This research examined self-compassion and self-esteem as they relate to various aspects of psychological functioning. Self-compassion entails treating oneself with kindness, recognizing one's shared humanity, and being mindful when considering negative aspects of oneself. Study 1 (N=2,187) compared self-compassion and global self-esteem as they relate to ego-focused reactivity. It was found th...

Objectives: Those suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD) often develop a qualitatively certain depression that may be accompanied by “mental pain”. Mental pain is characterized by negative self-concept, aversive chronic emotions, and feeling pervasive helplessness. This research aimed to understand the pathology of BPD symptomatology using a non-clinical sample: the role of mental...

Lung cancer patients and their spouses report high rates of distress. Due to the increasing popularity of and evidence for mindfulness-based interventions in cancer, mindfulness and self-compassion have been identified as potentially helpful skills when coping with cancer. This dyadic study examined how mindfulness and self-compassion are related to psychological distress and communication abou...

The impostor phenomenon (IP) refers to high-achievers who underestimate their abilities and thus fear being unmasked as impostors. IP sufferers attribute their success to factors other than their abilities, entailing negative emotions, unfavorable motivations, and reduced well-being. The IP was originally conceptualized as a predominantly female experience, and is thus seen as an important psyc...

Compassion has long been regarded as a core part of our humanity by contemplative traditions, and in recent years, it has received growing research interest. Following a recent review of existing conceptualisations, compassion has been defined as consisting of the following five elements: 1) recognising suffering, 2) understanding the universality of suffering in human experience, 3) feeling mo...

Recent disclosures of failures of care in the National Health Service (NHS) in England have led to debates about compassion deficits disallowing health professionals to provide high quality responsive care. While the link between high quality care and compassion is often taken for granted, it is less obvious how compassion – often originating in the individual’s emotional response – can become ...

OBJECTIVES To describe the relationship between trainable qualities (mindfulness and self-compassion), with factors conceptually related to burnout and quality of care (sleep and resilience) in young health professionals and trainees. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SETTING Large Midwestern academic health center. PARTICIPANTS 213 clinicians and trainees. OUTCOME MEASURES Sleep and resil...

We provide a new framework for understanding 1 aspect of aggressive conflict between groups, which we refer to as vicarious retribution. Vicarious retribution occurs when a member of a group commits an act of aggression toward the members of an outgroup for an assault or provocation that had no personal consequences for him or her but which did harm a fellow ingroup member. Furthermore, retribu...

Compassion fatigue is not a new concept in nursing; yet, it is not well known and there is no fixed clear definition of the term. The ambiguity surrounding how to define compassion fatigue has challenged its measurement and evaluation. Thus, any attempt to determine attributes of this underdeveloped concept and studying it in a new socio-cultural context requires concept development. The purpos...

BACKGROUND Compassion is considered an essential element in quality patient care. One of the conceptual challenges in healthcare literature is that compassion is often confused with sympathy and empathy. Studies comparing and contrasting patients' perspectives of sympathy, empathy, and compassion are largely absent. AIM The aim of this study was to investigate advanced cancer patients' unders...