The effect of Self-Compassion Training on the Emotion Regulation of married women who referred to counseling center

Transcription

1 The effect of Self-Compassion Training on the Emotion Regulation of married women who referred to counseling center Mina Saeinia MA of psychology, Department of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz Branch, Ahvaz, Iran Laleh Kianpour Barjoee* MA of psychology, Department of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz Branch, Ahvaz, Iran Corresponding Author: Zahra Dasht Bozorgi Department of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz Branch, Ahvaz, Iran Abstract The aim of this research was to study the effect of self-compassion training on the emotion regulation of married women refering to family counseling center. The sample consisted of 20 married women (10 women in the experimental group and 10 women in the control group), who were selected randomly and voluntary. The research design was pretest-posttest with control group, and the research tool was Garnefski Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (2001). For analyzing the data, covariance (ANCOVA) was used. The results of data analysis showed that self-compassion training caused the increase of emotion regulation of experimental group of women in comparison to the control group, and the findings were stable after one month. Keywords: self-compassion training, emotion regulation, married women. Page 726

2 Introduction Family includes healthy and productive environment and warm relationships and friendly interpersonal interaction and can cause growth and progress of family members (Setodeh, 2010). Family is the basic foundation of society and building cell and in the broadest sense, the origin of its members and their shelter. The family is an institution that gives its members a sense of security and peace. Family is like a shell that if its foundations not be built measured and correct never will foster a pearl. Common life is not only to provide the physical, economic needs and continuity of generation, but is a sense of participation and understanding for expanding the attitude and access to more opportunities (Campbell, 2013). Young couples, because of the challenges of marriage, sometimes they experience emotional irregularity, which threatens their mental health. Emotional Regulation can be formulated in three dimensions, task-oriented processes, emotion-focused processes, processes of cognitive processing. Task-oriented processes include dialogue with the self that helps people rather than focusing on emotions, at the time of each type of activity, pay attention to this activity. On the other hand, emotion regulation distracts the focus of people of the task to feelings and thinkings related to negative thoughts. Among these strategies is dialogue with the self in the form of wishful thinkings (Rezvan, Bahrami and Abedi, 2011). The family is the foundation of any society and family when involve unhealthy environment, cold relationships and its conflicts can cause marital problems (Campbell, 2013). The couple's marital satisfaction in family environment can be affected by cognitive, social, emotional, and physical factors (the Rieffe, Ketelear and Wiefferink, 2010). In the life of young couples, according to economic challenges at the beginning of life and living expenses, as well as conflicts, the role of emotional regulation, can be effective in improving quality of life. In fact, the couples who have low emotion regulation in the roles of life experience many conflicts (Ahmadi, 2013). Ability of a person to control his / her emotions is one of the most important capabilities that must be learned. If the emotion regulation be low, the person is not in a calm and stationary state of emotional arousal and monitor and change the person's emotional experiences are disturbed (Vimz and Pina, 2010). Regulation of emotions has an important role in the compatibility of people with stressful events of life. The results of several studies suggest that capacity of people in effective regulation of emotions has significant impact on psychological and physical happiness and interpersonal relationships and also mental health (Hasani, Azad Fallah, Rasoul Zadeh and Ashayari, 2012). Leary et al (2007) in several pilot studies in connection with self-compassion showed that self-compassion is an important construct in regulation of people's reaction to uncomfortable situations. Therefore, to increase emotional empathy, emotion regulation, and marital satisfaction in married students that the health of their family environment, can have a direct impact on the health of the socity, modern approach of self-compassion training can be used, which has been shown in studies that has an effective role in healthy communication (Bent & Golman, 2001). Neff (2003) defines selfcompassion training as component construction that includes self-kindness versus selfjudgment, common humanity versus isolation, and mindfulness versus over-identification, and he believes that the combination of these related components is characteristic of each individual who consider self-compassion. It must be said in self-compassion training, selfkindness is self-understanding instead of self-judgment and a support for shortcomings and incompetence. Admitting that all human beings are flawed, they are wrong and are involved Page 727

