Compassion, Shame, Self-Criticism and Emotion Regulation
A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Mental Health".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (6 April 2023) | Viewed by 2847
Special Issue Editors
Interests: compassion focused therapy; compassion; self-compassion; contemplative approaches; evolutionary psychology; shame; self-criticism; emotion regulation; emotional memory; traumatic memory; well-being
Interests: compassion and compassion-based interventions; the role of motivation in cultivating compassion and self-compassion in the context of trauma; shame; self-criticism and clinical disorders; as well as promoting psychological wellbeing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Compassion is an ancient concept but a novel hot topic across the social sciences, from psychology to sociology, health, communication and media, politics, and beyond. Burgeoning research has demonstrated the benefits of compassion for mental health and emotion regulation (e.g., MacBeth and Gumley, 2012), physiological health (e.g., Fredrickson et al., 2013; Kim et al., 2020; Klimecki et al., 2014) and interpersonal and social relationships (e.g., Crocker and Canevello, 2012; Yarnell and Neff, 2013). In particular, self-compassion has been shown to be a protective factor, increasing resilience to common mental health issues (e.g., shame, self-criticism; MacBeth and Gumley, 2012; Muris and Petrocchi, 2017) and promoting wellbeing (Zessin et al., 2015). Compassion and self-compassion can also be cultivated and enhanced through interventions, in diverse populations and contexts, where they have been shown to promote well-being and to diminish mental health difficulties (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress, shame, self-criticism) (e.g., Craig et al., 2020, Ferrari et al., 2019, Kirby et al., 2017).
In fact, (self-)compassion can be a powerful antidote to a variety of mental health difficulties, namely shame and self-criticism. Shame is an emotion of outstanding social importance (Gilbert, 1998) and shame experiences play a significant role in the formation of one’s sense of self and self-identity as a social agent (Matos et al., 2020). Growing evidence suggests that early emotional memories of shame can become traumatic and are associated with the development of shame, emotion regulation difficulties and psychopathology later in life (Matos et al., 2020). Furthermore, self-criticism is related to a process of internal shaming and may also be rooted in shaming experiences in childhood (Gilbert et al., 2004). Research has shown that shame and self-criticism are associated with a wide variety of mental health difficulties in clinical and nonclinical samples: such as depression, anxiety, social anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and borderline personality disorder (e.g., Kim et al., 2011; Löw et al., 2020). Moreover, shame and self-criticism are important obstacles to the therapeutic process, which should be addressed in order to obtain therapeutic gains (Gilbert, 2010).
A better understanding of the interplay between compassion, shame, self-criticism and emotion regulation is as relevant as ever in order to expand the science of compassion and inform the transfer of scientific knowledge into community, educational, clinical, and public health settings. Therefore, we cordially invite papers for this Special Issue addressing these issues and topics, especially those combining a high academic standard with a practical focus on compassion, shame, self-criticism and emotion regulation. New research papers, reviews, and case reports are welcome. Papers focused on the assessment of these topics or on intervention studies are also encouraged. Methodological papers, position papers, brief reports, and commentaries will also be accepted. As an interdisciplinary effort, we will accept manuscripts from different disciplines across the sciences.
Dr. Marcela Matos
Dr. Stan Steindl
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- compassion
- self-compassion
- compassion-based interventions
- shame
- shame experiences
- self-criticism
- emotion regulation
- assessment
- intervention
