Whether we like it or not, life is full of ups and downs. The human experience is often peppered with uncomfortable or unpleasant experiences and emotions.
Self-compassion presents an opportunity to understand, acknowledge, and transform personal suffering through self-kindness, mindfulness, and an understanding that adversity is an inevitable part of life.
When we learn how to practice compassion from within, we begin to care more about ourselves and strive to alleviate our own suffering. We learn to be less self-critical and instead treat ourselves with kindness when faced with undesirable experiences.
The integration of compassion-based approaches within the field of psychology and psychotherapy is increasing exponentially. Alongside this expanding clinical interest, it has been necessary to develop tools by which self-compassion and other related constructs can be tested and measured.
In the following article, we will look at how we can best test self-compassion, the structure and validity of Kristin Neff’s Self-Compassion Scale, and alternative methods by which self-compassion can be assessed.
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Testing self-compassion and introducing related practices to your clients can be enormously healing: by developing compassion for themselves, they can more easily move through difficult material, forgive themselves and others, and become more productive and happy human beings (Neff, 2015). Understanding vulnerabilities and practicing more self-kindness is at the very heart of self-compassion.
So how can we best test self-compassion? Despite the growing enthusiasm of clinicians and researchers, there remains an ongoing debate in regard to the true definitions of compassion and self-compassion, and whether the two should be considered different constructs (Strauss et al., 2016).
This uncertainty has resulted in a number of measures that test compassion and self-compassion from various psychological standpoints. For instance, the Relational Compassion Scale (Hacker, 2008) measures self-compassion as a subscale of compassion for others, whereas the Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003a) is a method that measures individual differences in compassion towards oneself.
The most commonly adopted definition of self-compassion is that of Neff (2003a) who conceptualizes self-compassion from a Buddhist perspective as having three main components: kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. As such, many tests of self-compassion include these three components to some degree in order to measure the construct.
The Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003a) was the first tool of its kind and specifically developed as a method by which individual differences in self-compassion could be assessed.
In its early form, the SCS was hypothesized to be a three-factor scale that included self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness.
However, throughout its development it became apparent that the scale should have six factors – the three core components mentioned above and their “negative” opposite constructs of self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification – which represents compassionate versus uncompassionate behavior and a self-compassionate frame of mind (Neff, 2003b).
The self-report 26-item SCS explicitly represents the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors associated with the three components of self-compassion and includes items that measure how often people respond to feelings of inadequacy or suffering with each of six components:
Self-compassion entails being warm and understanding toward ourselves when we suffer, fail or feel inadequate, rather than punishing ourselves with self-criticism (Neff, 2003a). We cannot always achieve exactly what we want. When this reality is denied or fought against suffering increases in the form of stress, frustration, and self-criticism.
Self-compassionate individuals are those who recognize that imperfection and failure are inevitable, and thus tend to be more gentle with themselves when confronted with distressing or unpleasant experiences rather than getting angry when life falls short of self-imposed ideals (Neff, 2015).
A self-compassionate individual recognizes that challenges and personal failures are something we all share. They are part of the human experience. In this way, self-compassion helps us understand that suffering is something we all go through and thus helps negate feelings of isolation (Neff, 2003a).
Self-compassion is intimately tied to the practice of mindfulness; that is paying attention to the present moment with complete acceptance of thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time (Bishop, Lau, Shapiro, Carlson, Anderson, Carmody, 2004). Through self-compassion, negative emotions are accepted rather than suppressed, denied or exaggerated.
The Self-Compassion Scale has been used in a multitude of studies to examine the effects and impact that self-compassion can have on a number of areas. Results from a selection of investigations utilizing the SCS indicate that self-compassion:
The Self-Compassion Scale is a completely free resource and has been translated into 18 languages including; Dutch, French, German, Greek, Turkish, Italian, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese.
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While the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) is undoubtedly the most commonly utilized measure of self-compassion, concerns were raised that the 26-item SCS was too burdensome or semantically complex for use by some individuals (Kemppainen et al., 2013).
A shortened yet structurally equivalent 12-item Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form (SCS-SF) (Raes, Pommier, Neff, & Van Gucht, 2011) was developed as a way to reduce this burden and offer researchers an opportunity to gather perspectives from individuals who would be unable or unwilling to take the original long-form version.
The SCS-SF was developed by selecting two items from each of the original six SCS subscales that showed the highest correlations with the overall scale and assesses various aspects of self-compassion including one’s sense of a common humanity, mindfulness, and self-kindness.
