Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Background: Chronic pain can have significant negative consequences for many \nareas of life, including social functioning and participation. Self‐compassion is \nbecoming established as a factor which can promote psychological wellbeing, \nresilience and coping in the face of difficulties such as those presented by chronic \npain. The available evidence suggests that higher levels of self‐compassion are \nassociated with increased acceptance of pain, lower levels of negative affect, pain \ncatastrophising and pain disability. Self‐compassion may, therefore, play a role in \nattenuating the impact of pain‐relevant events. However, there have been no \nstudies to date which examine the role of self‐compassion on social functioning \nand participation in a chronic pain population. Method: An experimental vignette \ndesign was used to assess the influence of self‐compassion on affective, cognitive \nand behavioural responses to unpleasant self‐relevant events, which were \nmanipulated across social context and pain relevance, in a chronic pain population \n(n=62). Results: Higher levels of self‐compassion were associated with lower \nintensities of negative affect (sadness, anxiety, anger and embarrassment), and a \nlower reported likelihood of avoidance, catastrophising and rumination in \nresponse to unpleasant pain‐ and self‐ relevant events. Individuals with higher \nlevels of self‐compassion also reported higher levels of satisfaction with their \nsocial participation in general. Conclusions: Self‐compassion may be an important \nfactor in developing resilience and promoting social engagement in a chronic pain \npopulation. Further research is indicated to better establish the process by which \nself‐compassion may maintain positive social functioning, whether selfcompassion \ncan be increased in chronic pain patients, and if so whether these \nresults can be replicated in real life circumstances.
Author: Fiona Purdie
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1582835280