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Fears of compassion and happiness in relation to alexithymia, mindfulness, and self‐criticism
Open accessAbstract
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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“We may therefore find it difficult to develop trust in clinicians [181], reject and defend against receiving compassion [182–184], and reaffirm our belief and investment in AN as a safe harbour.”
From A lived experience response to the proposed diagnosis of terminal anorexia nervosa: learning from iatrogenic harm, ambivalence and enduring hope (2023) · cites this paper as [182]
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Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Gibbons, L., Chotai, S., Duarte, J., & Matos, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Coimbra (PT)
- Corresponding author
- Gilbert, P.
- 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
- 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
- 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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