This study examined the relationships between attachment style and the levels of self-criticism (comparative and introjective) and forms of dependency (neediness and connectedness) and the working alliance and outcome variables over the course of psychotherapy. Sixty-five adult clients receiving therapy at a mental health clinic completed questionnaires after the first, fifth, and second to last sessions. Strong positive correlations were found between neediness and insecure attachment and negative correlations between neediness and secure attachment. Similar, yet weaker relationships were found between connectedness and attachment. Comparative self-criticism was positively associated with preoccupied and fearful attachment and negatively associated with secure attachment. Similar, yet weaker relationships were found between introjective self-criticism and attachment. Connectedness was associated with a strong working alliance across therapy and comparative self-criticism with a poor working alliance at session five. Although neediness was associated with poor outcome, preoccupied attachment was the best predictor of poor therapeutic outcome. / Counselling Psychology

The prevalence of self-harm and the relative emotional influences are well understood, but certain cognitive factors such as working memory, rumination, and self-criticism are not fully explored. The aim of the current study is to examine specific aspects of cognition to explore their influence on self-harming behaviors. Participants included 101 undergraduates from a British University. Factors were measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, Ruminative Response Scale, and the Automated Working Memory Assessment. Findings indicated a greater incidence of self-harming behaviors among those who demonstrated higher depressive symptoms, but depression scores were not significantly related to self-harm. Additionally, a binary logistic regression indicated that self-criticism was associated with the presence of self-harming behavior, and a Classification and Regression Trees found that the single strongest predictor of self-harming behavior was a belief that love needs to be continually earned from others. Incorporating treatments that reduce self-criticism, such as improving self-compassion with Compassionate Mind Training, may address underlying mechanisms that trigger self-harm behavior.

No description available.

Introduction: Shame seems to be one of our most unpleasant emotions. There are connections between shame and depression, acute stress syndrome and it is one of the main reason for committing suicide. Questions: What are psychotherapist´ views on the role of shame in the therapeutic process? Which are psychotherapist experiences when reducing shame has had a positive impact on humans well being? On the contrary what prevents us regulating shame and what are the difficulties in working with shame? Method: The study has a qualitative and hermeneutic approach and method of analysis is thematic. Five experienced psychotherapists participate. Result: Therapists have no experience of working with shame as a primary emotion. People are seeking therapy when shame is observed as anxiety or as a defence. Shame prevents us from our deep feelings as anger, sadness, love and interest etc. The non-verbal markers of shame do something with the whole personality and are close to our opinion about our self, that who I am. Discussion: The experience of shame reminds of the experience of anxiety and fear. Thereby we need to treat shame in the same way as we treat anxiety given Malan´s triangle of conflict. Otherwise the risk is high that the patient terminates treatment prematurely. The contrary to shame is that we are lovable and we need to reach that experience if we will be able to regulate shame in treatment. To achieve these, qualities as self-compassion, acceptance, non-judgemental is needed. Furthermore the therapist´ ability to create an alliance and that we start to speak about shame are important. / Inledning: Skammen räknas som en av våra mest obehagliga känslor. Skam har stor inverkan på människor och det finns samband mellan svåra skamkänslor och depression, utmattningssyndrom och självmordshandlingar. Frågeställningar: Vad är psykoterapeuters syn på skammens roll i den terapeutiska processen? Vilka är psykoterapeuters erfarenheter där skamlindring varit viktigt för patientens tillfrisknande?  Vilka är psykoterapeuters erfarenhet av skamlindring som hinder för patientens tillfrisknande? Vilka svårigheter finns för att arbeta med skam i terapirummet? Metod: Studien är kvalitativ med en hermeneutisk ansats och analysmetod är temaanlys. Fem erfarna legitimerade psykoterapeuter deltar. Resultat: Terapeuterna har ingen erfarenhet att arbeta med skam som grundaffekt. Människor söker terapi när skammen yttrar sig som en ångestkänsla eller försvar. Skammen hindrar oss att känna våra djupa känslor som vrede, sorg, kärlek, intresse etc. Det finns kännetecken på skam som gör något med hela personligheten och som ligger närma uppfattningen om sig själv, det jag är. Diskussion: Upplevelsen av skam påminner om ångest och rädsla. Vi behöver därför behandla skammen på samma sätt som vi arbetar med ångest utifrån Malans affekttriangel, annars är risken stor att vi tappar patienten. På det djupaste planet är skammens motpol att vara värd att älskas och vi behöver nå dit för att verkligen lindra skammen. Det krävs kvaliteter som självmedkänsla, acceptans, icke-dömande, terapeutens förmåga att skapa allians och att vi börjar prata om skam.

Three empirical studies comprising this dissertation were carried out to provide a more comprehensive understanding of concurrent measures of both predictors and outcomes of young adolescents' sibling interactions. The participants included older siblings (M age = 14.3), younger siblings (M age = 11.6), and their mothers from approximately 450 families who completed web-based surveys.Study one examined correlates of overt and relational aggression between young adolescent siblings. Family environment emerged as an important factor in explaining internalizing problems as well as overt/relational aggression for both younger and older siblings. Findings also provided partial support for the positive linkages between young adolescents' aggression and their own and siblings' internalizing problems above and beyond family and maternal variables. The main purpose of the study two was to investigate self-criticism as a potential mediating factor in the link between mother-child relationships and aggression or perceptions of social competence. Maternal self-criticism strongly corresponded to the quality of relationships with children, and an intergenerational similarity of self-criticism, particularly for older children, was found. Mother-child relationships and adolescent self-criticism were significantly related to aggression and perceptions of social competence. In addition, the link between mother-child relationships and aggression or social competence is mediated, in part, by self-criticism in adolescents. Using social control theory and attachment theory as guides, study three examined how qualities of young adolescents' social relationships (i.e., mother, sibling, and friend), and dynamic interactions among characteristics of those relationships, are associated with school involvement and delinquency. Results were largely consistent with tenets of social control theory and attachment theory. Young adolescents' social relationships were associated with their adjustment in ways that are protective or beneficial. Furthermore, these social affordances worked additively and in compensatory ways to promote positive adjustment. Positive relationship qualities tended to amplify other relational influences promoting successful development, and these findings were invariant across gender.While optimal mother-child relationships are central in nurturing the child's capacity to develop warm and harmonious sibling relationships in both a direct and an indirect manner, there is a considerable contribution of siblings to adjustment and socialization above and beyond the effects of mother-child relationships.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1971. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-151).

