Self-compassion and social anxiety disorder |
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| Authors: | Kelly H. Werner Hooria Jazaieri Philippe R. Goldin Michal Ziv Richard G. Heimberg James J. Gross |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychology , Stanford University , 420 Jordan Hall, Stanford , CA , 94305 , USA kwerner@stanford.edu;3. Department of Psychology , Stanford University , 420 Jordan Hall, Stanford , CA , 94305 , USA;4. Department of Psychology , Temple University , Weiss Hall, 1701 North 13th Street, Philadelphia , PA , 19122-6085 , USA |
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| Abstract: | Abstract Self-compassion refers to having an accepting and caring orientation towards oneself. Although self-compassion has been studied primarily in healthy populations, one particularly compelling clinical context in which to examine self-compassion is social anxiety disorder (SAD). SAD is characterized by high levels of negative self-criticism as well as an abiding concern about others’ evaluation of one's performance. In the present study, we tested the hypotheses that: (1) people with SAD would demonstrate less self-compassion than healthy controls (HCs), (2) self-compassion would relate to severity of social anxiety and fear of evaluation among people with SAD, and (3) age would be negatively correlated with self-compassion for people with SAD, but not for HC. As expected, people with SAD reported less self-compassion than HCs on the Self-Compassion Scale and its subscales. Within the SAD group, lesser self-compassion was not generally associated with severity of social anxiety, but it was associated with greater fear of both negative and positive evaluation. Age was negatively correlated with self-compassion for people with SAD, whereas age was positively correlated with self-compassion for HC. These findings suggest that self-compassion may be a particularly important target for assessment and treatment in persons with SAD. |
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| Keywords: | self-compassion social anxiety social phobia self compassion treatment |
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