While the short-form scale represents a valid alternative to the long-form SCS when looking at overall self-compassion scores, it has been found to be less reliable when the area of interest lies within the subscales and their negative counterparts (Raes, Pommier, Neff, & Van Gucht, 2011). If particular information on each dimension of compassion is required, the long form is recommended.
Statements on the Self-Compassion Scale are scored on a Likert scale of 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always).
The collected data can be utilized in two ways:
1. To calculate an overall compassion score – Items representing uncompassionate responses to inadequacy or suffering (the self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification subscales) are reverse-coded only when calculating the overall compassion score. In this way, higher scores represent a lower frequency of these responses.
For instance, the statement ’I can be a bit cold-hearted towards myself when I’m experiencing suffering’ is related to self-judgment and as such, a response of ‘almost always’ is scored as 1 rather than 5 when calculating an overall compassion score.
In order to calculate a total compassion score, take the mean score of each subscale (after reverse scoring where necessary) and compute a total mean.
2. To calculate individual subscale scores – If you plan to examine the subscales separately, do not reverse the scoring of any item. Scoring on the subscales of these items should only be reversed when calculating the overall compassion score.
Coding Key – statements for each subscale within the SCS are numbered as follows:
It is important to remember that higher averages for self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification subscales indicate less self-compassion before reverse-coding and more after reverse-coding.
Coding Key – statements for each subscale within the SCS-SF are numbered as follows:
As with the long-form version, subscale scores are determined by calculating the mean of subscale item responses. In order to compute overall self-compassion, reverse score the negative subscale items of self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification and then calculate the total mean.
As a rough guide, average scores for the Self-Compassion Scale are around 3.0 on the 1-5 Likert scale, a score of 1-2.5 indicates low self-compassion, 2.5-3.5 indicates moderate, and 3.5-5.0 is an indication of high self-compassion (Neff, 2003a).
Scores from each subscale can predict a number of potential outcomes. For instance, a high score on the self-kindness subscale is a significant predictor of happiness while a low score is predictive of anxiety. Higher scores in the mindfulness subscale indicate greater life satisfaction while over-identification is an indicator of depression and isolation is a strong predictor for stress (Neff, 2015).
In essence, higher self-compassionate behaviors are directly related to increased positive states of mind like happiness and life-satisfaction, while higher uncompassionate behaviors are directly related to negative mind-states like depression, stress, and anxiety.
While the reliability of the subscales on the short form is weaker than they are for the full version, the correlation in overall self-compassion scores between the two versions is extremely high (Neff, 2015).
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The Self-Compassion Scale has been extensively applied in clinical and health psychology research in order to investigate the protective influence of self-compassion on psychological wellbeing. Although generally accepted as a reliable and valid tool to measure self-compassion, the SCS has received criticism over whether or not the factor structure generalizes across populations (Williams, Dalgleish, Karl & Kuyken, 2014).
Multiple studies have been carried out in order to test the validity and reliability of the SCS when translated into other languages and applied to different cultures. For instance, results from a general population sample study in Germany advocated against the use of a total score across all SCS items but found that independent subscale scores captured a positive factor and a negative factor when administering the German SCS (Coroiu et al., 2018).
Research by Deniz, Kesici, & Sumer (2008) demonstrated that the Turkish version of the SCS is a valid and reliable measure. Similarly, Kotsou & Leys (2016) found that the French version of the SCS is a valid tool for French-speaking researchers and clinicians to effectively assess individual differences in self-compassion in French-speaking populations. Additionally, the psychometric properties and internal reliability scores of the French SCS were found to be significant.
As with the German SCS study mentioned above, other researchers have questioned the reliability of the SCS to calculate an overall self-compassion score – particularly when it includes items representing a lack of self-compassion.
Concerns have been raised that by measuring ‘negative’ components of compassion the SCS is actually measuring self-criticism, rumination, and social isolation, rather than self-compassion. Muris and Petrocchi (2017) suggested that the use of the SCS total score, which includes reverse scored negative subscales, may result in an inflated negative relationship between self-compassion and symptoms of psychopathology.
In response to these criticisms, Neff, Whittaker, & Karl (2017) examined the factor structure of the SCS in four distinct populations; undergraduate students, adults recruited online, meditators, and a fourth group who experienced a recurrent major depressive disorder.
Results from the study indicated that an overall self-compassion factor can effectively explain at least 90% of item variance across student, community, and clinical populations – providing support for the use of a total SCS score to represent overall trait levels of self-compassion.
