The DOI matches its Crossref record; 70 of the 70 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
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.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“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]
Citations
Cites
Fredrickson, B. L. (2001) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037//0003-066x.56.3.218 · Cited by 18,025
Lovibond, P. F., & Lovibond, S. H. (1995) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/0005-7967(94)00075-u · Cited by 14,523 · cited 1×
“One approach to exploring describing these difficulties is with the concept of ‘alexithymia’, which was labelled by Peter Sifneos (1973) to describe difficulties in understanding, processing and verbally describing emotions.”
BackgroundThe benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being
Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.822 · Cited by 13,448
Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness
Baer, R. A., Smith, G. T., Hopkins, J., Krietemeyer, J., & Toney, L. (2006) · Assessment · doi:10.1177/1073191105283504 · Cited by 7,511 · cited 2×
“91 for the subscales (Baer et al., 2006).”
BackgroundMindfulness: A proposed operational definition.
Bishop, S. R., Lau, M., Shapiro, S., Carlson, L., Anderson, N. D., Carmody, J., Segal, Z. V., Abbey, S., Speca, M., Velting, D., et al. (2004) · Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice · doi:10.1093/clipsy.bph077 · Cited by 7,234 · cited 2×
“Mindfulness has also been described as a multifaceted construct that can be compared and contrasted with competencies (or lack of) such as metacognition, emotional intelligence and alexithymia (Baer, Smith, Hopkins, Krietemeyer, & Toney, 2006; Bishop et al., 2004). Lykins and Baer (2009) found trends for mindfulness t…”
BackgroundBagby, R. M., Parker, J. D. A., & Taylor, G. J. (1994) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/0022-3999(94)90005-1 · Cited by 5,293
Antony, M. M., Bieling, P. J., Cox, B. J., Enns, M. W., & Swinson, R. P. (1998) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/1040-3590.10.2.176 · Cited by 4,874
(1980) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 4,712
Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions
Panksepp, J. (1998) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780195096736.001.0001 · Cited by 4,428
Attachment in adulthood: structure, dynamics, and change
(2008) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.45-2903 · Cited by 4,303
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- 10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218 · DOI · Paper page
- Hayes S. C., 2004, Mindfulness and acceptance: Expanding the cognitive behavioural tradition
- Kring A. M., 2010, Emotion regulation and psychopathology: A transdiagnostic approach to aetiology and treatment
- 10.1037/0021-843X.104.1.15 · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The origins and nature of compassion focused therapy
Gilbert, P. (2014) · British Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjc.12043 · Cited by 1,593
“Some people, however, are frightened of positive feeling because they feel that if they are happy or something good happens to them, then something bad is bound to happen afterwards or as a result (Gilbert et al. , 2012; Joshanloo, 2013).”
BackgroundSelf-citationInteroception, contemplative practice, and health
Farb, N., Daubenmier, J., Price, C. J., Gard, T., Kerr, C., Dunn, B. D., Klein, A. C., Paulus, M. P., & Mehling, W. E. (2015) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00763 · Cited by 650
“For instance, when an individual with severe attachment disturbances considers close social interaction, there is often an immediate discrepancy between expected and actual feelings of connectedness, providing a new source of interoceptive surprise that may be anxiously appraised (Rector et al., 2006; Gilbert et al.,…”
BackgroundCarpenter, J. K., Conroy, K., Gomez, A. F., Curren, L. C., & Hofmann, S. G. (2019) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2019.101785 · Cited by 342
Li, S., Zhang, B., Guo, Y., & Zhang, J. (2015) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2015.02.006 · Cited by 350
“…132 BDI- 7 TAS-TS and depression (rk=0.327) Katsifaraki et al.,2013 OS students 183 BDI- 6 DIF, DDF and EOT and depression (r=0.33, r=0.31, r=0.12) Gilbert et al.,2012 OS students 185 DASS-21 6 TAS-TS and depression (r=0.60) DIF, DDF and EOT and depression (r=0.54, r=0.60, r=0.25) Honkalampi et…”
BackgroundInfluentialEmbodying self-compassion within virtual reality and its effects on patients with depression
Falconer, C. J., Rovira, A., King, J. A., Gilbert, P., Antley, A., Fearon, P., Ralph, N., Slater, M., & Brewin, C. R. (2016) · BJPsych Open · doi:10.1192/bjpo.bp.115.002147 · Cited by 312
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
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
