Loving Self: The Power of Self-warmth Sensorial Priming on Facilitation of
Self-compassion Meditation
F
ACULTY OF SOCIAL- AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
Graduate School of Childhood Development and Education
MASTER
PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
THESIS
Master thesis Child Development and Education University of Amsterdam
Name student: N. Marković Student-number: 10047816
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. S. Bögels & Dr. M. Wrzesien Amsterdam, August 2018
Table of Contents
Abstract ………...3
Samenvatting………... 4
Loving self: The power of self-warmth sensorial priming on facilitation of self-compassion meditation………. 5
Self-compassion………... 5
Psychopathology: self-criticism………... 6
Psychopathology: positive and negative affect………... 7
Self-compassion against psychopathology……….. 7
Self-compassion meditation……….9
Self-compassion, self-criticism, and the self-soothing system……… 10
Facilitating self-compassion meditation practice………...11
The current study……… 13
Methods……….. 14
Participants and sampling……….... 14
Research design and procedures……….. 15
Apparatus of materials..………...16 Results………. 17 Self-compassion………... 20 Self-criticism……….... 21 Positive affect……….. 23 Negative affect……….... 24 Discussion………... 25 Limitations………... 27 Conclusion……….. 28 References………....29
Appendix A - Sensorial warmth cushion and priming instructions………...36
Abstract
Research suggests that self-compassion has the potential to function as a protective factor against psychopathology by decreasing self-criticism and negative affect. One way to increase self-compassion is by self-compassion meditation. Individuals with insecure attachment style, high self-criticism, shame, or traumas often have difficulty with experiencing self-compassion and profiting from self-compassion interventions due to barriers. Finding ways in which to make self-compassion meditation more accessible is therefore of importance. This pilot study, with non-clinical participants, was focused on exploring whether sensorial priming, with a warm cushion, prior to self-compassion meditation, would facilitate self-compassion
meditation and increase self-compassion. We hypothesized that feelings of state self-criticism and negative affect would decrease, and that state self-compassion and positive affect would increase after meditation. Self-report questionnaires were used at baseline, after priming, and after the meditation. Participants were randomly assigned to a sensorial priming group (n=23) or a control group (n=25), after which all underwent a self-compassion meditation. All
hypotheses were rejected. Yet, for the first time in scientific research a warm cushion was used effectively as a sensorial priming object; the results indicate that a warm cushion has the potential to reduce self-criticism and increase self-compassion. But, not in combination with self-compassion meditation.
Samenvatting
Volgens onderzoek heeft zelfcompassie het potentiëel om psychopathologie tegen te gaan door zelfkritiek en negatief affect te reduceren. Een manier om zelfcompassie te verhogen is via zelfcompassie meditatie. Individuen met een onveilige hechtingsstijl, hoge zelfkritiek, schaamte, of met trauma’s hebben vaak, vanwege barrières, moeite met het ervaren van zelfcompassie en met het profiteren van zelfcompassie interventies. Het is daarom van belang om manieren te vinden om zelfcompassie meditatie toegankelijker te maken. In dit pilot-onderzoek, met niet-klinische participanten, is nagegaan of zintuiglijke priming met een warm kussen, voorafgaand aan zelfcompassie meditatie, de werking van de meditatie kan versterken en zelfcompassie kan verhogen. We hypothiseerden dat state zelfkritiek en negatief affect zouden afnemen, en dat state zelfcompassie en positief affect zouden toenemen na de meditatie. Zelf-rapportage vragenlijsten zijn afgenomen op baseline, na de priming, en na meditatie. De participanten werden willekeurig verdeeld over de zintuglijke priming groep (n=23) of de controle groep (n=25), waarna beide groepen een zelfcompassie meditatie
ondergingen. Alle hypothesen zijn verworpen. Echter, voor de eerste keer in wetenschappelijk onderzoek is een kussen effectief geütiliseerd als zintuiglijk priming object; de resultaten tonen hiervan het potentiëel om zelfkritiek te verlagen en zelfcompassie te verhogen. Echter, niet in combinatie met zelfcompassie meditatie.
Loving Self: The Power of warmth Sensorial Priming on Facilitation of Self-compassion Meditation
Self-compassion
Psychopathology, in many ways, negatively affects the lives of persons dealing with it (Oltmanns & Castonguay, 2013). Self-compassion has come forward as a protective factor against psychopathological symptoms (MacBeth & Gumley, 2012; Muris & Petrocchi, 2016). In contrast, self-criticism has come forward as being connected to the development and maintenance of a wide array of psychopathologies (Gilbert & Irons, 2005; Shahar et al., 2014). There has been more and more proof that self-compassion has the potential to function as a protective factor against psychopathology and as a tool to target associated self-criticism (Leary, Tate, Adams, Allen, & Hancock, 2007; Kelly, Zuroff, & Shapira, 2009; Barnard & Curry, 2011).
Compassion according to Gilbert et al. (2017) is focused on the general definition of compassion for self and other living beings: ‘sensitivity to suffering in self and others with a commitment to try to alleviate and prevent it’. According to Kristin Neff (2003) there are three main components of self-compassion:
[...] ( a ) self-kindness – being kind and understanding toward oneself in instances of
pain or failure rather than being harshly self-critical, ( b ) common humanity – perceiving one’s experiences as part of the larger human experience rather than seeing them as separating and isolating, and ( c ) mindfulness – holding painful thoughts and feelings in balanced awareness rather than over – identifying with them. (p. 85)
There are many other definitions of ‘’self-compassion’’ and ‘’compassion’’ to be found in scientific literature. Strauss et al. (2016) mention both self-compassion and
compassion toward others. They state that compassion toward others and self-compassion can be defined differently, but have similar characteristics. Compassion to self and others is proposed as consisting of five elements; recognizing suffering, understanding that suffering is universal, feeling empathy, tolerating uncomfortable feelings regarding the situation and being accepting, and wanting to alleviate the suffering.
Psychopathology: self-criticism
Self-compassion stands in contrast to self-criticism or self-judgement; no acceptance of the situation or suffering; isolation from others; and being critical towards negative thoughts (Neff, 2003/2016; Mantelou & Karakasidou, 2017). Self-criticism is connected to a wide array of psychopathologies and therefore plays a big part in scientific psychological research (Gilbert & Irons, 2005; Shahar et al., 2014).
