A new questionnaire measures self-transcendence—distancing from mental content, distinguishing an observer of experience, and experiencing connectedness with others—as promoted in contextual cognitive behavioral therapies. Exploratory factor analysis and bifactor models supported three of four proposed facets. These facets correlated with decentering, defusion, experiential avoidance, and mindfulness, and predicted psychological well-being beyond other measures. The findings support a CCBT-informed model of self-transcendence and provide a tool for future research and intervention targets.
Self-compassion is thought to be important for mental health, especially for people with social anxiety disorder. MDMA-assisted therapy may work by increasing self-compassion. This study will examine whether trait self-compassion rises during treatment and whether self-compassion felt during MDMA dosing sessions leads to lasting changes. It will also test if changes in self-compassion relate to improvements in social anxiety, depression, shame, functioning, and belonging. Five specific aims are outlined to explore these relationships across two dosing sessions.
Brief self-compassion meditation training dampens sympathetic and subjective anxiety responses to a social stress test. How well it works depends on certain baseline personality traits. People with lower non-attachment and higher social anxiety benefited less from the training, while those with lower social anxiety and lower non-attachment showed greater stress reduction. Trait self-compassion itself did not predict or moderate the training's effect. The findings highlight the importance of considering individual psychological traits in predicting responses to social evaluative threat, especially in the context of resiliency training.