A Compassionate Self Is a True Self? Self-Compassion Promotes Subjective Authenticity. (September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Jia Wei; Chen, Serena; Tomova Shakur, Teodora K.; Bilgin, Begüm; Chai, Wen Jia; Ramis, Tamilselvan; Shaban-Azad, Hadi; Razavi, Pooya; Nutankumar, Thingujam; Manukyan, Arpine
• Is Part Of: Personality & social psychology bulletin. Volume 45:Number 9(2019)
• Page Start: 1323
• Page End: 1337
• Publication Date: 2019-09
• Subjects: self-compassion -- authenticity -- self-esteem -- fear of negative evaluation -- optimism; Personality -- Periodicals; Social psychology -- Periodicals; 302
• DOI: 10.1177/0146167218820914
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0146-1672

Abstract

Theory and research converge to suggest that authenticity predicts positive psychological adjustment. Given these benefits of authenticity, there is a surprising dearth of research on the factors that foster authenticity. Five studies help fill this gap by testing whether self-compassion promotes subjective authenticity. Study 1 found a positive association between trait self-compassion and authenticity. Study 2 demonstrated that on days when people felt more self-compassionate, they also felt more authentic. Study 3 discovered that people experimentally induced to be self-compassionate reported greater state authenticity relative to control participants. Studies 4 and 5 recruited samples from multiple cultures and used a cross-sectional and a longitudinal design, respectively, and found that self-compassion predicts greater authenticity through reduced fear of negative evaluation (Study 4) and heightened optimism (Study 5). Across studies, self-compassion's effects on authenticity could not be accounted for by self-esteem. Overall, the results suggest that self-compassion can help cultivate subjective authenticity.