Self-criticism is a process in which the individual negatively judges his or herself or certain aspects of oneself, e.g., appearance, performance, and personality traits (Shahar et al., 2014). Negative judgment toward self, especially at higher levels, can lead to vulnerability and maintenance of a wide array of psychopathologies (Gilbert & Irons, 2005; Shahar et al., 2014). For example, Blatt (1974) proposed the connection between self-criticism and depression. He stated that there are two different types of depression: one, called the
‘’anaclitic’’ type, which has to do with dependency (e.g., fear of abandonment). The second type of depression has to do with self-criticism, the so-called ‘’introjective’’ type of
depression. The latter type of depression, that’s has to do with self-criticism, is defined by powerful feelings of inferiority, worthlessness, and failure (Blatt 1974; Blatt, Quinlan, Chevron, McDonald, & Zuroff, 1982).
Other studies have linked self-criticism to psychopathologies like eating disorder (Boone & Soenens, 2015; Fennig et al., 2008), borderline personality disorder (Kopala-Sibley, Zuroff, Russell, Moskowitz, & Paris, 2012), self-injury (Glassman, Weierich, Hooley, Deliberto, & Nock, 2007), and suicidality (Fazaa & Page, 2009). Moreover, self-criticism in individuals already dealing with psychopathology can interfere with the outcome of therapy (Kannan & Levitt, 2013). Self-criticism can, for instance, negatively impact the relationship between therapist and client as a consequence of higher levels of hostile mood during therapy
sessions (Kannan & Levitt, 2013; Whelton, Paulson, & Marusiak, 2007). Self-criticism plays a role in the development and maintenance of numerous
psychological disorders; it is a trans-diagnostic factor (Gilbert & Irons, 2005). Yet, there is also a whole part of the theoretical conceptualization of self-criticism as having adaptive characteristics. These adaptive characteristics come forward in that self-criticism can be understood as a defense mechanism, an adaptation, against associated negative affects (e.g. shame, anxiety) that are consequence of early learning experiences (Schanche, 2013; Shahar, Doron, & Szepselwol, 2014). Self-criticism can then function as a defense mechanism against these negative affects. For example, rejection often leads to criticism, because
feeling rejected. In this case, being self-critical can give the individual a feeling of improving oneself into helping oneself being more like-able and ideal (Cantazaro & Wei, 2010). Even-tough some authors state that self-criticism has adaptive functions, the majority of researchers in this field agree that self-criticism is mostly a trans-diagnostic factor for psychopathology (Zelkowitz & Cole, 2018).
Psychopathology: positive and negative affect
Other than self-criticism, there are two other concepts that are in some way connected to psychopathology (Marroquín, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Miranda, 2013; Naragon-Gainey & DeMarree, 2017). These concepts are positive affect and, as mentioned above, negative affect (Tellegen, 1985). Negative affect (NA) is a concept to measure a cluster of negative emotions (e.g., shame, sadness, disgust) (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) and it is connected to a higher risk of the developer of psychopathology (Naragon-Gainey & DeMarree, 2017). On the other hand, positive affect (PA) is a concept to measure a cluster of positive emotions (e.g., joy, peace) (Watson et al., 1988). These positive affects can work as a buffer against psychopathology (Marroquín et al., 2013). For example, high NA and low PA are closely related to depression and social anxiety (Ebesutani et al., 2012; Naragon-Gainey, Prenoveau, Brown, & Zinbarg, 2016). If a person often reacts to (negative) events with negative emotions (state NA), then the risk of developing psychopathology is higher (Naragon-Gainey &
DeMarree, 2017). High PA can work as a buffer against depressive symptoms during stressful events and can buffer against eventual development of psychopathology (Marroquín et al., 2013). It is apparent that it is important for prevention as well as for treatment of
psychopathologies to find ways in which to decrease self-criticism and NA, and to increase PA.
Self-compassion against psychopathology
One factor that can target self-criticism and NA, and increase PA, and therefore can buffer against psychopathology is, as previously mentioned, self-compassion (Neff, 2003; Trompetter, De Kleine, & Bohlmeijer, 2016). As elaborated on before, in recent years there has been more and more proof for self-compassion as a protective factor against
psychopathology and as a tool to target associated self-criticism and NA (Leary, Tate, Adams, Allen, & Hancock, 2007; Kelly, Zuroff & Shapira, 2009; Barnard & Curry, 2011).
2003), less rumination, lower self-criticism, and less thought suppression (Neff, Kirkpatrick, & Rude, 2007).
The negative correlation between self-compassion and psychopathology has also been proven by different meta-analyses. Macbeth and Gumley (2012) conducted, as one of the first, a meta-analysis on 20 samples from 14 different studies on the connection between compassion and psychopathology. A large negative association was found between self-compassion and psychopathology (especially depression, stress, and anxiety); higher levels of self-compassion were associated with lower levels or psychopathology. Another
meta-analysis, conducted by Muris and Petrocchi (2016), showed similar results. The results indicated that self-compassion was negatively associated with psychopathology and that ‘negative indicators of self-compassion’ (p. 380) or self-criticism had a positive correlation to psychopathology.
The negative correlation between self-compassion and psychopathology can be explained due to the fact that self-compassion is connected to lower self-criticism, lower NA, and higher PA (Neff et al., 2007; Mantelou & Karakasidou, 2017). Individuals with strong self-compassion skills, are more resilient against psychopathology, because self-compassion skills buffer against the activation of negative cognitive schemas (Trompetter, De Kleine, & Bohlmeijer, 2016), and can reduce self-attacking thoughts that can lead to a type of negative tunnel vision about ones worth (Gilbert & Procter, 2006; Neff & Vonk, 2009).
Self-compassion also has an influence on the amount of NA and PA. According to research conducted by Galla (2016), adolescents whose self-compassion increased, showed a decrease in NA and an increase in PA. Further, experimental research by Choi, Lee, and Lee (2014), showed that self-compassion can buffer against arising NA during negative
experiences. Their study showed that individuals who are high in self-compassion,
experienced less NA during feelings of inferiority when being in a comparison situation than individuals who had less self-compassion. Self-compassion is also related to higher levels of positive affect (PA) (Mantelou & Karakasidou, 2017) (e.g., happiness, optimism) (Neff, Kirkpatrick, & Rude, 2007), which in turn can protect against the development of psychopathology (Marroquín, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Miranda, 2013).