3 in unhealthy behaviors is characteristic of common humanity. Mindfulness versus overidentification in self-compassion leads to a balanced and clear understanding of the experiences of the present, and causes the painful aspects of an experience not be overlooked, and frequently do not occupy the mind (Neff, 2013). Basic principles in self-compassionbased therapy, point out to the point that external thinking, factors, images and soothing behaviors, should become internal, and in this case, the human mind, as it reacts to external factors that, in the face of this inner is calm (Veen, 2014). It must be said that, having selfcompassion in married life, requires that a person in face with failing, or not reaching the standards, do not pay stringent criticism of the self, and this concept does not mean ignoring or not correcting these failures. When, the self with the belief that criticism of the self, can induce a person to change and progress, because mistakes pay stringent criticism of the self, support functions of the self to not threaten the sanctity of the self, act to hide the shortcomings of consciousness (Hen, 2014). It must be said person through self-compassion creates an emotional safety that can clearly sees the self without fear of blame the self, and has the opportunity that with more accuracy understand and improve maladaptive patterns of thinking, emotional and behavioral. So self-compassion does not lead to inaction and inertia (Neff, 2013). In the end, It must be said that the emotion regulation of couples with regard to emotional and economic challenges and the contradictions of family-job role can be increased with effective training, and the quality of life of young couples can be improved, because if young couples do not express the proper emotion regulation in married life, it is possible that they experience conflict within the family, also it has harmful effects on socity health. Research in this area will be a step in research and application innovation in country level and an action to increase the quality of married life. The results of this study can be used in counseling centers, families, organizations in charge of family and universities. The results may underlie some strategies for reducing cognitive disorders and increasing the quality of married life in families. Therefore, research in this area is considered important. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of self-compassion training on emotion regulation of women, and the question arises whether self-compassion training is effective for emotion regulation of women? Research method In this study, quasi-experimental method (pre-test and post-test follow-up) was used. Because the study seeks changes resulting from the implementation of self-compassion training on emotional empathy, emotion regulation and marital satisfaction of women, the method was used. The population in this study consists of all young married women referring to the Naft counseling center in Ahvaz. The sample consisted of 20 young women referring to the counseling center, that the way to choose them was based on their willingness to participate in this study and earn a score below the cut-off point of emotion regulation (score below 100), that were selected randomly and voluntary, and then through the sample, randomly 10 women in the control group and 10 women in the experimental group were assigned. Page 728

4 Research tool A) Cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire: the questionnaire (CERQ) by Garnefski et al (2001) was prepared and is a multidimensional questionnaire that is used to identify cognitive coping strategies of people after experiencing negative events or situations. This scale is a self-report instrument that has 36 items and 9 subscales cognitive strategy, self-blame, acceptance, rumination, positive refocusing, refocusing on plan, positive reappraisal, underestimate the importance, disaster and blame other. Scale scores range is from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always). Each subscale contains 4 items and the total score is obtained from the sum of subscales (Garnefski and Karaaij, 2006; quoted by Besharat, 2009). Besharat (2009) reported the reliability of the questionnaire with Cronbach's alpha for the subscales from 0/67 to 0/89. He also reported the validity through the correlation coefficients between the scores of some participants in two occasions with intervals of two to four weeks for subscales from 0/57 to 0/76 at level 0/001. Also Hasani et al (2012) obtained the reliability of the questionnaire with Cronbach's alpha for the subscales from 0/76 to 0/92. In Malek Mohammadi study (2013) also reliability coefficient was calculated by using of Cronbach's alpha that for self-blame 0/72, acceptance 0/71, rumination 0/74, positive refocusing 0/73, refocusing on plan 0/75, positive reappraisal 0/78, underestimate the importance 0/74, disaster 0/70, blame other 0/78 and for emotion regulation 0/74 was obtained. In this study, the reliability of the questionnaire by using of Cronbach's alpha was obtained 0/81. B) Self-compassion training sessions: self-compassion training sessions were held during the 8 sessions of 90 minutes and the sessions based on treatment in according to Seshfaqt Gilbert (2009) hold so that: First session: implementation of pre-test, logic of self-compassion-based therapy and understanding the compassion and self-compassion; Second session: the women are asked to try to identify how their thinking and behavior to themselves; Third session: use the skill of compassion -like imagery and soothing breathing technique; Forth session: use of mindfulness for women and how to express emotional empathy for couples; Fifth session: use the technique of writing a compassion -like letter and upgrade selfcompassion by emotional discharge; Sixth session: study the pathology of factors that cause fear and repulsion couples toward self-compassion; Seventh session: Learning how to cope with self-compassion factors and use of relaxation technique; Eighth session: Summing up the sessions, presenting the final recommendations and practice, and ultimately implementation of post -test and determining a specified time to implementation of follow-up test. Research findings The results in both descriptive as mean, standard deviation and the number of subjects in the sample for the variables in research and inferential findings are presented in the table below. Page 729

