key: cord-0903106-yxkobcw9
authors: Di Fabio, Annamaria; Saklofske, Donald H.
title: The relationship of compassion and self-compassion with personality and emotional intelligence in organizations
date: 2020-05-11
journal: Pers Individ Dif
DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2020.110109
sha: 336cc16621ebc9e30e303c3402240b325d0dc3e3
doc_id: 903106
cord_uid: yxkobcw9

The two studies presented in this article examine the relationships of personality traits and trait emotional intelligence (EI) with compassion and self-compassion in samples of Italian workers. Study 1 explored the relationship between trait EI and both compassion and self-compassion, controlling for the effects of personality traits in 219 workers of private Italian organizations. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that trait EI explained variance beyond that accounted for by personality traits in relation to both compassion and self-compassion. Study 2 analyzed the contribution of trait EI in mediating the relationship between personality traits and both compassion and self-compassion of 231 workers from public Italian organizations with results supporting the mediating role of trait EI.

Regarding the association between compassion and well-being, a brief compassion training with a sample of healthy adults resulted in participants' experiencing higher positive affect compared to a control group (Klimecki, Leiberg, Lamm, & Singer, 2012) . People who receive compassion appear to recuperate faster from physically from illness (Brody 1992) and psychologically from grief (Bento 1994 , Doka 1989 . Compassion satisfaction felt by nurses was positively associated with well-being (Kim & Yeom, 2018; Kim et al., 2017) and inversely associated with burnout (Kim et al., 2017) .

Extending compassion to the self, self-compassion refers to a regulation strategy in which feelings of worry or stress are not avoided but instead being open and sensitive to one's own suffering, experiencing feelings of care and kindness to oneself, taking an attitude of understanding and not judging one's own inadequacies and failures, and recognizing that one's own experience is part of the common human experience (Neff, 2003) . Self-compassion is also associated with feelings of compassion and concern for others so that being compassionate towards oneself does not mean being focused only on one's own personal needs (Neff, 2003) . In particular, self-compassion acknowledges that suffering, failure, and inadequacy are part of the human condition and all people, including themselves, are worthy of compassion (Neff, 2003) .

Research on self-compassion has shown increased performance and benefits in overcoming mental barriers, aversive thoughts, fear of failure, and negative emotions (Neff & Knox, 2017) . Other studies have reported positive associations of self-compassion to goal mastery (Neff, Hsieh, & J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f Lim, & Consedine, 2018) . Self-compassion is considered a resilience factor that promotes wellbeing at work (Dev et al., 2018) while showing inverse associations with emotional exhaustion and burnout at the workplace (Alkema, Linton, & Davies, 2008; Dev et al., 2018) .

Compassion and self-compassion have been linked with personality traits grounded in models including the BIG 5 and the HEXACO (Arslan, 2016; Goetz, 2008; Graziano & Eisenberg, 1997; Neff, 2003; Neff, Rude, & Kirkpatrick, 2007; Oral & Arslan, 2017; Thurackal, Corveleyn & Dezutter, 2016) . With personality traits being such key predictors of human behaviour, it is not surprising to find that compassion shows a positive relationship with agreeableness (Goetz, 2008; Graziano & Eisenberg, 1997) while self-compassion appears to be inversely related with neuroticism (Arslan, 2016; Neff, 2003; Neff, Rude, & Kirkpatrick, 2007; Oral & Arslan, 2017; Thurackal, Corveleyn & Dezutter, 2016) .

Strength-based preventive studies (Di Fabio & Saklofske, 2014a , 2014b have also identified emotional intelligence as a promising primary prevention resource (Di Fabio & Kenny, 2011 , 2015 , 2016b since it is amenable to training, in contrast with personality traits which are somewhat more stable (Costa & McCrae, 1992) . The two major descriptions of emotional intelligence (Stough, Saklofske, & Parker, 2009 ) include ability-based models (Mayer & Salovey, J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f Sheena, & Sladea, 2018 , Vesely, Saklofske, & Nordstokke, 2014 Vesely-Maillefer & Saklofske, 2018) . Nightingale et al. (2018) reviewed 22 papers that explored the relationship between EI and caring behaviour in health care professionals but only one study specifically centered on relationships between EI and compassion. Dafeeah, Eltohami, and Ghuloum (2015) showed that higher EI results in higher nurse/physician self-reported emotional care/compassion compassionate attitudes toward patients with HIV.

