Self-compassion, empathy, and helping intentions

• Autores: Laura R. Welp, Christina M. Brownb
• Localización: Journal of Positive Psychology, ISSN-e 1743-9779, Vol. 9, Nº. 1, 2014, págs. 54-65
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The trait of self-compassion has three components: (1) kindness toward oneself when facing pain or failure; (2) perceiving one�s experiences as part of a larger human experience rather than feeling isolated; and (3) holding painful thoughts and feelings in balanced awareness. The present research explores if self-compassion predicts willingness to help others and empathy for others in need of help. Study 1 found that self-compassion predicted greater willingness to help a hypothetical person while simultaneously reducing empathy for that person. Study 2 used a more nuanced measure of empathy and found that self-compassion was only related to feeling less personal distress in response to someone else�s emergency. In addition, in Study 2, self-compassion only predicted greater helping intentions when the target was at fault for the emergency. Lastly, both self-compassion and empathy were uniquely related to participants� willingness to help an individual in need.