In sum, self-compassion protects against self-criticism and NA, and increases PA. In this way it buffers against the development of psychopathology. That is why it is it of great importance to explore methods on how to increase self-compassion.
Self-compassion meditation
Not only is there more and more evidence that self-compassion can lower psychopathology, but there is also more and more evidence for the effectiveness of
interventions aimed to increase self-compassion (Friis, Johnson, Cutfield, & Consedine, 2016; Mantelou & Karakasidou, 2017). There are several different interventions that focus on increasing compassion for self and others (Kirby, 2016), to name a few: Compassion Focused Therapy (Gilbert, 2014), Loving- Kindness and Compassion Meditations (Wallmark,
Safarzadeh, Daukantaitė, & Maddux, 2013), and Mindful Self-Compassion (Neff & Germer, 2013). In the current study the focus lies on self-compassion meditation, specifically, the meditation in this study was based on the Compassionate Friend Meditation from the Mindful Self-Compassion Program (Neff & Germer, 2013).
Self-compassion meditation, or guided compassionate image meditation, can consist of different components. Yet, the overall characteristic is that it is directed to creating non-judgmental awareness for the suffering of self and others and to committing oneself to prevent and relieve the distress or suffering (Hofmann, Grossman & Hinton, 2011; Gilbert, 2014; Kamboj et al., 2015). For example, Albertson, Neff, and Dill-Shackleford (2015)
demonstrated that self-compassion meditation training can lower psychopathological symptoms of body dissatisfaction in women of different generational groups. Furthermore, the level of self-worth and self-compassion had risen.
Interventions that aim to improve self-compassion have been successful in increasing self-compassion and decreasing psychopathology and related symptoms (Friis, Johnson, Cutfield, & Consedine, 2016; Mantelou & Karakasidou, 2017). According to a meta-analyses, conducted by Kirby, Tellegen, and Steindl (2017), analyzing 21 randomized-controlled trials on self-compassion interventions over the past 12 years, self-compassion interventions had significant (moderate) effects on increasing self-compassion and also significant (moderate) effects on reducing psychopathologies like depression and anxiety. This meta-analysis showed that compassion interventions are very promising. Moreover, Smeets, Neff, Alberts, and Peters (2014) demonstrated that even short compassion interventions can have significant positive effects on increasing self-compassion. The researchers demonstrated that feelings of (state) self-compassion increased significantly after a 3-week long training of a group of female college students to be more compassionate towards themselves. These studies showed that self-compassion interventions are beneficial for increasing self-compassion, and therefore
can be beneficial against psychopathological symptoms.
Self-compassion, self-criticism, and the self-soothing system
Although self-compassion meditation and other self-compassion interventions have been proven to be effective at reducing psychopathology and negative emotions or working as a protective factor against psychopathology, for some people self-compassion exercises are difficult to execute. This accounts for people who are high in self-criticism or shame,
(Rockliff, Gilbert, McEwan, Lightman, and Glover (2008) or who have experienced traumatic events (Gilbert, 2014), or who have avoidant/anxious attachment style (Mikulincer, Shaver, Gillath & Nitzberg, 2005). These individuals often experience classical conditioned fear, when experiencing safeness, calmness, and self-compassion (Mikulincer, Shaver, Gillath, & Nitzberg, 2005; Gilbert, 2014).
This is a consequence of not being able to enter the self-soothing system due to past experiences (Gilbert, 2009). The self-soothing system is part of the three affect regulation systems (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005): ‘threat and protection systems; drive, resource-seeking and excitement systems; and contentment, soothing and safeness systems’ (Gilbert, 2009, p. 200). The last one is connected to feelings of contentment, well-being, and the resting state (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005). When the three systems are out of balance, emotional problems can occur (Gilbert, 2009). The soothing system is under activated in individuals that are high in self-criticism or high in shame, which leads these individuals to have difficulties to sooth themselves and feel safe and content inside
themselves and in relationship to others (Gilbert, 2009). A reason for this underdevelopment of the soothing system, is that it has been negatively affected during childhood experiences with caregivers. These individuals may have experienced more threatening contact with caregivers than soothing and affectionate contact. This then leads to the development of a negative attachment style (Miculincer & Shaver, 2007), and has the consequence that the individual experiences problems to access the self-soothing system when needed (Gilbert, 2009). Feelings of compassion, like warmth, safeness, and caring, when experienced by these people, can be unfamiliar to them, may trigger anxiety or sadness or it can make them feel unworthy of () compassion. This can stand in the way of benefitting from
self-compassion interventions (Gilbert & Procter, 2006).
This has also been shown, on a physiological level, by Rockliff, Gilbert, McEwan, Lightman, and Glover (2008).In this experiment the heart rate variability (HRV) was measured to examine how people, that are high in self-criticism and/or have negative
attachment styles, respond to self-compassion exercises. HRV is connected to the sympathetic (when in a stressful state) and parasympathetic (when in a calm state) nervous systems
(Porges, 2007). A balance between these two nervous systems (when feeling safe), usually results in higher HRV in persons (Porges, 2007). Therefore, these persons are usually more able to enter the self-soothing system during threatening situations (Porges, 2007). On the other hand, HRV is usually lower in persons who don’t feel safe, these persons are less able to self-sooth during threatening situations which brings them in a stressful state quicker (Porges, 2007). In this study the results indicated that people high in self-criticism and with negative attachment style respond psychologically in a similar way to self-compassion exercises as if the exercise were a dangerous or threatening situation. Specifically, the HRV of these participants was lower, and cortisol, the stress hormone, was higher during the
compassion exercise. As opposed to securely attached individuals and those who are less self-critical whose HRV increased during the exercise, and cortisol levels decreased which
indicates a soothing effect, as a consequence of the self-compassion exercise (Rockliff, Gilbert, McEwan, Lightman, and Glover, 2008), as in normal resting situations (Porges, 2007).
This means that individuals who experience these barriers to self-compassion and who don’t respond well to self-compassion therapies need other tools or facilitators to enter the self-soothing system to be able to increase self-warmth and decrease self-criticism during self-compassion exercises like self-compassion meditation. It is therefore important to find facilitators for self-compassion meditation practice.
