(PS1-47) Exploring Qualitative Responses of Self-Compassion, Cognitive Reappraisal and Control Writing Tasks Among Individuals with High Social Anxiety: A Lab-Based Study

Self-compassion and cognitive reappraisal writing exercises have been found to result in similar positive outcomes in the context of social stressors. Recent efforts to code the qualitative responses produced by participants in such studies have found that there is overlap between self-compassion and reappraisal. Among participants high in social anxiety, past coding has only been examined in one online study. The purpose of the present study was to examine responses to these guided writing exercises for a sample of participants high in social anxiety in the lab. More specifically, the aim of the present research was to analyze the qualitative responses from an in person self-compassion induction compared to a reappraisal exercise and control writing exercise among those with elevated social anxiety. 

Participants with high social anxiety (N = 157 students) came into the lab and were asked to recall and write about a past speech where they felt judged by others. They were then randomly assigned to one of three conditions: self-compassion (n = 52), cognitive reappraisal (n = 53) or control (n = 52) where they were guided to write about the past speech using writing prompts according to their condition. Based on past coding, it was hypothesized that those in the self-compassion condition would have greater coded self-compassion levels compared to both other conditions. It was also hypothesized that the self-compassion and reappraisal conditions would be coded as higher on reappraisal than controls. All written responses were coded by two research assistants for levels of self-compassion and for levels of reappraisal. On average, good agreement was found between raters (ICC = .72).

There was a significant difference between conditions on the amount of self-compassion expressed in the written responses F (2,157) = 80.91, p < .001. Consistent with hypotheses, a Tukey HSD post-hoc found that those in the self-compassion condition (M = 2.80 SD = 0.99) wrote significantly more self-compassionately than those in the control (M = 0.41, SD = 0.66) and reappraisal conditions (M = 1.88 SD = 1.14), p’s < .001. Additionally, those in the reappraisal condition wrote significantly more compassionately than those in the control condition, p</em> < .001.There was also a significant difference between conditions on the amount of reappraisal coded, F (2, 157) = 55.11, p < .001. A Tukey HSD post-hoc found that those in the self-compassion condition (M = 2.02, SD = .65) displayed significantly more reappraisal than those in the control condition (M = .89 SD = .59), p < .001 but did not differ significantly from the reappraisal condition (M = 2.15 SD =.91), p = .93. Additionally, those in the reappraisal condition displayed significantly more reappraisal in their written responses than those in the control condition, p</em> < .001. The results of this study build on past studies showing that guiding individuals to write self-compassionately also leads them to reappraise. Similarly, guiding individuals to reappraise leads to self-compassion.