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is the intentional destruction of bodily tissue in the absence of suicidal motives. NSSI is strongly associated with self-criticism (Gilbert et al., 2010) and individuals who self-injure often report doing so to punish themselves. Conversely, self-compassion, or the tendency to be caring with oneself, is associated with psychological well-being (Neff et al., 2007). The aim of the present study was to determine whether experimentally inducing self-criticism or self-compassion would lead to changes in implicit identification with NSSI. The Self-Injury Implicit Association Test (SI-IAT; Nock & Banaji, 2007) is an assessment of the strength of the automatic associations that a person holds between themselves and NSSI. Participants were randomly assigned to a self-criticism induction, a self-compassion induction, or a neutral condition and completed the SI-IAT before and after the induction. Results showed that participants in the self-criticism induction experienced an increase in their implicit associations with NSSI while implicit associations in the self-compassion and control conditions generally did not change. Results were not significantly different for those with or without a history of NSSI and highlight the importance of self-criticism in NSSI. Future research should examine increases in self-criticism as a potential precursor of NSSI in longitudinal samples.

The cognitions of individuals who experience symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress have been well documented, but their physiological reactions have not. The present study examines the physiological reactions of individuals with elevated levels of depression, anxiety, and stress during a self-critical and self-compassionate writing exercise to see if there is a difference in comparison to healthy participants. This study is a secondary analysis of data that was collected from a randomized controlled trial where participants followed a protocol. This protocol consisted of a 5-minute baseline, a 10-minute breathing exercise or nature video, 5-minutes of a self-critical writing exercise, 5-minutes of a self-compassionate writing exercise, and a 10-minute recovery period. The individuals in the study were separated into different groups depending on their scores on a measure of depression, anxiety, and stress. The data were analyzed twice with two different grouping methods. One method compared individuals with mild to severe symptoms of depression (35 individuals), anxiety (43 individuals), and stress (33 individuals) to healthy group (26 individuals) and another method compared individuals with moderate to severe symptoms of depression (28 individuals), anxiety (36 individuals), and stress (24 individuals) to 44 healthy individuals. In both methods, the participants with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress did not significantly differ from healthy participants on any measure of HRV (e.g., SDNN, LF HRV, HF HRV). Overall, the results of this show that college students with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress physiologically react in a similar way to a self-critical and self-compassionate writing exercise.

Background: Shame is a painful human experience that is positively associated with self-criticism and psychopathology and negatively associated with self-compassion. Compassion-based interventions may be particularly helpful for treating shame and self-criticism. This randomized controlled pilot study examined a brief online self-compassionate letter writing intervention for individuals with high shame. Method: Participants were 68 undergraduates with high shame. Participants were randomly assigned to a 16-day self-compassionate letter writing intervention (n=29) or a waitlist control group (n=39). Participants completed baseline measures, post-assessment measures, and follow-up measures one month later. Results: Participants who received the self-compassionate letter writing intervention evidenced greater reductions in global shame, external shame, self-criticism, and general anxiety compared to those in the control group. Conclusion: This study examined the efficacy of self-compassionate letter writing as a stand-alone intervention for individuals with high shame. This brief, easily accessible and self-administered practice may be highly beneficial for a host of internalizing symptoms. Clinical implications are discussed. / Psychology

Denna forskningsstudie har haft som syfte att utveckla tillämpbara verktyg för att minimera självkritiska tankar och prestationsångest i min låtskrivarprocess. Studien grundade sig i min upplevelse av att den ursprungliga glädje jag kände när jag började skriva musik, med tiden alltmer bytts ut mot prestationsångest och självkritik. Jag ville därför undersöka om jag kunde hitta förhållningssätt som kunde återetablera ett liknande tillstånd; det vill säga ett friare, effektivare och mer lustfyllt skapande. De frågeställningar studien således utformades efter var:  - Hur kan jag utveckla verktyg för att ta mig ur självkritiska tankar som hämmar min kreativitet, mitt självförtroende och min motivation i skapandeprocessen?  - Hur påverkar en förutbestämd ingång till låtskrivandet förutsättningarna för en lustfylld nyfikenhet till att utforska en idé?  - Vilka effekter har en förutbestämd ingång till låtskrivandet på min prestationsångest i skapandets tidiga skede?  Undersökningen resulterade i en fördjupad förståelse för min egen skaparprocess, insikter om hur och varför prestationsångest uppstår samt konkreta strategier och arbetssätt som jag fortsatt kommer att ha användning för. Vidare, resulterade undersökningen även i djupare insikter om hur det tillstånd som i studien refereras till som flow har en avsevärd inverkan på människors livskvalitet, varför det är av stor vikt att aktiviteter som kan uppbringa detta tillstånd görs tillgängliga för alla.  Den här studien avhandlar relationen mellan psykologi, kreativitet och prestationsångest. Jag menar att det finns mycket kvar att utforska på området prestationsångest i relation till låtskrivande och jag vill därför uppmuntra framtida forskare att vidga perspektiven ytterligare genom att söka kopplingar mellan fler forskningsfält.