Facilitating self-compassion meditation practice
Recently, more researchers got interested in the facilitating mechanism for self-compassion meditation practice. This can be done by the use of priming. Over the past years there has been increasingly more research on how to prime the soothing system in order to facilitate self-compassion practices, like self-compassion meditation, so individuals with barriers to self-compassion can also benefit from self-compassion exercises. Priming can be defined as a way of putting psychological concepts and processes, like certain emotions, norms, social behavior and goals, in the mind non-consciously to the person receiving the priming (Bargh, 2006). After the priming, the primed cognitive representations implicitly mediate on how one looks, thinks and reacts to certain internal or environmental events (Bargh & Chartrand, 2000; Koole, Webb & Sheeran, 2015). Koole et al. (2015) suggest that the emotions people experience toward self or others are partly due to implicit and explicit processes in the mind; it is the interaction between these two on how people experience circumstances and how they feel about those circumstances. It is this implicit part that can be
changed by priming. Further, Koole and Rothermund (2011) concluded that the regulation of emotion is for a big part regulated by an interaction between mind and body, and that a big part of emotion regulation is implicit. Exactly this implicit part of emotion regulation can be used as one of the possible solutions to increase self-compassion in individuals, through priming of the soothing system. There are three different ways that have been used so far to prime the soothing system: using drugs, touch, and warmth.
Drugs
Kamboj et al. (2015) conducted a research where self-compassion was measured. The experiment consisted of two different conditions, the priming condition, made participants use MDMA (ecstasy) prior to self-compassion meditation, and the control condition, in which participants only underwent the self-compassion meditation. After assessing participants before and after the meditation, and before and after the use of MDMA the researchers concluded that both groups experienced similar effects on self-compassion and self-criticism, yet the group that received MDMA had greater reductions in self-criticism after the
meditation compared to the group without MDMA. During this experiment MDMA was a facilitator for the positive influence of self-compassion practices.
Touch
Another way of facilitating self-compassion practice for individuals who have trouble entering the self-soothing system, might be by using sensorial priming. Sensorial priming consists of using sensory attributes, like touch and warmth, for the priming of individuals. Though, this way of priming has not yet been used in combination with self-compassion meditation. According to Tjew-A-Sin and Koole (2013) there are different dimensions of how human touch can have big implications on human emotional functioning. Human touch is important for developing healthy emotions toward ourselves and relieving stress because of the releasing hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin is released when authorized and welcomed touch is experienced (Tjew-A-Sin & Koole, 2013), and is connected to the development of a healthy soothing system (Carter 1998; Uvnäns-Morberg 1998; Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005; Wang, 2005). An example of how oxytocin is released when welcomed touch is experienced, is the experiment by Holt-Lunstad, Birmingham, and Light (2008). The results of the
experiment showed that couples who participated in an exercise in which they had to gently touch each other’s bodily parts like the neck, had more oxytocin measured in their saliva then
couples that didn’t perform these exercises.
Warmth
Another example of sensorial priming is using warmth. Sensorial warmth can increase interpersonal warmth. For example, after holding something warm like a cup of coffee, people are more prone to evaluate others as more kind (Williams & Bargh, 2008), and are more likely to search for social affiliation in threatening situations (Fay & Maner, 2015). According to Bargh and Shalev (2012), people who do not receive warmth or kindness from others like family members or partners, in some cases, subconsciously substitute it by taking hot showers. This implies that lack of warmth from outside can be substituted with physical warmth (Zhong & Leonardelli, 2008).
Sensorial priming like touch and feeling warmth can induce feelings of (past) loving experiences like being hugged and feeling loved through the ‘conceptual scaffolding model’. This model indicates that humans memorize warmth from objects and from persons in the same area in the brain (Niedenthal, Halberstadt, & Innes-Ker, 1999). Thus priming with sensory attributes can have the same effect as real touch and can evoke feelings of warmth, which can have implications for the amount of self-warmth too (Williams & Bargh, 2008). All these ways of priming to activate the soothing system, have potential in facilitating
self-compassion meditation practices and other self-self-compassion interventions.
The current study
The attention of experiments that focused on facilitating self-compassion practices by touching upon the self-soothing system, was, until now, largely directed towards increasing interpersonal warmth, the warmth between persons, and in a much lesser degree on increasing intrapersonal warmth. Intrapersonal warmth entails warmth coming from the inside of a person. As stated before, researchers, for example Williams and Bargh (2008), have focused on increasing interpersonal warmth using a warm cup of coffee. Moreover, some recent attempts were performed to increase self-warmth with self-compassion meditation. However, none of them have explored how to increase the benefits of self-compassion meditation in combination with sensorial priming. As stated before, some individuals find it hard to reap the benefits of self-compassion meditation due to high levels of self-criticism and or shame (Rockliff, Gilbert, McEwan, Lightman, & Glover, 2008), traumatic experiences (Gilbert, 2014), and or negative attachment style (Mikulincer, Shaver, Gillath, & Nitzberg, 2005; Gilbert, 2014). In the present study we aim to fill in this gap and to explore whether warmth
sensorial priming prior to self-compassion meditation, can improve self-warmth in individuals and facilitate compassion meditation to reduce state criticism, improve
self-compassion, and to reduce negative and improve positive emotions.
We therefore hypothesize: (1) we expect the state self-compassion after the meditation to increase significantly more in the sensorial priming group than in the control group, (2) we expect the state self-criticism after the meditation to decrease significantly more in the
sensorial priming group than in the control group, (3) we expect positive affect after the meditation to increase significantly more in the sensorial priming group than in the control group, and (4) we expect negative affect after the meditation to decrease significantly more in the sensorial priming group than in the control group.
Methods Participants and sampling
A total of 48 participants (12 male; mean age of 27.5 years, SD = 8.65 and 36 female participants; mean age of 24.3, SD = 5.14) were recruited around the university campus (G*Power sample calculation: total sample size 86 (Faul, Erdfelder, Lang, & Buchner, 2007). The inclusion criteria consisted of: aged 18 years to 45 years; no history of mental illnesses; no experience with self-compassion meditation or no extensive experience with meditation in general; and fluent in English. The last criterion was essential, because the assignments and questionnaires during the experiment were in English. The participants were not screened for these criteria. As an appreciation for contributing to the experiment the participants received a 5 euro bill and automatically participated in a lottery to win 50 euros. This experiment was a pilot study, the prospect is that in the future it will be conducted on children participants instead of on adult participants like in the current experiment. The current study was approved by the Child Development & EducationEthics Committee (2016-CDE-7472). The data of four participants were excluded due to several reasons. One participant was excluded because she seemed to know the purpose of the study, one was excluded because of system failures during the experiment; the sound was not working. Another participant was excluded because of a system crash during the experiment; she had to restart, and one participant was excluded because his data did not get registered by the system.
