Major
Psychology
Second Major
Biology
Advisor
Dr. Juliana Breines
Advisor Department
Psychology
Date
5-2018
Keywords
Implicit Association Test; Self-compassion; Depression; Anxiety
Abstract
Typically, research on self-compassion and mental health has used the measurement tool of self-report (explicit) surveys to examine self-compassion. Implicit Association Tests (IAT) can be applied to a number of di erent constructs, some of which include racial biases, gender stereotypes, and suicidal ideation. ey are used to measure the strength of a person’s automatic association between two concepts (in this case, between self and compassion). By measuring implicit self-compassion, a researcher can expect less self-report bias related to self- presentational concerns and the limits of introspection, and they can capture psychological processes that occur without full conscious awareness but still in uence a person’s thoughts and behaviors. Prior research suggests that people with low self-compassion may be especially vulnerable to negative mental health outcomes. e goal of this Honors project was to evaluate college students’ implicit self-compassion through a Self-Compassion IAT that was based on the already existing self-esteem IAT (Greenwald and Farnham, 2000), and then compare it to other constructs, including explicit self-compassion, compassion for others, self-esteem, depression, and anxiety through self-report surveys. e results of this study may aid future researchers in looking for better ways to avoid bias when measuring certain psychological constructs, and knowing how to recognize if a person may be vulnerable to negative mental health outcomes.
Summary of Project