Abstract
This chapter reviews the literature on self-compassion and peripheral immune and stress response-related physiology. Specifically, we review the evidence related to self-compassion and relevant immune and stress response system (autonomic, hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, peripheral inflammatory) biomarkers, as well as evidence that self-compassion promotes resilience by modifying psychophysiological responses to stress. The chapter is organized by type of self-compassion studies, beginning with observational/correlational studies of the relationship between dispositional or trait self-compassion and a range of psychophysiological measures. The middle section focuses on studies on the immediate physiological effects of briefly induced or briefly trained self-compassion in laboratory settings, relative to a range of active and passive control conditions. The final section focuses on randomized and single-arm trials on the physiological benefits of structured, multi-week interventions intended to train self-compassion in a more enduring and systematic manner. We end with a brief summary of overall findings and recommendations for future studies in this area.
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Slivjak, E.T., Kirk, A., Arch, J.J. (2023). The Psychophysiology of Self-Compassion. In: Finlay-Jones, A., Bluth, K., Neff, K. (eds) Handbook of Self-Compassion. Mindfulness in Behavioral Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22348-8_17
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