Research design and procedure
The participants were recruited in the months February through May 2017 through spreading and hanging flyers around campus, spreading digital flyers on social-media, and through an online ad on the university’s research-lab website. Since the priming was meant to be implicit, participants were not allowed to relate this undertaking to the experiment. For that reason, during the recruitment period all the potential participants were informed that the study topic was about influences of different modalities (physical, cognitive, and sensorial) on the meditation practice.
The experimental data were collected at the university’s research-lab over an 8 week period. Upon arrival to the lab, the researcher(s) first explained the needed information of the experiment and let the participants sign a consent form. After which, in order to keep the condition of participants blind to the researcher, each participant pulled a random post-it and went to the cubicle indicated on the post-it. A total of nine participants per time (at 8 am, 9 am, or 10 am) were divided in three groups: the sensorial priming group, the semantic priming group, and the control group. For this thesis, only a part of the experimental design has been used; only the results of the sensorial priming group and the control group were included.
The cubicles contained a table, chair, and a computer screen with instructions. Under the table there was a box with the priming necessities. In order to limit the interaction with the researchers, and to keep the participants in the cubicles from the beginning till the end of the experiment, all the instructions were presented online in Qualtrics software.
The experiment consisted of three phases: (1) questionnaire phase (+/- 15 minutes) in which the participants first completed the demographic questionnaire, followed by the adapted emotional state questionnaires; adapted Positive and Negative Emotional Schedule (a-PANAS), and the adapted Self-Compassion and Self-Criticism scales (a-SCSC) (Falconer, King, & Brewin, 2015). Then the participants started (2) the priming phase (will be explained in detail below) (3 minutes). This phase was again followed by emotional state questionnaires a-PANAS and a-SCSC. After this followed (3) the meditation phase (15 minutes) which consisted of comfortably sitting in the chair and listening to a guided compassionate image meditation. Immediately after the meditation the participants were requested to once more fill in the a-PANAS and the a-SCSC as in phase one and two of the experiment. In the evening, the participants were informed about the purpose of the study by email.
Apparatus of materials
Sensorial priming condition and control condition
The sensorial warmth prime, inspired by Williams and Bargh (2008), consisted of holding a fluffy, white, and warm cushion on the lap. The cushion was heated by a heating pad that was activated and put inside of the cushion 15 minutes before the beginning of the experiment. The participants were asked to notice how it feels to touch it so they can make their opinion about the cushion (see Appendix A: Sensorial warmth cushion and priming instructions). The participants in the control condition were instructed from paper, to do some exercises that requested attention and hand-finger movements. This specific control condition has been chosen to allow an active control group with similar movements as in the sensory group (see Appendix B: Control condition instructions and exercises). However, this condition did not contain any warmth sensory stimulation. The active control condition is included in the study to see if possible changes in self-compassion, self-criticism and positive and negative feelings, indeed was influenced by the sensorial priming as opposed to the control condition.
Demographic Questionnaire
A questionnaire about demographic information included the following: gender, age, marital status, country of birth, native English speaker or not, length of speaking English, the degree of English fluency, highest level of education, and current employment status.
Measures of state positive and negative affect
The Adapted Positive and Negative affect questionnaire (a-PANAS) is a short-version that measures positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) and is intended to measure the affect state of individuals (Ebesutani et al., 2012). The a-PANAS has a 10-item scale divided over 5-items for PA: joyful, cheerful, happy, lively, proud, and 5-items for NA: miserable,
afraid, sad, scared, mad. The items are measured on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all; 2 =
a little; 3 = moderately; 4 = quite a bit; 5 = extremely). The Cronbach’s alpha of this study for the PA scale is 0.91 (measure 1: 0.90; measure 2: 0.92; measure 3: 0.90) and for the NA scale 0.84 (measure 1: 0.78; measure 2: 0.92; measure 3: 0.83).
Measures of state self-criticism/self-compassion
The Adapted Self-compassion/Self-criticism state scale (a-SCSC) (Falconer et al., 2015) is a 6-item scale that measures how critical or how compassionate the individuals are for themselves. The authors have adapted this scale by using only the words, not the
statements as is the case in the original SCSC-measure.This was done in order to evaluate how the emotional state of the participants was at the moment of the experiment. In addition
to that, four difficult words of the six words received a synonym between bars, to facilitate the understanding of the words because some words might have been difficult to understand for non-native English speakers. Participants were instructed to rate how they feel at that exact moment. They rated themselves on a 7-point Likert scale (starting from 1 = not at all to 7 =
highly) on the extent of feelings of soothing (or comforting), contemptuous (or disrespectful), compassionate (or kindhearted), harsh, reassuring (or encouraging) and critical. The
Cronbach’s alpha of this study for the Self-compassion scale is 0.88 (measure 1: 0.87; measure 2: 0.93; measure 3: 0.84) and for the Self-criticism scale 0.72 (measure 1: 0.51; measure 2: 0.79; measure 3: 0.87).
Compassionate Image Meditation
The compassionate image mediation is a pre-recorded audio file with a duration of 15 minutes. This audio is similar in content to the audio meditation used in Kamboj et al. (2015). The meditation is spoken by Christopher Germer. He holds a PhD in clinical psychology and is a lecturer at Harvard medical School. He is also a co-designer of the Mindful
Self-Compassion program. The voice of the audio file gently instructed the participants to take a comfortable position and to imagine themselves in a place that is safe and comfortable. According to the audio, in this place the participants received a compassionate companion; a person that embodies wisdom, strength, and unconditional love. This being totally
understands the participant and tells the participant words they exactly need to hear right now in their life. The participant listens for a moment. The audio ends with the voice saying that these compassionate and understanding feeling are within themselves and they can access these feelings anytime they want. The audio was meant to induce feelings of self-compassion.
Debriefing
This questionnaire, partly based on Bargh and Chartrand (2000), asked the participants about what they though the purpose of the study was and what the purpose of the 3 minute exercise was (whether in the priming condition or the control condition). The participants, who knew the aim of the study, were not included in the data analysis.
