness and motivational elements of compassion. Like other compassionate approaches, CFT considers three flows of compassion - to others, from others, and to ourselves.
Self-compassion and self-criticism
It can be said that we are good at showing compassion to others, can find it harder to accept compassion from others, and find it even harder to show compassion to ourselves. While we may not always be good at self-compassion, we are probably better at self-criticism. Researchers undertaking a compassion and criticism related study made the observation that participants sometimes asked for guidance on how to be self-compassionate, but never asked for guidance in how to be self-critical (Kirby, 2022).
Can self-compassion help with self-criticism ? Previous research has suggested it can and given that a key part of CFT is to address negative thought patterns towards oneself, a study by Pol, et al., (2023) used CFT to assess its usage alongside treatment as usual for individuals with personality disorders (PD). Self-criticism is seen as key risk factor within PD., with the study measuring levels of self-critical beliefs and self-compassion to assess the impact of a 12-week online CFT intervention, with a preceding baseline of treatment as usual which varied in length for the participants. The study had a small sample size of 12 participants who were all female, with 9 providing data points from baseline to followup. The study found no significant changes in self-criticism and self-compassion between the start and end of the CFT treatment, but at the 6 week follow-up a significant difference in both was found compared to baseline, although of small effect size. Of the 9 participants, 6 reported reduced self-critical beliefs and 5 reported increased self-compassion. While the study limitations mean the results are not suitable for generalisation, the results offer an indication that CFT may be a helpful addition to treatment as usual for PD and are supportive of the CFT theoretical model that a more compassionate approach to oneself can address self-criticism.
In challenging times
Given it appears it may be hard to be self-compassionate at the best of times, what happens when we are struggling with our metal wellbeing and does that affect our ability to be compassionate towards others? Garcia-Campayo et al., (2023) considered these two flows in a study based on online study using established self-report measures translated into Spanish with 811 participants included in the analysis. Amongst the considerations of the study, the authors highlight that there is mixed research in the link between self-compassion and compassion to others, with a suggestion that when our wellbeing worsens so does our sense of connection to others. The results indicate a strong correlation between levels of self-compassion and levels of psychological distress, which supports existing research that suggests lower levels of self-compassion correlate with increased levels of distress. The study did not find a correlation between distress levels and compassion to others however. These results suggest that when we have higher levels of mental wellbeing we are more likely to have similar attitudes towards self-compassion and compassion to others, but with lower levels of mental wellbeing we are more likely to be less compassionate to ourselves. Although a large sample size, the demographics of the participants (80% female, middle-aged, employed and with a higher-education level) does reduce generalisation of the results. The authors suggest that future research could also consider whether different types of psychological distress affect the flow of compassion to others.
An equal flow ?
So it appears our sense of compassion to others may not always be affected during personally difficult times. Sometimes those difficult times may be caused or made worse by relationships with people we dislike, for whom it may be harder to offer compassion to. Can developing a more compassionate approach help?
An interesting study from Cernadas Curotto et al. (2023) used a compassion based intervention to test if that helped with emotional reaction to a disliked person in comparison to another intervention and a control condition. The study measured whether the interventions improved feelings of closeness to the disliked person and of schadenfreude (such a good word!) towards them, which they defined as “the pleasure felt when individuals see the suffering of others”. The researchers used an experimental design, with an initial 154 participants located in Geneva randomly allocated to one of three five-week groups- a control group leaning basic Italian, a group learning cognitive reappraisal techniques and a group learning compassionate exercises. Cognitive reappraisal is an established aid to conflict within relationships, involving leaning techniques such as re-evaluating negative experiences, while the compassion training involved using exercises to encourage feelings and sense of compassion to self and to others. After the 5 week intervention period 108 participants (there had been a participation attrition rate of nearly a third across the groups) were presented with scenarios of misfortune happening to people , including a disliked person. While both the reappraisal and compassion interventions reduced levels of schadenfreude towards the disliked person, only compassion increased a sense of closeness to the disliked person. This is really interesting as the compassion intervention did not specify anyone, it encouraged compassionate thoughts to all others, suggesting that developing a more compassionate mind approach may be an aid to handling personal dislike or conflict even when that is not the focus of the intervention. The authors suggest that this is linked to the awareness of and motivation to address distress that resides at the heart of compassion. Limitations include the self-report social desirability bias that may influence how participants reported their level of schadenfreude and future research could explore the longevity of the influence from the compassion training.
Bringing the flows together
Overall, these three studies support some of the theoretical perspectives and previous evidence relating to compassion to ourselves and to others, including what influences those compassionate flows. Self-compassion appears to mitigate self-critical evaluation which may help to address psychological distress and reduced mental wellbeing. The research highlights that you can be compassionate to others while not being that compassionate to yourself. Deepening our sense of compassion to others may also be beneficial to mental wellbeing in addition to supporting our social connections and relationships, including the more tricky ones.
As a personal reflection, I sometimes struggle with the use of the word self-compassion, especially within media reporting and social media posts, when I think it can be misused and not always reflective of its meaning within research. I tend to favour the idea from CFT of the compassionate self (alongside the critical self), as that embodies an intention and motivation linked to the commitment mentioned in the definition. This will be something I no doubt come back to in future posts on compassion, so in the interim here is a guest piece I wrote for the Balanced Minds blog on the similarities and differences I perceive between self-compassion and the compassionate self through the use of a cycling metaphor.
References
Cernadas Curotto, P., Halperin, E., Sander, D., & Klimecki, O. Getting closer: compassion training increases feelings of closeness toward a disliked person. Scientific Report 13, 18339 (2023).https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-45363-1
García-Campayo, J., Barceló-Soler, A., Martínez-Rubio, D., Navarrete, J., Pérez-Aranda, A., Feliu-Soler, A., Luciano, J. V., Baer, R., Kuyken, W., & Montero-Marin, J. (2023). Exploring the relationship between self-compassion and compassion for others: The role of psychological distress and wellbeing. Assessment. https://doi.org/10.1177/10731911231203966
Gilbert, P. (2017). Compassion: definitions and controversies. In Gilbert, P. (Ed) Compassion: Concepts, research and applications. Routledge
Kirby, J. (2022) Choose Compassion. University of Queensland Press.
Pol, S. M., de Jong, A., Trompetter, H., Bohlmeijer, E. T., & Chakhssi, F. (2023). Effectiveness of compassion‐focused therapy for self‐criticism in patients with personality disorders: a multiple baseline case series study. Personality and Mental Health, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmh.1597
Thanks Chris, this is so informative and useful 🙏