5 Table 1: Mean and standard deviation of scores of emotion regulation of the experimental and control groups in pretest, posttest, and follow-up variable stage statistical index mean standard deviation number group emotion regulation pretest experimental 79/70 5/81 10 control 85/61 8/57 10 posttest experimental 166/63 11/56 10 control 86/10 8/19 10 follow-up experimental 174/76 10/95 10 control 85/17 7/52 10 Table 2: Results of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test on assuming normal distribution of scores of emotion regulation The normal groups Kolmogorov-Smirnov groups Kolmogorov-Smirnov distribution of scores statistic significant statistic significant emotion regulation experimental 0/16 0/17 control 0/18 0/16 As seen in Table 2, zero hypothesis for the normal distribution of scores of the two groups in emotion regulation is confirmed. The assumption of the normal distribution of score of emotion regulation in pretest in both experimental and control groups was confirmed. Table 3: The test results of check the homogeneity assumption of regression slopes of research variable the two groups in society variable The Source for F significant level changes emotion regulation interaction of group * pre-test 2/54 0/66 As can be seen in Table 3, F interact value for the emotion regulation variable is not significant. Therefore, the assumption of homogeneity of regression is confirmed. Table 4: Results of levene test on the assumption of equality of variance of score of research variable the two groups in society variable F first degree of second degree significant level emotion regulation freedom of freedom 1/ /18 Page 730

6 As can be seen in Table 4, levene test on emotion regulation variable is not significant. So the variance of experimental and control groups is not significant in emotional adjustment variable, thus the assumption of homogeneity of variances is confirmed and zero hypothesis for equality of variances of score of two groups in emotional regulation is confirmed. The assumption of equality of variances of score of variable in both experimental and control groups is confirmed. Table 5: Results of analysis of covariance ANCOVA on mean of post-test scores of emotion regulation of experimental and control groups with pre-test control variable sum of DF mean of F p effect statistical emotion regulation squares squares size power 28929/ /48 289/39 0/001 0/91 1 As is clear in Table 5, with pre-test between couples of experimental group and control group in terms of emotion regulation (p < 0/001 and F=289/39) there is a significant difference. In other words, self-compassion training according to the mean of emotion regulation of couples in experimental group compared to the control group causes an increase in emotion regulation of experimental group. The effect or difference is equal to 0/91. In other words, 91 percent of individual differences in emotion regulation post-test scores is related to the effect of self-compassion training. Table 6: Adjusted mean and standard deviation of emotion regulation in experimental and control groups variable experimental group control group emotion regulation X SD X SD 169/75 3/69 85/93 3/55 As seen in Table 6 the mean of emotion regulation post-test scores in the experimental group is more than in the control group. The increase in mean post-test scores on emotion regulation compared to control group is because of self-compassion training intervention in experimental group. Table 7: Results of analysis of covariance ANCOVA on the mean follow-up emotion regulation score of the experimental and control groups with pre-test control variable sum of DF mean of F p effect statistical squares squares size power emotion regulation 35535/ /74 528/54 0/001 0/92 1 As is evident in Table 7, with pre-test control in follow-up period among couples in the experimental group and the control group in terms of emotion regulation (p < 0/001 and F=528/54) there is significant difference. In other words, self-compassion training according to the mean of couple's emotion regulation at follow-up stage (one-month) compared to the mean of control group, leads to continuity of increase in emotion regulation of couples in experimental group. The effect for emotion regulation is 0/92, 92 percent of individual Page 731

