Activating the inner caregiver: The role of support-giving schemas in increasing state self-compassion

► Contextual activation of support-giving schemas increased state self-compassion. ► Support-giving schemas were activated via recalled or actual support-giving behavior. ► Self-compassion was assessed for a recalled negative event and a test failure. ► Effects were not explained by mood, self-esteem, or awareness of others' problems. a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Self-compassion, which involves treating one's own suffering with compassion, mirrors the interpersonal experience of giving support to others. In four experiments we examined the hypothesis that activating support-giving schemas can increase state self-compassion. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants first recalled a negative event (Experiment 1) or experienced a lab-based test failure (Experiment 2), then were randomly assigned to recall an experience of giving support to versus having fun with another person, and finally completed a measure of state self-compassion. Experiments 3 and 4 examined the effects of actually giving support to another person (via written advice), compared to not giving support or simply reading about another's problem, and assessed effort invested in writing a self-comforting statement, operationalized as statement length (Experiment 3), and self-reported self-compassion (Experiment 4). As predicted, both forms of support-giving schema activation increased self-compassion. Alternative explanations involving affect, self-esteem, and awareness of others' problems were addressed. These results suggest that one way to increase compassion for the self is to give it to others. Introduction Recent research suggests that self-compassion has numerous psychological benefits, but little work has experimentally examined the contextual factors that give rise to it. Because self-compassion mirrors the interpersonal process of giving support to others, we propose that activating support-giving schemas may increase compassion directed at the self. Self-compassion involves approaching one's own suffering with an attitude of kindness and nonjudgmental understanding (Neff, 2003a). Self-compassion is especially relevant in the context of negative events such as failure or rejection, when people are more likely to be self-critical. Neff (2003a) identified three components of self-compassion: self-kindness, or being understanding and patient with negative aspects of the self; common humanity, or recognizing that making mistakes is part of being human; and mindfulness, or taking a balanced, non-judgmental approach to negative emotions. Although similar to self-esteem, self-compassion is conceptually and empirically distinct: unlike self-esteem, self-compassion is non-evaluative and helps people confront their weaknesses without being either self-deprecating or self-enhancing (Neff, Kirkpatrick, & Rude, 2007). Furthermore, self-compassion uniquely predicts a number …