The Self-Compassion Scale has also received criticism for issues related to psychometric validity: does the scale measure what it purports to measure? Costa et al. (2015) examined the psychometric properties of the SCS by testing the factorial validity and invariance of:
(a) a six-factor model (self-kindness, self-judgment, common humanity, isolation, mindfulness, and over-identification);
(b) a higher order factor model (self-compassion); and
(c) a two-factor model (self-compassionate attitude and self-critical attitude).
Findings from the confirmatory factorial analyses indicated that while coherent intercorrelation among the six subscales could not be explained by a single higher-order latent variable, the two-factor model (self-compassionate attitude and self-critical attitude) showed good internal consistencies, and each factor is better explained by its own observed items rather than by items from a different factor.
The conflicting evidence regarding the factor structure of the SCS has led to disparate views on the relative contribution of positive and negative items to the theoretical components of self-compassion (Pfattheiche, Geiger, Hartung, Weiss, & Schindle, 2017). Put simply, do the negative items within the SCS genuinely reflect the absence of self-compassion?
Other researchers have advocated the use of two independent subscale scores to capture the positive and negative group factors, advising against of the estimation of a single total score (Brenner, Heath, Vogel, & Credé, 2017).
While critics remain, the Self-Compassion Scale and other qualitative self-report measures provide useful data to researchers and to practitioners in terms of case conceptualization and treatment planning. How a client responds to the questionnaire can assist in the identification of treatment self-compassion strategies and techniques.
Furthermore, client’s responses on the SCS can be utilized during the debriefing process to introduce concepts that the client may not have considered, such as the idea of common humanity or being able to take perspective of how they behave in their own relationship with themselves (LeJeune, 2016).
Brené Brown is a researcher, scholar, and best-selling author who has spent over a decade investigating vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame.
Her TEDx talk – The Power of Vulnerability – has been viewed over 35 million times and is one of the top five most viewed TED talks in the world.
For Brown, Kristin Neff’s research was a key piece to understanding that the best way to support ourselves in difficult times is through self-compassion (Brown, 2012).
Brown & Neff are considered by many as the most influential shame, self-criticism and self-compassion researchers to date (Burton, 2016). While the two have collaborated on a number of projects, for the purpose of this article we will focus on their contributions to research on shame and its relationship to self-compassion.
Shame is defined as a negative emotion associated with depression, social anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder and problematic outcomes for wellbeing (Cibich, Woodyatt, & Wenzel, 2016). For Brown (2007), shame is a debilitating inner experience elicited by the negative self-appraisal of one’s entire self and is a direct hindrance to self-compassion – corroding the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.
Despite the inevitability of shame, hope can be found in the guise of shame resilience. According to Shame Resilience Theory (SRT: Brown, 2006), we can learn to move through feelings of shame by engaging in the examination of the self, awareness of cultural context, and intentionality in interpersonal relationships.
Brown proposed that practicing shame resilience takes the form of “reaching out” to others with empathy and non-judgment. This ability to demonstrate empathy for others is inherently linked to the practice of self-compassion, meaning that we must first act compassionately toward our own struggles in order to express compassion to others (Brown, 2006).
Self-compassion is intricately connected to the practice of shame resilience. According to Neff (2009) one of the key characteristics of self-compassion is that it is not dependent upon success or achievement. Consequently, it eliminates critical self-evaluation – a process inherent in shame – because it is not based on self-evaluations, performance, or comparisons to others.
Shame resilience is most commonly measured using the Self-Compassion Scale and the SRT draws directly from Neff’s self-compassion framework – viewing self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness as the primary components of self-compassion.
Brown hypothesized that shame requires three things to grow exponentially – secrecy, silence, and judgment – and that the three elements of self-compassion help counteract the three elements of shame in the following ways (Brown, 2014):
Allows us to be aware of our experience of shame and not over-identify with it or avoid it. In essence, mindfulness addresses the silence of shame.
Addresses the secrecy of shame; we are not alone in how we feel. Understanding that shame is an inherently human trait encourages a connection with others.
Addresses the judgment of shame. Rather than talking to ourselves harshly, we treat ourselves with the care, understanding, and support we need during the experience of shame.
According to Brené Brown (2010), the acknowledgment of personal vulnerabilities such as shame is the key to authenticity; that is the continued practice of letting go of who we’re supposed to be and embracing who we really are. Through self-compassion we can learn to embrace these vulnerabilities rather than allowing them to affect us negatively.