Results
The analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics version 23. First of all, ANOVAs were conducted to examine whether the experimental groups were similar in emotional states at baseline. For this randomization check all three groups were used because during the random dividing of the participants into conditions at the lab, all three groups (conditions) were present instead of only two. The three groups showed no statistically
significant differences in self-compassion (a-SCSCselfcompassion; F(2, 67) = 0.35, p = .71), self-criticism (a-SCSCselfcritcism; F(2, 67) = 0.13, p = .88), positive affect (a-PANASpos;
F(2, 67) = 1.75, p = .18), and negative affect (PANAS-N; F(2, 67) = 0.39, p = .68). This
means that the emotional states of the groups were highly similar before the experiment, ruling out that the results of the tests after the priming were due to already existent differences in emotional states between the three groups.
The data were then screened for outliers and normality of distribution. There were no outliers on all three measuring times of the a-PANAS positive affect scale, as assessed by examination of studentized residuals for values greater than ±3, and as assessed by inspection of a boxplot for values greater than three box-lengths from the edge of the box. For a-PANAS Negative Affect scale, there were no outliers on measure 1 (baseline), yet there was one outlier for measure 2 (post-priming time point), which had a studentized residual value of 3.01. Further, there was also one outlier for measure 3 (post-meditation time point), which had a studentized residual of 3.10. Yet, as assessed by inspection of a boxplot for values greater than 3 box-lengths from the edge of the box, there were slightly more outliers
detected. Baseline measure for both groups didn’t have outliers, post-priming time point and the post-meditation time point for the sensorial priming groups both had two outliers, and the post-priming time point and post-meditation time point for the control group both had three outliers. For a-SCSC Self-Compassion scale there were no outliers on all three measuring times, as assessed by examination of studentized residuals for values greater than ±3, and as assessed by inspection of a boxplot for values greater than three box-lengths from the edge of the box. For a-SCSC Self-Criticism scale, as assessed by examination of studentized residuals for values greater than ±3, there were no outliers on priming time point and
post-meditation time point. There was one outlier for the post-priming time point, which had a studentized residual value of 3.34. Yet, as assessed by inspection of a boxplot for values greater than 3 box-lengths from the edge of the box, there were no outliers for the baseline measures for both groups. For the control group there were no outliers on all three measures. For the sensorial priming condition there was one outlier during the post-priming time point and one outlier on the post-meditation time point. Because there were not many outliers and there were no errors in the dataset, the outliers were left in place and not transformed.
The normality of the data differed per measure and per group. Scores of all three measures of the a-PANAS positive affect scale were normally distributed for both the sensorial priming group as the control group, as assessed by Shapiro-Wilk’s test (p > .05). Scores for all three measure of the a-PANAS negative affect scale were not normally
distributed for both groups, as assessed by Shapiro-Wilk’s test (p < .05). This has also come forward by visual inspection of the scores histogram. Scores of the a-SCSC for self-criticism scale were all not normally distributed (p < .05), except on during the baseline measurement for both groups, as assess by Shapiro-Wilk’s test (p > .05). A-SCSC self-compassion scale scores for baseline were normally distributed for both groups, as assessed by Shapiro-Wilk’s test (p > .05). A-SCSC self-compassion scale scores for the post-priming time point were normally distributed for the control group but not for the sensorial priming group, as assessed by Shapiro-Wilk’s test (p < .05). And lastly, a-SCSC self-compassion scale scores during the post-meditation time point were normally distributed for the control group (p > .05), but not for the sensorial priming group (p < .05). Although the study had not normally distributed data, due to a small sample size, the non-normal variables were not transformed because ANOVA is robust for normality violation.
A two-way mixed ANOVA analysis was conducted on the influence of one
independent variable, which has two conditions: control group and sensorial priming group, on four dependent variables: self-compassion, self-criticism, positive affect, and negative affect. It was used to explore whether there were significant differences between the groups on the outcome of compassion meditation (i.e. whether participants had changes in self-compassion, self-criticism, positive affect, and negative affect and how big the changes were) over three time points (baseline, post-priming, and post meditation). The significance level was set at 0.05.
Table 1.
Means and Standard Deviations of a-SCSC Across Conditions for the Baseline, Post-Priming time point, and the Post-Meditation time point
Condition Baseline M(SD) Post-Priming M(SD) Post- meditation M(SD)
Self-compassion Self-criticism Self-compassion Self-criticism Self-compassion Self-criticism Sensorial 12.26(3.00) 6.61(2.82) 14.39(3.69) 4.74(2.91) 12.96(2.95) 4.39(2.25) Control 12.40(4.36) 7.12(2.39) 11.92(4.92) 6.76(3.35) 11.68(3.28) 6.68(3.95)
Self-compassion
Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances showed that measures on all three time points (baseline, post-priming, and post-meditation) the difference between the conditions was homogenized (p > .05); Equal Variances were assumed. There was homogeneity of
covariances, as assessed by Box’s test of equality of covariance matrices (p = .61). Mauchly’s test of sphericity indicated that the assumption of sphericity was met for the two-way
interaction, χ²(2) = 3.86, p = .15.
According to our first hypotheses, we expected the state self-compassion to increase after the meditation significantly more in the sensorial priming group than in the control group. There was no main effect of time (F(2, 92) = 2.00, p = .14, partial η² = .04), nor of group (F(1, 46) = 1.62, p = .21, partial η
²
= .03) on reported self-compassion. There was a statistically significant interaction effect of group and time on reported self-compassion (F(2, 92) = 3.71, p = .03, partial η² = .08). This effect was of small to moderate strength. The interaction effect was as follows: in the sensorial priming group, reported self-compassion increased significantly from baseline (M = 12.26, SD = 3.00) to post-priming time point (M = 14.39, SD = 3.69), (M = 2.13, SE = 0.66, p = .012); followed by a significant decrease at the post-meditation time point (M = 12.96, SD = 2.95), (M = 1.44, SE = 0.50, p = .03) (Figure 1, Table 2). There were no significant differences found among time points in the control group. Also there was no significant difference between conditions in each of the time points.Figure 1. a-SCSC Self-Compassion sum scores across three time points.
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Baseline Post-Priming Post-Meditation
Sum
Time
Sensory Control
Figure 2. a-SCSC Self-Criticism sum scores across three time points.
Table 2.