In a related vein, Zeidner et al. (2013) , reported that compassion fatigue defined as the negative consequence of working with patients in combination with a deep, personal, empathetic orientation (Abendroth, 2011) was inversely associated with both trait emotional intelligence and ability-based emotion management in health-care professionals. A more recent study of nurses (Beauvais, Andreychik, & Henkel, 2017) showed that compassion fatigue was inversely associated with ability based emotional intelligence whereas compassion satisfaction showed a positive relationship.

Regarding the self-compassion and EI, Neff (2003) highlighted that self-compassion was related the ability to monitor one's own emotions and the ability to skillfully use this information to guide 

This study examined the relationships of both compassion and self-compassion with trait EI factors, controlling for the effects of personality traits (Big Five model) with a sample of workers in private Italian organizations.

The following research questions were examined: trait EI factors are positively associated with compassion and self-compassion, and EI will add additional variance to that accounted for by the Big Five personality traits in relation to compassion and self-compassion.

Two hundred and nineteen workers from private Italian organizations participated in the study (54% men, 46% women). The participants ranged in age from 25 to 64 years (M = 40.83, SD = 9.26). The participation rate was 91%. not at all true of me to 7 = completely true of me). The scale provides a total score and scores for five dimensions that include recognizing suffering, understanding the universality of suffering, emotional connection, tolerating uncomfortable feelings, and acting to help/alleviate suffering. The total score (alpha reliability coefficient = .83) was used in the present study.

Self-Compassion Scale (SCS). The Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003) , translated into Italian by Di Fabio (2017b) includes 26 items answered on a 5-point Likert scale (1= almost never to 5 = almost always). The six compassions dimensions assessed by the SCS include: self-kindness, selfjudgement, common humanity, isolation, mindfulness, and over-identification. The total SCS scale with a Cronbach alpha coefficient of .82 was used in the present study.

The questionnaires were administered to small groups by trained psychologists. The order of administration was counterbalanced to control the possible effects of presentation of the instruments. The instruments were administered according to the requirements of privacy and informed consent of Italian law. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's r correlations and hierarchical regressions were calculated.

Means, standard deviations, and correlations between the BFQ, TEIQue-SF, CS, and SCS are shown in Table 1 . Table 1   Table 2 shows the results of hierarchical regression model with compassion as the dependent variable and the BFQ entered at the first step followed by the four dimensions of trait EI at the second step.

J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f Please insert Table 2 With regard to compassion, personality traits accounted for 36% of the variance at step one and the four dimensions of trait EI added a further 20%, accounting overall for 56% of the variance. Table 3 shows the results of hierarchical regression model with self-compassion as dependent variable and with BFQ at the first step and the four dimensions of trait EI at the second step.

Personality traits accounted for 52% of the variance in self-compassion at step one and the four dimensions of trait EI added only 6%, accounting overall for 58% of the variance. Table 3 5

The present study examined the relationship between both compassion and self-compassion, personality traits (Big Five model) and trait EI dimensions including an analysis of the relationships of the combined effects of personality and trait EI.

Trait EI was significantly associated with compassion and added substantial incremental variance beyond personality. In particular, emotionality showed the strongest relationship with compassion indicating that individuals who are able to recognize and express their emotions (Petrides, 2009; Petrides & Furnham, 2001 ) also perceive themselves as more compassionate (Gu et al., 2017) .

