Clarifying the Effect of Compassion Meditation on Emotions: The Role of Self-Compassion

Student: Sirotina Ulyana

Educational Programme: Psychology (Bachelor)

Year of Graduation: 2021

Extant literature reports mixed findings regarding the effects of compassion meditation on emotions. To investigate this discrepancy, the present study aimed to determine whether practicing compassion for self and other (CSO) will lead to a better emotional experience than practicing compassion for other only (CO). To test this, 95 Russian students were allocated across CO, CSO or mindfulness meditation conditions. Contrary to our hypotheses, our findings demonstrated that CSO (as opposed to CO) may be difficult to process for meditation novices, causing a significant decrease in their positive emotions. This difficulty may be related to so-called fear of self-compassion and/or a higher level of self-criticism among Russians, compared to other cultures.

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