(2011) Cunha, Marina; Xavier, Ana; Castilho, Paula
This questionnaire is a 26 items and six subscales: Self-Kindness; Self-Judgement; Common Humanity; Isolation; Mindfulness; Over-Identification. Respondents were instructed with the sentence "how I typically act towards myself in difficult times" and were asked to answer each item according to a 5-point scale (1 = Almost Never; 5 = Almost Always). Subscale scores are computed by calculating the mean of subscale item responses. To compute the total score of SCS, the Self-Kindness, Common Humanity, and Mindfulness are summed with reverse scores of the Self-Judgement, Isolation, and Over-identification subscales. Higher scores indicate greater self-compassion.
The IES is a self-report instrument designed to measure current subjective distress for any specific life event and, specifically in this study, in relation to the shame memory nominated by the participants. This scale has 22 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale (0-4). The IES-R is composed by three subscales that measure the three main characteristics of traumatic memories: avoidance (e.g., "I stayed away from reminders of it"), intrusion (e.g., "Any reminder brought back feelings about it") and hyperarousal (e.g., "I was jumpy and easily startled") that parallel the DSM-IV criteria for PTSD.