Correlations of Changes in Self-Compassion and Self-criticism
Self-criticism
Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances showed that on the measurements baseline and post priming the difference between the conditions was homogenized (p > .05); Equal
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Baseline Post-Priming Post-Meditation
Sum Time Sensory Control a-SCSC Self-
compassion Self- criticism
F p Partial Eta Squared F p Partial Eta Squared Within-Subjects Effects Time* Group 3,712 0,028 0,075 3,204 0,052 0,065 Time 2,003 0,141 0,042 7,104 0,002 0,134 Between- Subjects Effects Group 1,612 0,209 0,034 4,560 0,038 0,090
Variances were assumed. For the post-meditation time point Equal variances were not assumed (Significance: .003). Though, the data were not transformed. There was also no homogeneity of covariances, as assessed by Box’s test of equality of covariance matrices (p = .01). Mauchly’s test of sphericity indicated that the assumption of sphericity was violated for the two-way interaction, χ² (2) = 6.39, p = .04, for this reason the Greenhouse-Geisser was used to check whether a significant interaction existed (Maxwell & Delaney, 2004).
There was a statistically significant main effect of time on reported self-criticism (F(2, 92) = 7.10, p = .002, partial η² = .13). This effect was of moderate strength. The effect was as follows: in the sensorial priming group, the level of self-criticism decreased significantly between baseline (M = 6.61, SD = 2.82) and post-priming time point (M = 4.74, SD = 2.91), (M = 1.87, SE = 0.37, p =.000), and between baseline (M = 6.61, SD = 2.82) and post-meditation time point (M = 4.39, SD = 2.25)(M = 2.22, SE = 0.52, p =.001).
There was no significant difference between priming time point and
post-meditation time point. There were no significant differences found between time points in the control group. There was a statistically significant main effect of group on reported self-criticism (F(1, 46) = 4.56, p = .04, partial η² = .09), and was of moderate strength. The effect was as follows: there was a significantly lower level of self-criticism in the sensorial priming group (M = 5.25, SD = 0.54) compared to the control group (M = 6.85, SD = 0.52), (M = 1.61,
SE = 0.75, p = .04). Lastly, there was no significant interaction effect (F (2, 29) = 3.20, p =
.05, partial η² = .07) (Figure 2, Table 2). Table 3.
Means and Standard Deviations of a-PANAS Across Conditions for the Baseline, the Post-Priming time point, and the Post-Meditation time point
Condition Baseline M(SD) Post-Priming M(SD) Post- meditation M(SD) Positive
affect Negative affect Positive affect Negative affect Positive affect Negative affect Sensorial 15.17(3.71) 7.17(2.64) 15.21(4.34) 6.74(3.03) 16.28(4.03) 6.58(2.54) Control 16.27(4.99) 7.00(2.72) 15.89(5.34) 6.84(3.36) 15.36(4.97) 6.82(2.88)
Positive Affect
Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances showed that on the three measurements (baseline, post-priming time point, and post-meditation time point) the difference between the conditions was homogenized (p > .05); Equal Variances were assumed. And, there was homogeneity of covariances, as assessed by Box’s test of equality of covariance matrices (p = .04). Mauchly’s test of sphericity indicated that the assumption of sphericity was met for the two-way interaction, χ²(2) = 3.58, p = .17. According to the third hypotheses, we expected positive affect to increase after the meditation significantly more in the sensorial priming group than in the control group.
There was no main effect of time (F(2, 92) = 0.24, p = .79, partial η² = .01), nor of group (F(1, 46) = 0.05, p = .82, partial η² = .001 on reported positive affect. There was a statistically significant interaction effect of group and time, (F(2, 92) = 3.60, p = .03, partial
η² = .07). This effect was of small to moderate strength. However, there were no statistically
significant differences. In the sensorial priming group, positive affect had a tendency to increase from post-priming time point (M = 15.21, SD = 4.34) to post-meditation time point (M = 16.28, SD = 4.03), (M= 1.08, SE = 0.42, p = .06) (Figure 3, Table 4).
Figure 3. a-PANAS Positive Affect sum scores across three time points.
5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25
Baseline Post-Priming Post-Meditation
Sum
Time
Sensory Control
Figure 4. a-PANAS Negative Affect sum scores across three time points.
Table 4.
Correlations of Changes in Positive Affect and Negative Affect
Negative Affect
Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances showed that on the three measurements (baseline, post-priming time point, and post-meditation time point) the difference between the conditions was homogenized (p > .05); Equal Variances were assumed. And, there was
5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25
Baseline Post-Priming Post-Meditation
Sum Time Sensory Control a-PANAS Positive
affect Negative affect
F p Partial Eta Squared F p Partial Eta Squared Within-Subjects Effects Time* Group 3,464 0,36 0,078 0,586 0,559 0,014 Time 0,104 0,901 0,003 2,495 0,089 0,056 Between- Subjects Effects Group 0,018 0,893 0,000 0,180 0,674 0,004
homogeneity of covariances, as assessed by Box’s test of equality of covariance matrices (p = .01). Mauchly’s test of sphericity indicated that the assumption of sphericity was met for the two-way interaction, χ²(2) = 5.24, p = .07. According to the fourth hypotheses, we expected negative affect to decrease after the meditation significantly more in the sensorial priming group than in the control group. A visual inspection of Figure 4 tells us that there was a bigger decrease in the sensorial priming group compared to the control group, but the difference was very small. There was no main effect of time (F(2, 92) = 0.97, p = .38, partial η² = .02), nor of group (F(1, 46) = 0.01, p = .94, partial η² = .000) on reported negative affect. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant interaction effect of group and time (F(2, 92) = 0.27, p = .77, partial η² = .01 (Table 4, Figure 4).
Discussion
Self-compassion meditation has been proven to be beneficial in elevating feelings of self-compassion and positive feelings, and lowering feelings of self-criticism and negative feelings (Kamboj et al., 2015). Unfortunately, individuals with insecure attachment styles, who are high in self-criticism, shame (Rockliff et al., 2008) or who have experienced traumatic events (Gilbert, 2014), usually profit less from self-compassion meditation or can’t profit from it at all (Porges, 2007; Rockliff et al., 2008). This makes them more prone to the development of psychopathologies (Gilbert & Irons, 2005; Shahar et al., 2014). Finding ways in which to facilitate self-compassion exercises like self-compassion meditation for these individuals is therefore of great importance.
