The goal of this study was to identify differences between high and low self-critical participants in relation to compassionate facial expressions. Our convenience sample consisted of 151 participants aged 18–59 years old (M = 25.17; SD = 7.81). The highest and the lowest scoring participants in self-criticism were selected for final analysis (N = 35). Participants, at home alone, watched a short video stimulus eliciting compassion while their facial expressions were recorded using webcams. Out of the sample we selected the highest 10% and the lowest 10% of self-critical participants according to the Slovak norms of The Forms of Self-Criticizing/Attacking and Self-Reassuring Scale. Two certified Facial Action Coding System raters (FACS) coded the participants’ muscular activity according to facial action units. The FACS analysis revealed that action units 4 – brow lowerer, 7 – lids tight, 43 – eyes closed, 45 – blink, 55 – head tilt left, and 56 – head tilt right occurred significantly less often in high self-critical participants than in low self-critical participants, controlling for the difference between the baseline and compassionate moments in the video stimulus. Our research found that participants high in self-criticism were less facially expressive than those low in self-critical when watching compassionate video.
BaránkováM.HalamováJ.GablíkováM.KoróniováJ.StrnádelováB. (2019). Analysis of spontaneous facial expression of compassion elicited by the video stimulus. Československá Psychologie, 63(1), 75–89.
BatesD.MaechlerM.BolkerB.WalkerS. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01
4.
CamposR. C.BesserA.BlattS. J. (2013). Recollections of parental rejection, self-criticism and depression in suicidality. Archives of Suicide Research, 17(1), 58–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2013.748416
5.
DunnP. K.SmythG. K. (1996). Randomized quantile residuals. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 5(3), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.2307/1390802
6.
EkmanFriesenHager (2002). Facial Action Coding System: Facial action coding system: the manual: on CD-ROM. Research Nexus.
7.
FalconerC. J.LobmaierJ. S.ChristoforouM.KambojS. K.KingJ. A.GilbertP.BrewinC. R. (2019). Compassionate faces: Evidence for distinctive facial expressions associated with specific prosocial motivations. PloS One, 14(1), Article e0210283. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210283
8.
FennigS.HadasA.ItzhakyL.RoeD.ApterA.ShaharG. (2008). Self-criticism is a key predictor of eating disorder dimensions among inpatient adolescent females. The International Journal of Eating Disorders, 41(8), 762–765. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.20573
9.
GamerM.LemonJ.Puspendra SinghI. F. (2012). Irr: Various coefficients of interrater reliability and agreement. Version 0.84https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=irr
10.
GelmanA.HillJ. (2006). Data analysis using regression and multilevel/hierarchical models. Cambridge University Press.
GilbertP.ClarkeM.HempelS.MilesJ. N.IronsC. (2004). Criticizing and reassuring oneself: An exploration of forms, styles and reasons in female students. The British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 43(Pt 1), 31–50. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466504772812959
13.
GilbertMcEwanMatosRivis (2011). Fears of compassion: Development of three self-report measures. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, research and practice, 84(3), 239–255.
14.
GilbertP.ProcterS. (2006). Compassionate mind training for people with high shame and self-criticism: Overview and pilot study of a group therapy approach. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 13(6), 353–379. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.507
15.
HalamováJ. (2018). Sebasúcit a sebakritickosť: Tvorba a meranie efektu intervencie. Univerzita Komenského V Bratislave.
16.
HalamováJ.KanovskýM.GilbertP.TroopN. A.ZuroffD. C.HermantoN.PetrocchiN.Sommers-SpijkermanM.KirbyJ. N.ShaharB.KriegerT.MatosM.AsanoK.YuF.BasranJ.KupeliN. (2018). The factor structure of the forms of self-criticising/attacking & self-reassuring scale in thirteen distinct populations. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 40(4), 736–751. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-018-9686-2
17.
HalamováJ.KanovskýM.KoróniováJ. (2019). Heart rate variability differences among participants with different levels of self-criticism during exposure to a guided imagery. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 5(4), 371–381. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-019-00122-3
18.
HalamováJ.KanovskýM.PacúchováM. (2017). Robust psychometric analysis and factor structure of the Forms of Self–criticizing/Attacking and Self–reassuring Scale. Československá Psychologie, 61(4), 331–349.