Emotionality, together with the trait EI factors of self-control and well-being, appear to be a key While EI did not account for a large amount of additional variance beyond personality traits in relation to self-compassion, self-control and well-being showed the strongest relationships. This suggests that managing one's own emotions (self-control) and having positive personal emotional strengths (well-being) (Petrides, 2009; Petrides & Furnham, 2001 ) may contribute to increased openness and sensitivity to one's own suffering, experiencing feelings of care and kindness to J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f oneself, taking an attitude of understanding and not judging one's own inadequacies and failures, and recognizing that one's own experience is part of the common human experience (Di Fabio, 2017b; Neff, 2003) .

Following from the results obtained above, Study 2 further examined the relationship between personality, EI and compassion and self-compassion but focused on whether trait EI mediates these relationships. In relation to compassion, we hypothesized that: the trait EI dimensions of emotionality, self control and well-being will mediate the relationship between agreeableness and compassion, and that emotional stability will be positively correlated with both trait EI dimensions and self-compassion. For self-compassion, we predicted positive correlations with trait EI dimensions (self-control and well-being) and that trait EI dimensions (self-control and well-being) will mediate the relationship between emotional stability and self-compassion. We considered EI as a mediator in the relationships between personality traits and compassion and self-compassion because EI is amenable to training (Di Fabio & Kenny, 2011) in contrast to personality traits that are considered to be relatively stable (Costa & McCrae, 1992) . As well, EI mediated compassion satisfaction (Valavanis, 2019) and showed consistent positive associations with criteria for wellbeing (Austin, Saklofske, & Egan, 2005).

Means, standard deviations, and correlations for the BFQ, TEIQue-SF, CS, and SCS are shown in Table 4 .

Please insert Table 4 The five personality factors were positively and significantly correlated with all TEIQue factors with one exception and also showed significant correlations with compassion and with one exception, self-compassion. For the TEIQue, emotionality (.64), well-being (.57), and self-control (.48) showed significant correlations with compassion. Subsequently we performed three mediation analyses, using the personality trait of agreeableness as the independent variable, given that it had the highest correlation with compassion, and the three TEIQUE dimensions of emotionality, wellbeing and self-control as mediators, again because of their higher correlations with compassion.

Agreeableness was positively and directly associated with compassion and also indirectly associated with compassion through emotionality. As can be seen in Figure 1 , participants who had higher agreeableness perceived themselves to have more emotionality (a = .37) and in turn, perceived also themselves to have more compassion (b = .96). A bias-corrected bootstraps confidence interval for the indirect effect (ab = .36) based on 5000 bootstrap samples was entirely J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f compassion. This was followed by two mediation analyses, using the personality traits of emotional stability as the independent variables and the two TEIQUE dimensions of self-control and wellbeing as mediators.

Emotional stability was positively and directly associated with self-compassion and also indirectly through self-control. Figure 4 shows that participants with higher emotional stability view themselves as having more self-control (a = .33) and in turn, as feeling more self-compassion (b = .88). A bias-corrected bootstraps confidence interval for the indirect effect (ab = .29) based on 5000 bootstrap samples was entirely above zero (.18 to .42). The effect of emotional stability on selfcompassion was reduced after controlling self-control, although remaining significant (path c' in Figure 1 ; p < .001): these results therefore indicated a partial mediation model, with R 2 = .31, p < .001).

Please insert Figure 4 The second mediation model further showed that emotional stability was directly and positively associated to self-compassion as well as indirectly through well-being. Figure 5 shows participants who had higher emotional stability rated themselves as having greater sense of more well-being (a = .19) who then further reported greater feelings of self-compassion (b = .74). A bias-corrected bootstraps confidence interval for the indirect effect (ab = .14) based on 5000 bootstrap samples was entirely above zero (.08 to .21). The effect of emotional stability on self-compassion was reduced after controlling well-being, although remaining significant (path c' in Figure 1 ; p < .001):

these results therefore indicated a partial mediation model, with R 2 = .14, p < .001).

Please insert Figure 5 The link between agreeableness and compassion is in line with previous research (Goetz, 2008; Graziano & Eisenberg, 1997) . The trait EI facets of emotionality, self-control, and well-being dimensions were positively correlated with compassion confirming the results obtained in Study 1.