This study was a concept experiment aimed to explore whether warmth sensorial priming prior to self-compassion meditation can improve self-warmth in individuals and facilitate self-compassion meditation. This was done in order to reduce state self-criticism, improve state self-compassion, and to reduce negative and improve positive affect to consequently buffer against or reduce psychopathology. As the results stated, none of the dependent variables have significantly changed.
First of all, the study’s findings suggest, against our expectations, that warmth
sensorial priming has no significant impact on the outcome of self-compassion meditation on the amount of state self-compassion in individuals that underwent a sensorial warmth prime prior to the self-compassion meditation. Furthermore, state self-compassion decreased after the meditation for the sensorial priming group, which means that the first hypothesis was not accepted. Possible explanations for this unsuspected decrease in state self-compassion after the mediation are that participants weren’t fully engaging in meditation, and or participants,
even though previously screened for this, were high in self-criticism, shame (Rockliff, Gilbert, McEwan, Lightman, & Glover, 2008), traumas (Gilbert, 2014), or had
anxious/avoidant attachment style (Mikulincer, Shaver, Gillath, & Nitzberg, 2005).
Secondly, the findings further show, against expectation, that neither hypothesis two was accepted; state self-criticism did not get reduced significantly more after the meditation in the sensorial priming group compared to the control group. It is worth mentioning that there was a tendency for significant results; p = .052 (Table 2). This is promising for future research on this topic, because it shows that warmth sensorial priming has the potential to facilitate self-compassion meditation and in that way decrease self-criticism and
psychopathology.
Furthermore, state self-criticism did decrease significantly between baseline and post-priming time point and baseline and post-meditation time point in the sensorial post-priming condition, but not between post-priming time point and post-meditation time point. A possible explanation for the effect between baseline and post-meditation time point is that the effect of priming on reducing self-criticism lasted until after the meditation, but it didn’t facilitate the effect of the meditation on self-criticism.
Third of all, against our expectations, positive affect did not increase significantly more after the self-compassion meditation in the group of participants that underwent warmth sensorial priming. For this reason hypothesis three was not accepted.
Lastly, also our fourth hypothesis has not been met; negative emotions did not
decrease significantly more in the sensorial priming group after the sensorial warmth priming and the meditation. According to previous research, negative affect should have had
decreased after the sensorial warmth prime and after the meditation (Koole & Rothermund, 2011; Zessin, Dickhaüser, & Garbade, 2015).
The findings of the study are promising to explore how to facilitate self-compassion meditation for individuals who find it difficult to engage in self-compassion exercises.
Finding ways in which to facilitate self-compassion exercises like self-compassion meditation for these individuals is therefore of great importance. Even though none of the hypotheses were met, the results are promising for future research. To start, for the first time in scientific research a cushion was used effectively as a sensorial priming object, which means that this is a new finding. Namely, the amount of state self-compassion in the sensorial priming group had significantly increased between baseline and post-priming time point. These results are consistent with previous studies on that warmth sensorial priming improves feelings of self-warmth (Zhong & Leonardelli, 2008). As mentioned before, lack of self-warmth from other
people can be substituted by physical warmth from an object (Zhong & Leonardelli, 2008). This means that priming with sensory objects can have the same effect as real touch and can evoke feelings of warmth toward others and toward self (Williams & Bargh, 2008). Warmth sensorial priming has been used in experiments before, like in the experiment with a warm cup of coffee (Williams & Bargh, 2008), but knowing that a cushion can function as an effective warmth prime is a new finding.
Secondly, even though there was no significant interaction effect, there was a statistically significant decrease of self-criticism between measuring time points for the sensorial priming group, after the priming and after the meditation. Moreover, there was also a difference between the two groups on the level of self-criticism; there was a significant lower level of self-criticism in the sensorial priming group compared to the control group. These results indicate that sensorial priming, in this case with a warm cushion, seems to have the potential to decrease self-criticism and increase self-compassion, just not in combination with self-compassion meditation.
Lastly, positive affect did not increase significantly more, and negative affect did not decrease significantly more in the sensorial priming group compared to the control group. Nevertheless, due to the earlier discussed positive outcomes of past research (e.g., Mantelou & Karakasidou, 2017), it has become apparent that it would be fruitful for future research to continue to explore the effects of self-compassion interventions and sensorial warmth priming on positive and negative affect.
Limitations
The study’s results, which didn’t give support to the hypothesis, could be a
consequence of the studies limitations, which offer us directions for future research. First of all, the sample size was small. The estimated ideal sample size (for two experimental groups) was 86 participants in total. Eventually a total of 48 participants were actually recruited which is 45% less than calculated.Based on the smaller than ideal sample size, the clinical relevance of the study is doubtful.
A second limitation was that the participants were from a non-clinical population. Doing an experiment with a clinical population, might give more accurate outcomes. Despite these limitations, the outcomes do put us in the right direction for future research. The outcomes show us that it is promising to execute more research in line with this one to explore the connection between warmth sensorial priming and the outcomes of
facilitate self-compassion meditation for those individuals who find it difficult to engage in self-compassion exercises. Future research should focus on a bigger sample size and a eventually a clinical population to be able to make statements that are more clinically relevant.
A third limitation of the experiment was that the overall gender of the participants was female (75%). This was due to chance, more female participants happened to apply to take part in the experiment. This means that our results may not be generalizable to the mixed-gender population. Also this is also something to be addressed in future research.
Furthermore, it is important to note that our study has made use of self-report questionnaires, which means that there is a chance that common method biases have negatively impacted the validity (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003). Future research might make use of both qualitative methods and quantitative methods to reduce common method biases.
Another risk for the validity of the research has to do with the meditation and priming part of the research. The participants were sent to their own private cubicle with the door closed. This means that there was no supervision from the researchers upon the execution of the priming phase and the meditation phase. It is not possible to know whether participants truly followed the instructions that were presented to them. Lastly, as earlier discussed in the introduction, this experiment was conducted on adults as a concept study. Even though the research was carried out for the department of Child Development and Education, it was necessary to first execute it on adults as a pilot-study. This does mean that the data can’t be generalized to the children’s population. Future research could make up for this limitation.
Conclusion
Overall, the results of the research indicate that warmth sensorial priming, with a cushion as attribute, has the potential to reduce feelings of state self-criticism and increase feelings of state self-compassion by activating the self-soothing system. Yet, not in
combination with self-compassion meditation. Future research should focus on exploring this connection more, due to the high importance for the development and or reduction of
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