7 differences in emotion regulation follow-up scores is related to the effect of self-compassion training. Table 8: Adjusted mean and standard deviation of emotion regulation in experimental and control groups variable experimental group control group emotion regulation X SD X SD 178/64 2/96 85/09 2/85 As seen in Table 8 the mean of emotion regulation follow-up scores in the experimental group is more than in the control group. The increase in mean follow-up scores on emotion regulation compared to control group is because of self-compassion training intervention in experimental group. Discussion and conclusion The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of self-compassion training on emotion regulation of married women refering to family counseling. According to the results became clear, with pre-test control between couples of the experimental group and the control group, in terms of emotion regulation there is significant difference. In other words, selfcompassion training according to the mean of couple's emotion regulation in experimental group compared to the control group causes an increase in emotional regulation of experimental group. Results of follow-up revealed that self-compassion training on enhancing emotion regulation of couples is stable. The result of the study is compatible with study of Rahdar and Attari (2013), Abdar (2012), sajadi (2010), Ghanad (2008), Danson (2015), Pilfid (2014), Deminof (2013) and Steven (2010), which concluded that Protocol of compassion training causes difference in emotion regulation of the experimental group compared to the control group in post-test scores, and compassion training causes increase in emotion regulation. In explaining the results of the study should be noted that, in married life, the regulation of positive and negative emotions can cause marital satisfaction. Vayzinger (2000) stated, emotion regulation causes people regulate negative and positive emotions and understand the situation, and learn how to manage their emotions, and the organizing improves the mental capacity and people's life satisfaction. It must be said that, in this study it was determined that self-compassion training causes increase in emotion regulation of couples. It can be said, in self-compassion training to couples because of knowledge of the inability and discomfort of the self in emotions control, rather than placing to value on it,was strengthened, and the over-identification of negative emotions was prevented, causes emotion regulation of couples, the ability to monitor on emotions of the self, the ability to successfully meet the demands of wife, requirements, environmental pressures as well as identify personal abilities in face with negative emotions in life, and self-compassion training in couples with individual self-compassion, self-kindness during the period of suffering, disappointment or failure, and refrain from rigor to themselves when upset, or view the unfavorable and not lovely aspects of individual personality (low self-criticism and judgment), caused couples with difficulties and overcome them, and identify individual competences in dealing with situations, with a positive focus and disciplined planning, and assess the situation, mental and Page 732

8 motivational processes and self-acceptance, allow themselves to well express their emotions and maintain their health and emotional integrity. Neff (2003) stated that consciousness, placing the thoughts and feelings at balance, and avoiding over-identification, cause self-regulation in various dimensions. Self-compassion training in couples causes smart growth and the ability to switch unpleasant emotions, the ability to engage or escape from a negative emotion appropriately, the ability to wisely control emotions, and by the regulation of negative emotions, positive emotions increase caused emotion regulation of couples. Finally can be said, self-compassion training, because cuts the feel of cut off and away from others or isolation during the period of discomfort and increases effort to understand the emotions and development of personal vision of emotions with self-awareness and mindfulness, allowing the couple to obtain higher consciousness and have better self-control and have lower feel of despairing, thoughts of self-blame and unpleasant feelings, and with emotion regulation makes the situation of couples compliance with environment, and person is efficient in front of the issues and led to couples experience more emotional balance. So self-compassion training in couples can cause emotional cohesion, adaptation of new adaptive behaviors, the assessment of positive emotions and negative emotions and increase in emotion regulation. As a result can be said that selfcompassion training has effect on the increase in emotion regulation of couples. Because of the study population is limited, in generalizing the results need to be cautious. It is recommended that counseling centers and family pay attention to the effectiveness of selfcompassion training because of the positive effects on enhancing emotion regulation of couples. It is recommended that custodians of the family in areas of the court and well-being pay attention to the effect of effective training methods such as self-compassion training and provide policies for couples who disagree on the emotional aspects due to effective method of self-compassion training for couples can be used more widely. In the end, it is recommended that high quality video and audio facilities, training CDs of self-compassion training sessions by researchers and therapists with financial support from the relevant agencies be prepared, and be available in the form of training package for experts in the field of families and couples due to couples optimum use of the research. Page 733

