Investigating the influence of self-compassion on coping with job rejection

Abstract

This research explored whether self-compassion buffers people against perceived threat in the face of job rejection and enables them to invest their internal resources in job hunting again. It also examined whether intrinsic-improvement orientation toward job hunting moderates the relation of self-compassion to the reinvestment of resources. In Study 1, a total of 153 Japanese undergraduates responded to a hypothetical scene about being rejected at a job interview for a sought-after company. Results indicated that self-compassion was negatively related to perceived threat and that the positive relation of self-compassion to resource reinvestment in job hunting was significant only among those high in intrinsic-improvement orientation toward job hunting. In Study 2, a total of 50 job-hunting students recalled their own job rejections and reported on how they had coped with them. Results replicated the main findings of Study 1, indicating that self-compassionate people are less likely to overestimate threat from their rejection and that they are more likely to reinvest their internal resources in job hunting when they are high in intrinsic-improvement orientation toward it.