Self-compassion is a characteristic composed of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness that promotes adaptive cognitive, behavioral, and emotional processing. A self-compassionate mindset in the face of difficulties can lead to less anxiety and more self-forgiveness, and because of these benefits, some evidence suggests self-compassionate individuals tend to persist longer on a task after an initial failure. This study focuses on the extent to which self-compassion can improve task performance and persistence under pressure. Participants first completed the Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003a) to measure trait levels of self-compassion. Self-compassion was then induced by leading participants to think about a mistake in terms of the components of self-compassion. Pressure was manipulated by stating that task performance on a series of logic problems was indicative of intelligence. Multiple regressions were conducted to explore the potential effects of both trait and induced self-compassion, as well as task pressure, as predictors of objective and subjective measures of performance and persistence. Analyses revealed that for controls, performance and persistence were highly contingent on pressure, while self-compassionately primed individuals tended to perform and persist more consistently across pressure scenarios. Additionally, self-compassionate individuals were more accurate with regard to subjective ratings of their objective performances. The realistic self-appraisals that self-compassionate individuals harbor offer a potential explanation for these unusual findings. Furthermore, it is recommended that future research focus on the connections between self-compassion and self-esteem during task performance, as well as strengthening the pressure and self-compassion manipulations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unf.edu/oai:digitalcommons.unf.edu:etd-1432 |
| Date | 01 January 2013 |
| Creators | Landgraf, Allison |
| Publisher | UNF Digital Commons |
| Source Sets | University of North Florida |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | UNF Theses and Dissertations |
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