Using multiple character strengths to inform young adults’ self-compassion: The potential of hope and forgiveness

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Ashton Booker ◽  
Joshua David Perlin

Self-compassion is an adaptive means of relating to the self during times of distress. Character strengths include a set of traits and values that ultimately uplift the self and others. Although self-compassion is known to be associated with multiple character strengths, there remain opportunities to address whether particular strengths uniquely inform individual differences in self-compassion. Using three studies, strengths of curiosity, grit, gratitude, hope, and forgiveness were considered to determine which strengths provided unique information for reports of self-compassion. Results showed that hope and forgiveness were robustly associated with self-compassion when these strengths were studied simultaneously (Studies 1 and 2) and alongside Big Five covariates (Study 2). Study 3 showed that the effects of hope and forgiveness on self-compassion were comparable between college- and community-recruited young adults. Overall, findings suggest that hope and forgiveness may be promising targets to further understand and ultimately promote self-compassion.

Author(s):  
Salome Divya Vijaykumar ◽  
Ranjitha Kumar ◽  
Avneet Kaur ◽  
Vibha Bhat ◽  
Ritu Verma ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 418-419
Author(s):  
Meghan McDarby ◽  
Emily Mroz ◽  
Susan Bluck ◽  
Brian Carpenter

Abstract Reflection on memorialization may differentially influence nomination and narration of self-defining memories across the lifespan, including the extent to which positive character strengths (i.e., virtues) are represented. We investigated characteristics of self-defining memories across adulthood and in the context of being memorialized after death. Young, middle-age, and older adults were randomly assigned to narrate a memorialization-based self-defining memory (a memory to describe you after you are gone; n = 103) or current self-defining memory (a memory to describe your current self; n = 99). Participants rated qualities of their memory (e.g., personal significance) and the extent to which the memory represents them as virtuous (e.g., courageous, empathic, etc.). There were no age or condition differences in personal significance of the memory narrative (p = 0.43). However, there was an age-by-condition interaction for representations of virtue described in the self-defining memory, F(2, 199) = 3.94, p = 0.002. Young adults rated their self-defining memories as more virtuous in the memorialization condition than in the current self condition (p = 0.001). Middle-age (p = 0.95) and older (p = 0.94) adults rated their self-defining memories as portraying similar levels of virtue across conditions. Unlike their middle-age and older counterparts, young adults report embodiment of virtue differently in unique contexts. Findings are discussed in the framework of how individuals’ views of the self as virtuous change in relation to time lived and time left to live.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 2097-2108
Author(s):  
Robyn L. Croft ◽  
Courtney T. Byrd

Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify levels of self-compassion in adults who do and do not stutter and to determine whether self-compassion predicts the impact of stuttering on quality of life in adults who stutter. Method Participants included 140 adults who do and do not stutter matched for age and gender. All participants completed the Self-Compassion Scale. Adults who stutter also completed the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering. Data were analyzed for self-compassion differences between and within adults who do and do not stutter and to predict self-compassion on quality of life in adults who stutter. Results Adults who do and do not stutter exhibited no significant differences in total self-compassion, regardless of participant gender. A simple linear regression of the total self-compassion score and total Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering score showed a significant, negative linear relationship of self-compassion predicting the impact of stuttering on quality of life. Conclusions Data suggest that higher levels of self-kindness, mindfulness, and social connectedness (i.e., self-compassion) are related to reduced negative reactions to stuttering, an increased participation in daily communication situations, and an improved overall quality of life. Future research should replicate current findings and identify moderators of the self-compassion–quality of life relationship.


2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Barbaranelli ◽  
Gian Vittorio Caprara

Summary: The aim of the study is to assess the construct validity of two different measures of the Big Five, matching two “response modes” (phrase-questionnaire and list of adjectives) and two sources of information or raters (self-report and other ratings). Two-hundred subjects, equally divided in males and females, were administered the self-report versions of the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) and the Big Five Observer (BFO), a list of bipolar pairs of adjectives ( Caprara, Barbaranelli, & Borgogni, 1993 , 1994 ). Every subject was rated by six acquaintances, then aggregated by means of the same instruments used for the self-report, but worded in a third-person format. The multitrait-multimethod matrix derived from these measures was then analyzed via Structural Equation Models according to the criteria proposed by Widaman (1985) , Marsh (1989) , and Bagozzi (1994) . In particular, four different models were compared. While the global fit indexes of the models were only moderate, convergent and discriminant validities were clearly supported, and method and error variance were moderate or low.


