Cited by 285Psychosomatic Disorders and Their TreatmentsAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesMindfulness and Compassion Interventions

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Fears of compassion and happiness in relation to alexithymia, mindfulness, and self‐criticism

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Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Gibbons, L., Chotai, S., Duarte, J., Matos, M.·2012·Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice

DOI 10.1111/j.2044-8341.2011.02046.x

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Abstract

Background. There is increasing research to suggest that fears of, and resistances to, affiliative and positive emotions are linked to self‐criticism and a range of psychopathologies. It is unclear how these fears and resistances are linked to each other and how these in turn are linked to psychological processes, such as abilities to be mindful and recognize and describe emotions. Objectives. This research explores the relationship between fears of compassion and happiness in general, with capacities for emotional processing (alexithymia), capacities for mindfulness, and empathic abilities. To advance this research, a new scale was developed to measure general fears of positive feelings – the Fear of Happiness Scale. Results. The results showed that fears of compassion for self, from others and in particular fear of happiness, were highly linked to different aspects of alexithymia, mindfulness, empathy, self‐criticism and depression, anxiety and stress. Especially noteworthy was the very high correlation between fear of happiness and depression ( r = .70). Conclusion. While the development of positive emotions, especially those linked to affiliation and connectedness are increasingly seen as important therapeutic targets, little research has focused on the blocks and fears to positive emotions. This study used newly developed fears of positive affect scales (e.g., compassion and happiness) to explore these aspects and found they were significantly linked to psychopathology variables self‐criticism and difficulties such as alexithymia.

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“The emotions provoked by compassion, in these cases, are perceived as a threat (Gilbert et al., 2011; Kirby et al., 2019; Matos et al., 2017).”
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“””
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“Rejection sensitivity (Sato et al., 2018), internalised shame (Gilbert, 2022), deficits in mentalization (De la Parra et al., 2017; Gilbert et al., 2012) or different avoidant coping strategies, such as substance abuse (Dunkley et al., 2006; Skinner & Veilleux, 2016; Werner et al., 2019), may link…”
A Multilevel Multidimensional Finite Mixture Item Response Model to Cluster Respondents and Countries
Kanovský, M., Halamová, J., Zuroff, D. C., Troop, N. A., Gilbert, P., Shahar, B., Petrocchi, N., Hermanto, N., Krieger, T., Kirby, J. N., et al. (2020) · European Journal of Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1027/1015-5759/a000631 · Cited by 4
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Fear of Happiness: Description, Causes and Prevention
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“Since compassion is experienced both in interpersonal relationships and in one's relationship with oneself, it has three dimensions: the compassion we show to others, the compassion we receive from others, and the compassion we show to ourselves (Gilbert et al. 2011; Gilbert 2014).”
Background
Yetişkin Öz-Merhamet Ölçeğinin Geliştirilmesi
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“Furthermore, Gilbert et al. (2012) identified a robust correlation between apprehension of contentment and depression, suggesting that netlessphobia may exert a comparable detrimental influence on mental well-being.”
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“Many studies have pointed out that reduced empathy may be correlated to higher levels of alexythimia [64] [65] [66].”
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Authors: Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Gibbons, L., Chotai, S., Duarte, J., & Matos, M.
Affiliations: University of Coimbra (PT)
Corresponding author: Gilbert, P.
ORCID: Gilbert, P.
McEwan, K.
Duarte, J.
Matos, M.
Venue: Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2011-11-08
Volume: 85
Issue: 4
Pages: 374-390
ISSN: 1476-0835 (ISSN-L)
2044-8341
DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.2011.02046.x
OpenAlex: W1718330303
Cited by: 285
References: 70
Citations by year: 2026: 23 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 3
FWCI: 5.94
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: green
hdl.handle.net
Licence: cc-by
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations: Psychology and Psychotherapy Theory Research and Practice (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
University of Derby Online Research Archive. (University of Derby) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
Funders: National Institute for Health and Care Research
Topics: Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
Keywords: fear of happiness, fear of compassion, positive emotions, alexithymia, mindfulness, self-criticism, empathy, depression, anxiety, stress, emotional processing, psychopathology
MeSH terms: Adolescent, Adult, Affective Symptoms, Depression, Empathy, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Fear, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Psychometrics, Self-Assessment

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Fears of compassion and happiness in relation to alexithymia, mindfulness, and self‐criticism

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