19.
HalamováJ.KanovskýM.PacúchováM. (2018). Item-response theory psychometric analysis and factor structure of the self-compassion and self-criticism scales. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 77(4), 137–147. https://doi.org/10.1024/1421-0185/a000216
20.
HalamováJ.KoróniováJ.BaránkováM. (2019). Differences in guided imagery between high and low self-critical participants: Consensual qualitative research analysis. The Qualitative Report, 24(12), 2977–2996. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3891
21.
HarrisonX. A.DonaldsonL.Correa-CanoM. E.EvansJ.FisherD. N.GoodwinC. E. D.RobinsonB. S.HodgsonD. J.IngerR. (2018). A brief introduction to mixed effects modelling and multi-model inference in ecology. PeerJ, 6: e4794, Article e4794. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4794
KanovskýM.BaránkováM.HalamováJ.StrnádelováB.KoróniováJ. (2020). Analysis of facial expressions made while watching a video eliciting compassion. Perceptual and Motor Skills. Online First Publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0031512519897512
24.
KimJ. J.KentK. M.CunningtonR.GilbertP.KirbyJ. N. (2020). Attachment styles modulate neural markers of threat and imagery when engaging in self-criticism. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 13776–13810. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70772-x
25.
Kopala-SibleyD. C.ZuroffD. C.HankinB. L.AbelaJ. R. (2015). The development of self-criticism and dependency in early adolescence and their role in the development of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(8), 1094–1109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215590985
26.
KoróniováJ.HalamováJ.DžongováZ. (2020). Differences in Electromyography during Self-Compassionate and Self-Critical imageries according to the level of self-criticism. In press. Sudia Psychologica.
27.
LongeO.MaratosF. A.GilbertP.EvansG.VolkerF.RockliffH.RipponG. (2010). Having a word with yourself: Neural correlates of self-criticism and self-reassurance. NeuroImage, 49(2), 1849–1856. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.09.019
28.
LöwC. A.SchauenburgH.DingerU. (2019). Self-criticism and psychotherapy outcome: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 75, 101808. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2019.101808
29.
MatosM.PetrocchiN.IronsC.SteindlS. R. (2022). Never underestimate fears, blocks, and resistances: The interplay between experiential practices, self-conscious emotions, and the therapeutic relationship in compassion focused therapy. Journal of Clinical Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23474
30.
McEwanK.GilbertP.DandeneauS.LipkaS.MaratosF.PatersonK. B.BaldwinM. (2014). Facial expressions depicting compassionate and critical emotions: The development and validation of a new emotional face stimulus set. PloS One, 9(2), Article e88783. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0088783
NakagawaS.JohnsonP. C. D.SchielzethH. (2017). The coefficient of determination R2 and intra-class correlation coefficient from generalized linear mixed-effects models revisited and expanded. Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 14(134), 20170213. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2017.0213
33.
NakagawaS.SchielzethH. (2013). A general and simple method for obtaining R2 from Generalized Linear Mixed-effects Models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 4(2), 133–142. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-210x.2012.00261.x
34.
R Core Team (2018). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org/
35.
RoseA. V.RimesK. A. (2018). Self-criticism self-report measures: Systematic review. Psychology and Psychotherapy, 91(4), 450–489. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12171
36.
ShaharB.DoronG.SzepsenwolO. (2015). Childhood maltreatment, shame-proneness and self-criticism in social anxiety disorder: A sequential mediational model. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 22(6), 570–579. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.1918
37.
StrnádelováB.HalamováJ.KanovskýM. (2019a). Eye-tracking of facial emotions in relation to self-criticism and self-reassurance. Applied Artificial Intelligence, 33(10), 839–862. https://doi.org/10.1080/08839514.2019.1646004
38.
StrnádelováB.HalamováJ.KanovskýM. (2019b). Identification of primary facial emotions in relation to level of self-criticism. Perception, 48(10), 948–967. https://doi.org/10.1177/0301006619870399
ZuurA. F.IenoE. N. (2016). A protocol for conducting and presenting results of regression-type analyses. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 7(6), 636–645. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.12577
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