9 References Abdar, M. (2012). The impact of self-compassion training on emotion regulation and resilience of married people. Master's thesis. Islamic Azad University of Grammar. Ahmadi N. (2013). Relationship of emotion regulation with marital conflicts in student couples. Thesis. Islamic Azad University of Ahvaz. Bent, S. & Goleman, T. (2001). Emotional alchemy: How the mind can heal the heart. New York: Three Rivers Press. Besharat, M.A. (2009). A preliminary study on the psychometric characteristics of cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire. Research Report. University of Tehran. Campbell, T.L. (2013). The Effectiveness of Family Interventions for Physical Disorders. Journal of Marital and Family. 29 (2): Danson, R. (2015). The effect of self-compassion on the resilience and emotion regulation of marital woman. Journal of Personality assessment, 63 (2), Deminof, L. (2013). The efficacy of self-compassion on the adversity quotient, Emotion Regulation of marital woman. Journal Anxiety Disorder, 2010; 11: Ghanad, M. (2008). The relationship between marital satisfaction and emotion regulation with self-compassion of teachers. Master's thesis. Islamic Azad University of Marvdasht. Gilbert, P. (2009). Social mentalities: Internal social conflicts and the role of inner warmth and compassion in cognitive therapy. In P. Gilbert & K.G. Bailey (eds.), Genes on the Couch: Explorations in Evolutionary Psychotherapy, pp Hove: Brenner-Routledge. Hasani, J. & Azad Fallah, P. & Rasoul Zadeh, K. & Ashayari, H. (2012). Evaluation of cognitive emotion regulation strategies on the neurosis and extraversion aspects. New Journal of psychological, Year 10, Number 1-13: 4. Hin, Y. (2014). Self-compassion, achievement goals, and coping with academic failure. Self and Identity, 4, Leary, M., Tate, E., Adams, C., Allen, A., & Hancock, J. (2007). Self-compassion and reactions to unpleasant self-relevant events: The implications of treating oneself kindly. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 92(5), Malek Mohammadi, F. (2013). The relationship between emotion regulation with jocundity and mental health of students. Master's thesis. Islamic Azad University of Grammar. Neff, K.D. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and Identity, 2, Page 734

10 Neff, K.D. (2013). Self-compassion and its link to adaptive psychological functioning. Journal of Research in Personality, 41, Pilfid, H. (2014). The efficacy of self-compassion on obsessive rumination, depression and resilience. Journal of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 15, Rahdar, N. & Attari, SH. (2013). Effectiveness of self-compassion on emotion regulation and resilience in couples. Health Magazine. Year 7 (3): Rezvan, Sh. & Bahrami, F. & Abedi, M. (2011). The impact of emotion regulation on happiness and rumination of students. Quarterly of new findings in Psychology, Volume 5, Number 43-56: 8. Ryff, C., Ketelear, L., & Wiefferink, C. H. (2010). Assessing empathy in young children: construction and validation of an empathy questionnaire. Journal Personality and individual differences, in press. Sajadi, M. (2010). Effectiveness of self-solidarity on emotion regulation and flexibility couples action. Master's thesis. Islamic Azad University of Semnan. Setodeh, H. (2010). Social pathology. Twenty-first edition. Tehran: Avaye no. Stiween, S. (2010). The efficacy of self-compassion group therapy on to Adversity Quotient, marital satisfaction and emotion regulation of M.S. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, pp Veen, R. (2014). The effect of self-compassion on the happiness, resiliency and marital satisfaction of marital. New York: Reidel publishing company. Vimz, B., & Pina, W. (2010). The assessment of emotion regulation improving construct validity in online do I, 10, 1007, S Page 735