Furthermore, the relationship between agreeableness and compassion was mediated by emotionality; well-being and self-control results supported a partial mediation model see also Di Fabio, 2019; Gu et al., 2017) . The interaction between agreeableness, emotionality and compassion is in line with recognizing emotions in self and others, being able to express emotions to others, and manifesting empathy and sharing fulfilling personal relationships (Petrides & Furnham, 2001; Petrides, 2009 ).

The findings of this study also supported previous research suggesting that emotional stability is associated with self-compassion (Arslan, 2016; Neff, 2003; Neff et al., 2007; Oral & Arslan, 2017; Thurackal et al., 2016 ) (H4). The trait EI facets of self-control and well-being were positively associated with self-compassion, confirming the results obtained in Study 1 and previous research (Heffernan et al., 2010; Neff, 2003; Senyuva et al., 2014) (H5) . Furthermore, the relationship between emotional stability and self compassion was mediated above all by self-control and the well-being EI facets, although the results indicated a partial mediation model. These findings highlight the promising contribution of trait EI dimensions, especially self-control, as a mediator between emotional stability and self-compassion (Di Fabio, 2017b; Neff, 2003) .

The two studies presented in this article have added to the reported relationships between personality traits, trait emotional intelligence (EI) and both compassion and self-compassion in two samples of Italian workers. Study 1 examined the relationships of both compassion and self-Journal Pre-proof J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f compassion with trait EI, controlling for the effects of the Big Five personality traits. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that trait EI (in particular, the emotionality dimension) accounted for variance in compassion beyond personality. Furthermore, trait EI and especially self-control explained a percentage of variance beyond that accounted for by personality traits in relation to selfcompassion. Study 2 further verified that specific trait EI dimensions mediated the relationships between Big Five personality traits and both compassion and self-compassion. This study showed the promising contributions of the TEIQue dimension of emotionality in mediating the relationship between agreeableness and compassion, and of the TEIQue dimension of self-control in mediating the relationship between emotional stability and self-compassion. Taken together these findings show important contributions between the major individual differences constructs of EI and personality in relation both compassion and self-compassion. Such findings have particular relevance for building human capacity that includes desirable qualities such as compassion, which, in turn, has implications for our interactions with others as well as self-care. EI has been shown to be dynamic in the sense that it can be increased or enhanced (Vesely-Maillefer & Saklofske, 2018) .

In combination with personality factors such as agreeableness, EI factors including emotionality may be key in the development and manifestation of compassion. The ever increasing research findings and applications gleaned from positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005) have clearly shown the benefits to psychological health and well-being of individuals, organizations, and society. As shown in the literature review earlier in this paper, compassion and self-compassion must certainly be regarded as one of the central tenets of positive psychology.

Notwithstanding these promising results, it is necessary to note some limitations of the two studies reported here. The participants were Italian workers from the Tuscany region and thus future research should extend the study to workers from different geographical areas of Italy and other countries and also to include different target groups (e.g., unemployed, general population). Future studies should also consider demographics and background variables, for example gender, age and J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f seniority at work as potential intervening factors. Future research could also explore relationships with other models of trait emotional intelligence (e.g., Bar On, 1997) and ability-emotional intelligence l (Mayer & Salovey, 1997) as well also different personality models (e.g., Hexaco;

Ashton & Lee, 2009).

In conclusion, these two studies add support to the role of trait emotional intelligence as an important and even primary factor in developing and promoting both compassion and selfcompassion. Emotional intelligence education and training may be regarded as a key component in strength-based programs (Di Fabio & Saklofske, 2014a , 2014b intended to support healthy organizations and workers (Di Fabio, 2017a; Peiró & Rodríguez, 2008; Tetrick & Peiró, 2012) . And compassion would seem to be a most powerful human emotion and expression that has far reaching implications for the self, others and the world we live in.

J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f Table 1 

Note. N = 219. ** p < .01. * p < .05. Step 2

TEIQue Well-being .12* 

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