Results A correlational analysis revealed (see Table 1) that self-

compassion is strongly correlated with trust, gratitude,

altruism, love, social support, maternal and paternal bonding,

self-enhancing humor, general health, sleep quality, and stress

regulation. These measures tended to positively correlate with

self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness, and

negatively correlate with self-judgment, isolation and over-

identification aspects of self-compassion.

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Introduction Self-compassion involves being kind to oneself in the face of

adversity or personal inadequacies, framing life experiences in the

context of a common humanity, and remaining mindful of negative

emotions so that they are not suppressed or ruminated on (Neff, 2007).

Previous research has found that self-compassion is significantly

connected with several positive emotions and behaviors such as

happiness, optimism, agreeableness, extroversion, wisdom and more

(Neff, 2003; Neff, 2006; Neff, Rude, & Kirkpatrick, 2006). In addition,

self-compassion is negatively correlated with isolation, depression and

anxiety (Neff, 2003). Self-compassion has also shown to correlate with

coping techniques during negative social situations, based on personality

and individual differences (Leary, Tate, Adams, Batts, & Hancock,

2007). The current study analyzed the relationships between self-

compassion with prosocial constructs and with health.

Methods & Materials Participants included 109 undergraduate

students at Oregon State University (41 males, 68

females). Prior to coming to the lab, participants

filled out the following scales:

Acknowledgements NSF CAREER Grant BCS-1151905

Fetzer Institute

Oregon State University start-up and Provost funds

Trust

(Yamagishi T. & Yamagishi M.,

1994)

Altruism

(Costa, & McCrae, 1992)

Sleep Quality

(Buysee, Reynolds, Monk, Berman,

& Kupfer, 1989)

General Health

(Ware & Sherbourne, 1992)

Love, Compassion, & Amusement

(Shiota, Keltner, & John, 2006)

Maternal & Paternal Bonding

(Parker, Tupling, & Brown, 1979)

Gratitude

(McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang,

2002).

Self-Enhancing Humor

(Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray,

& Weir, 2003)

Interpersonal Support Evaluation

List

(Cohen, Mermelstein, Kamarack, &

Hoberman, 1985)

Stress Regulation

(Saturn, Saslow, & John,

unpublished) modeled after Gross &

John (2003)

Conclusions Altogether, this data shows how self-compassion

is related to prosocial profiles and to well-being.

Self-

Compassion

Self-

Kindness

Self-

Judgment

Common

Humanity

Isolation Mindfulness Over-

ID

Trust 0.30*** 0.26*** -0.17 0.20* -0.24* 0.29*** -0.15

Gratitude 0.29*** 0.11 -0.31*** 0.16 -0.19* 0.24* -0.22**

Altruism 0.28** 0.11 -0.21* 0.20* -0.18 0.22* -0.21*

Love 0.38*** 0.35*** -0.17 0.33*** -0.29*** 0.22* -0.25**

Social Support 0.38*** 0.21* -0.41*** 0.26** -0.26** 0.33*** -0.24*

Maternal

Bonding

Paternal Bonding

0.24**

0.25**

0.13

0.03

-0.30***

-0.31***

0.11

0.06

-0.25**

-0.37***

0.14

0.11

-0.11

-0.22*

Self-enhancing

humor

Health

Sleep Quality

Stress

Regulation

0.31***

0.25**

0.33***

0.39***

0.36***

0.17

0.11

0.25*

-0.06

-0.22*

-0.14

-0.24**

0.35***

0.02

0.20*

0.27**

-0.20***

-0.34***

-0.35***

-0.24**

0.38***

0.19*

0.29***

0.23*

-0.15

-0.26**

-0.27**

-0.36***

Table 1. Spearman correlations of self-compassion and its six components with prosocial dispositions. *p<.05 **p<.01 ***p<.005