Six compassion profiles emerge from 1,200 survey responses#
Khoury worked with Rodrigo Vergara of the Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación and the Centro Nacional De Inteligencia Artificial in Santiago, Chile, surveying more than 1,200 Canadians on compassion toward other people, animals and themselves, along with compassionate thoughts and actions, Phys.org reports.phys.org 1 source for this line, starting with Phys.org
The team sorted respondents into six compassion profiles and correlated each with measures including stress, anxiety, depression, emotional regulation and well-being, according to Phys.org and CityNews Montreal.phys.org+1 2 sources for this line, starting with Phys.org
Those who showed compassion across all three targets, other people, animals and themselves, had the best psychological functioning and highest well-being, Khoury said, per Phys.org.phys.org 1 source for this line, starting with Phys.org
Self-compassion, defined by kindness and mindfulness#
Khoury said self-compassion may help people regulate difficult emotions, cut self-criticism and build a sense of inner safety, adding that it is not selfish but a foundation for sustaining care toward others and extending compassion to all sentient beings, according to Phys.org and CityNews Montreal.phys.org+1 2 sources for this line, starting with Phys.org
Psychologist Kristin Neff defined self-compassion as made up of self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness, according to a Wikipedia entry on the concept; self-kindness means responding to pain with warmth rather than self-criticism, common humanity means recognizing suffering as shared, and mindfulness means observing negative emotions without suppressing or exaggerating them.en.wikipedia.org 1 source for this line, starting with Wikipedia
CityNews Montreal reports that the researchers plan to look into more diverse samples in future work.montreal.citynews.ca 1 source for this line, starting with CityNews Montreal
Earlier research on self-kindness and psychological richness#
Separate research led by Yuening Liu and colleagues at Shaanxi Normal University, published in Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, found that teenagers who practiced self-kindness were more likely to develop a psychologically rich life over time, according to PsyPost.psypost.org 1 source for this line, starting with psypost.org
That study's network analysis found that feeling isolated at an earlier point predicted higher self-judgment later, a pattern PsyPost describes as a negative cycle in which loneliness leads to being harder on oneself.psypost.org 1 source for this line, starting with psypost.org
