Exam Study Guides

Three components and their shadows (self-kindness/self-judgment, common humanity/isolation, mindfulness/over-identification) and the SYSTEM claim (mindfulness as prerequisite; why the whole exceeds the parts). Informal definition. Dukkha; the two arrows (first = pain, second = optional suffering). The Four Immeasurables (metta, karuna, mudita, upekkha). Transmission: 1893 Parliament → insight teachers → Kabat-Zinn 1979 (the secularization template: course, manual, measurable) → Neff 2003 (construct + scale) → Germer/MSC 2010 → RCT 2012. What changed vs. survived in translation. Neff (2003b): what operationalization required; SCS structure; reverse-scoring — what it is and why. State vs. trait preview.

Self-esteem: James's ratio; the movement and its reckoning (Baumeister review — feeling good ≠ causing good outcomes); contingent self-worth (Crocker's stock market). Neff & Vonk (2009): stability of self-worth, less contingency, less comparison, the narcissism contrast; correlational limits. Killingsworth & Gilbert (2010): experience sampling, ~47%, wandering precedes unhappiness; the DMN's three jobs. Suffering = Pain × Resistance; backdraft — why it happens, the three steps, backdraft vs. "this floods me." Myths as hypotheses. Breines & Chen (2012): design (random assignment; the self-esteem control), the four findings, why experiments buy "increases." Neff et al. (2005): mastery vs. performance goals; fear of failure as mechanism. Loving-kindness: wishes vs. affirmations; Wood et al. (2009) backfire finding and its mechanism (counterargument); phrase design specs; needs vs. wants.

Leary et al. (2007): everyday events, diaries; less negative emotion, less catastrophizing, MORE responsibility-taking; held controlling self-esteem; the induction study. The critic's functional account (bodyguard; safety); discernment vs. contempt; kindness with a spine. Gilbert's three circles (threat/drive/soothing; soothing = caregiving system; self-criticism = attacker and attacked). Why touch/tone/long-exhale are the practice inputs. Svendsen (2016) HRV correlate; Berry (2020) training alters pain response; calibration of the mechanism literature. Values vs. goals vs. norms; the energy test; Zhang (2019) authenticity; Lindsay & Creswell (2014). Measurement: factor analysis in one breath; the two-factor/self-coldness case (item overlap with pathology) vs. the defense (bifactor general factor; system claim; interventions move both poles); current practice (report subscales; suspicion of negative-item-driven correlations); state vs. trait SCS.

Neff & Germer (2012): pilot→RCT, waitlist control, gains maintained 6 mo/1 yr; what waitlists rule out (time, retesting, regression) and don't (expectancy, attention, belonging). Smeets (2014): 3 weeks, ACTIVE control — why that's a stronger sentence. Dundas (2017): 2 weeks. Ferrari (2019) meta-analysis: effect size as common ruler; pooled effects (large on SC, moderate on distress); the critiques (waitlist inflation, self-report, volunteers). The calibrated conclusion. The mirror: which critiques apply to your own project.

Five stages of acceptance; one notch, not the staircase. Three handles: affect labeling (Creswell/Lieberman — amygdala), bodily maps (Nummenmaa 2014), soften–soothe–allow + the warning label (side effect, not goal). Why anger is excluded (armored/protective → fierce toolkit). Guilt vs. shame (Tangney: behavior vs. self; repair vs. hide). The three paradoxes mapped to components (innocent/wish-to-be-loved → kindness; universal → common humanity; temporary-partial → mindfulness). Gilbert & Procter (2006): compassionate mind training — training warmth, not just insight. Johnson & O'Brien (2013): experimental; SC writing about shame vs. expressive writing; rumination at follow-up. Shame runs on silence.

The evidence ladder: cross-sectional → prospective → treatment. Krieger (2013): outpatients; associations via rumination/avoidance; the arrow problem. Hiraoka (2015): veterans; baseline SC predicted 12-month PTSD severity CONTROLLING baseline symptoms — why that clause matters. Trauma pacing caution. Turk & Waller (2020) meta: eating pathology/body image; risk marker vs. protective factor vs. treatment target. CFT: "insight without warmth"; train the delivery system (soothing system); evidence calibrated (promising; younger than CBT; best for high shame).

Sbarra (2012): observer-rated SC from recorded speech; divorce adjustment over 9 months; why observer ratings escape the self-report bubble. Körner & Schütz (2024): actor AND partner effects. Two pains: disconnection vs. connection. Neff & Pommier (2013): the near-zero SC↔other-compassion correlation in undergrads; meditators integrate. Empathy vs. compassion; Klimecki (2014): empathy training → distress, compassion training → positive affect; "compassion fatigue" as empathy fatigue; equanimity ≠ detachment. Yarnell (2015): d ≈ .18, men slightly higher; why the intuition fails; norms > sex. Wasylkiw & Clairo (2018): SC ↔ openness to counseling in men. Fierce vs. tender SC. Neff et al. (2008): Thailand > US > Taiwan; practices of self-relation, not East/West; SC→wellbeing in all three; measurement invariance. Religion: bridges (grace/common humanity), frictions, adaptations work (Rezapour-Mirsaleh 2024).

Negativity bias (Rozin & Royzman; Velcro/Teflon); savoring as permission; gratitude evidence (Emmons & McCullough 2003; Wood et al. 2010); the weaponized-gratitude caveat; self-appreciation and the ubuntu bridge; maintenance rules.