Department of Economics and Social Sciences, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy.
Department of Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
Psychol Psychother. 2019 Sep;92(3):394-406. doi: 10.1111/papt.12186. Epub 2018 Jun 15.
Several studies suggest that self-criticism and self-reassurance operate through different mechanisms and might interact with each other. This study examined the hypothesis that self-reassurance serves as a buffer between self-criticism and depressive symptoms in a way that self-esteem, which is rooted in a different motivational system, may not.
We hypothesized that self-criticism would be correlated with high levels of depressive symptoms, but that this association would be weaker at higher levels of self-reassurance abilities. We also hypothesized that self-esteem, a self-relating process based on feeling able and competent to achieve life goals, would not buffer the relationship between self-criticism and depression.
Self-criticism, self-reassurance, depressive symptoms, and self-esteem were assessed in a sample of 419 participants (66% females; M = 33.40, SD = 11.13).
At higher levels of self-reassurance, the relationship between self-criticism and depressive symptoms became non-significant, supporting the buffering hypothesis of self-reassurance. Despite the high correlation between self-esteem and self-reassurance, self-esteem did not moderate the relationship between self-criticism and depressive symptoms.
Results support the growing evidence that not all positive self-relating processes exert the same protective function against psychopathological consequences of self-criticism. Implications for psychotherapy and the validity of using compassion-focused interventions with clients with self-critical issues are discussed.
Self-reassurance and self-criticism are distinct processes and they should not be considered positive and negative variations of a single dimension Different types of positive self-relating do not show the same correlation with depressive symptoms. The ability to be self-reassuring protects against the psychopathological correlates of self-criticism while having high self-esteem does not. Compassion-focused interventions are promising avenues to help clients counteract the negative impact of self-criticism on mood.
有几项研究表明，自我批评和自我安慰通过不同的机制起作用，并且可能相互作用。本研究检验了这样一种假设，即自我安慰在自我批评和抑郁症状之间起到缓冲作用，而自尊心则可能无法起到这种作用，因为自尊心根植于不同的动机系统。
我们假设自我批评与高水平的抑郁症状相关，但在自我安慰能力较高的情况下，这种关联会减弱。我们还假设，自尊心是一种基于自我感觉有能力和有能力实现生活目标的自我相关过程，不会缓冲自我批评和抑郁之间的关系。
在 419 名参与者（66%为女性；M=33.40，SD=11.13）的样本中评估了自我批评、自我安慰、抑郁症状和自尊心。
在自我安慰水平较高的情况下，自我批评和抑郁症状之间的关系变得不显著，支持了自我安慰的缓冲假设。尽管自尊心和自我安慰之间存在高度相关性，但自尊心并没有调节自我批评和抑郁症状之间的关系。
结果支持越来越多的证据表明，并非所有积极的自我相关过程都对自我批评的心理病理后果产生相同的保护作用。讨论了对心理治疗的影响以及使用关注同情心的干预措施治疗有自我批评问题的客户的有效性。
自我安慰和自我批评是不同的过程，不应被视为单一维度的积极和消极变化。不同类型的积极自我相关并不表现出与抑郁症状相同的相关性。自我安慰的能力可以保护免受自我批评的心理病理相关性的影响，而自尊心则不能。关注同情心的干预措施是帮助客户抵消自我批评对情绪的负面影响的有前途的途径。