2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 176-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Furnham ◽  
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

Abstract. This study examines the relationship between students' personality and intelligence scores with their preferences for the personality profile of their lecturers. Student ratings (N = 136) of 30 lecturer trait characteristics were coded into an internally reliable Big Five taxonomy ( Costa & McCrae, 1992 ). Descriptive statistics showed that, overall, students tended to prefer conscientious, open, and stable lecturers, though correlations revealed that these preferences were largely a function of students' own personality traits. Thus, open students preferred open lecturers, while agreeable students preferred agreeable lecturers. There was evidence of a similarity effect for both Agreeableness and Openness. In addition, less intelligent students were more likely to prefer agreeable lecturers than their more intelligent counterparts were. A series of regressions showed that individual differences are particularly good predictors of preferences for agreeable lecturers, and modest, albeit significant, predictors of preferences for open and neurotic lecturers. Educational and vocational implications are considered.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan Siritzky ◽  
David M Condon ◽  
Sara J Weston

The current study utilizes the current COVID-19 pandemic to highlight the importance of accounting for the influence of external political and economic factors in personality public-health research. We investigated the extent to which systemic factors modify the relationship between personality and pandemic response. Results shed doubt on the cross-cultural generalizability of common big-five factor models. Individual differences only predicted government compliance in autocratic countries and in countries with income inequality. Personality was only predictive of mental health outcomes under conditions of state fragility and autocracy. Finally, there was little evidence that the big five traits were associated with preventive behaviors. Our ability to use individual differences to understand policy-relevant outcomes changes based on environmental factors and must be assessed on a trait-by-trait basis, thus supporting the inclusion of systemic political and economic factors in individual differences models.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Marengo ◽  
Kenneth L. Davis ◽  
Gökçe Özkarar Gradwohl ◽  
Christian Montag

AbstractThe Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) were constructed as a self-report assessment to measure individual differences in Jaak Panksepp’s cross-species primary emotional systems: SEEKING, PLAY, CARE (positive emotions) and FEAR, SADNESS, ANGER (negative emotions). Beginning with the first published work on the ANPS in 2003, individual differences on the ANPS measures of these six primary emotional systems have been consistently linked to Big Five personality traits. From a theoretical perspective, these primary emotional systems arising from subcortical regions, shed light on the nature of the Big Five personality traits from an evolutionary perspective, because each of these primary emotional systems represent a tool for survival endowing mammalian species with inherited behavioral programs to react appropriately to complex environments. The present work revisited 21 available samples where both ANPS and Big Five measures have been administered. Our meta-analytical analysis provides solid evidence that high SEEKING relates to high Openness to Experience, high PLAY to high Extraversion, high CARE/low ANGER to high Agreeableness and high FEAR/SADNESS/ANGER to high Neuroticism. This seems to be true regardless of the ANPS inventory chosen, although much more work is needed in this area. Associations between primary emotional systems and Conscientiousness were in the lower effect size area across all six primary emotions, thereby supporting the idea that Conscientiousness rather seems to be less directly related with the subcortical primary emotions and likely is the most cognitive/cortical personality construct out of the Big Five. In sum, the present work underlines the idea that individual differences in primary emotional systems represent evolutionarily ancient foundations of human personality, given their a) meaningful links to the prominent Big Five model and b) their origins lying in subcortical areas of the human brain.


2021 ◽  
pp. 036168432110134
Author(s):  
Kheana Barbeau ◽  
Camille Guertin ◽  
Kayla Boileau ◽  
Luc Pelletier

In this study, we examined the effects of body-focused daily self-compassion and self-esteem expressive writing activities on women’s valuation of weight management goals, body appreciation, bulimic symptoms, and healthy and unhealthy eating behaviors. One-hundred twenty-six women, recruited from the community and a university participant pool ( Mage = 29.3, SD = 13.6), were randomly allocated to one of the three writing conditions: body-focused self-compassion, body-focused self-esteem, or control. Women reflected on a moment within the past 24 hours that made them feel self-conscious about their bodies, eating, or exercise habits (self-compassion and self-esteem conditions) or on a particular situation or feeling that occurred in the past 24 hours (control condition) for 4–7 days. At post-treatment (24 hours after the intervention), women in the self-compassion group demonstrated decreased bulimic symptoms, while women in the self-esteem and control conditions did not. Furthermore, clinically significant changes in bulimic symptoms were associated with being in the self-compassion condition but not in the self-esteem or control conditions. Results suggest that body-focused writing interventions may be more effective in temporarily reducing eating disorder symptoms in women if they focus on harnessing self-compassion. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ ’s website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/03616843211013465


2020 ◽  
pp. 019394592094097
Author(s):  
Christine S. Gipson ◽  
Jenifer M. Chilton ◽  
Eric Stocks

The purpose of this study was to determine key concepts of self-efficacy for sleep hygiene among young adults/college students and sleep experts, and to refine the Self-Efficacy for Sleep Hygiene Inventory. The Self-Efficacy for Sleep Hygiene Inventory was revised using input from young adult focus groups and experts. Information from focus groups informed instrument revision. The revised instrument was distributed using an electronic survey to young adults age 18–26 years for a total sample of 296. A principal component analysis with Varimax Orthogonal Rotation was conducted resulting in a three-factor solution. Cronbach’s alphas were: .85 for Behaviors to Adopt (nine items), .79 for Manage Mindset and Environment (eight items), .70 for Behaviors to Avoid (eight items), and .88 for the inventory (twenty-five items). Initial psychometric testing of the Self-Efficacy for Sleep Hygiene Inventory-Revised indicates that it is a reliable measure of self-efficacy for sleep hygiene in young adults age 18–26 years.


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