Recent work has identified self-compassion, or, the tendency to treat oneself with kindness in the face of suffering or failure, as a promising target for well-being interventions. Although research focusing on self-compassion has increased exponentially in recent years, the mechanisms and boundary conditions of these interventions are still unclear. Some research posits emotion regulation as a mechanism in the relationship between self-compassion and positive outcomes, but many open questions remain. The present study was designed to address two main aims: first, to test two brief self-kindness exercises to identify unique benefits of thinking kindly of oneself relative to behaving kindly toward oneself. Second, I sought to experimentally, cross-sectionally, and longitudinally investigate the relationship between self-compassion and emotion regulation. To that end, 739 undergraduate students participated in a weeklong study, where they were randomly assigned to engage in either a cognitive self-kindness activity (i.e., self-compassion), a behavioral self-kindness activity, or a neutral activity. Most of my between-condition hypotheses were unsupported, although ancillary analyses suggest that specific participants—namely, Latinx and first-generation college students—may have uniquely benefited from the self-compassion exercise. Contrary to my predictions, engaging in behavioral self-kindness increased self-compassion relative to the control condition and, surprisingly, those who were instructed to practice self-compassion. Most of my hypotheses about the association between trait self-compassion and emotion regulation were supported, replicating and extending patterns identified in previous research. Further, results from multilevel growth models suggest that trait self-compassion uniquely predicts emotion regulation success and use of cognitive reappraisal over the course of 1 week. Overall, the present work builds on prior research linking self-compassion, well-being, and emotion regulation, but null and counterintuitive results suggest that more research is necessary to understand the complex relationships among these constructs.

Empirical research suggests that prosocial behavior (i.e., doing acts of kindness for others) leads to improvements in psychological well-being and physical health, including mortality. However, little work has focused on identifying the underlying biological mechanisms that may mediate the relationship between prosociality and physical health. In this pre-registered experiment, I tested whether a 4-week kindness intervention that has been demonstrated in previous work to elicit changes in pro-inflammatory gene expression (Nelson-Coffey, Fritz, Lyubomirsky, & Cole, 2017) could shift a related psychobiomarker of health – namely, leukocyte telomere length – as well as improve psychological health. Across a diverse community sample (N = 230), participants who performed three kind acts for other people each week for 4 weeks did not demonstrate hypothesized shifts in telomere length (i.e., reduced rates of shortening), nor in well-being and related constructs, relative to those who tracked daily activities (i.e., controls). Exploratory analyses revealed that, relative to controls, participants who performed three self-focused acts (i.e., kindness to the self) also did not demonstrate shifts in telomere length, but did report greater declines in loneliness across the intervention period, relative to controls, although this effect attenuated at the 2-week follow-up. However, participants who performed kind acts for others showed reductions in loneliness through the 2-week follow up, relative to controls. In conclusion, the salubrious effects of prosocial behavior may not likely to be due to the inhibition of cellular aging. However, kindness holds promise as a plausible intervention to alleviate the growing public health crisis of loneliness.

Are high aspirations harmful or beneficial? The hedonic adaptation prevention model posits that lofty aspirations are detrimental to well-being (Lyubomirsky, 2011; Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2012), yet other research suggests that happy people tend to have higher aspirations than their less happy peers (Jacobs Bao, 2012; Jacobs Bao, Boehm, & Lyubomirsky, 2013). The current study was designed to address the associations among height of aspirations, fulfillment of aspirations, and well-being. U.S. adults (N = 333) documented their well-being and aspirations over 12 weeks. Work and romantic relationship aspirations were reported each week, and fulfillment of those aspirations was assessed the following week. The height of the aspirations, as rated by objective coders, was not consistently related to well-being. However, higher aspirations were relatively less likely to be fulfilled, and lower fulfillment predicted lower well-being. Thus, high aspirations appear to be detrimental to well-being when those aspirations are not realized. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.