Consensual Qualitative Research of Compassion and Self-Compassion Definitions: A General Public Perspective

Even though compassion for others and for the self are important indicators of mental and physical health and well-being, scientists vary greatly in defining them. Therefore, we examined how the public defines compassion for others and self and explore what are the similarities or differences between researchers´ definitions and public´s definitions of compassions as well as between compassion and self-compassion themselves. 305 members of public defined compassion and self-compassion using their own words, of which we randomly selected 35 for the analysis. The definitions have been analysed using the modified Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR-M) method. The research team composed of three researchers: two core team members and one auditor. Since the domains in both definitions of compassion and self-compassion emerged matching and their proportions turned out to be similar too, we are inclined to side with the proposition that these two constructs are comparable in certain, particularly cognitive, and behavioural areas. However, differences in some categories and subcategories make us believe that they are likely to be processed in a different way. Definitions provided by the study participants majorly correspond with theoretical concepts and definitions of compassion and self-compassion of Gilbert (2009) and Strauss et al. (2016).