The relationship between personality, self-compassion, and social interest levels of psychological counsellor candidates

A cross-sectional research design was used to examine the relationship between personality, self-compassion and social interest levels of 351 psychological counsellor candidates. Data were collected with the Personality Test of Adjectives, the Self-Compassion Scale Short Form, and the Social Interest Index. Correlation and regression analyses were used to analyze data. A moderately negative relationship was found between self-compassion and neuroticism, while a moderately positive relationship was found between extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness, and a low-level positive relationship was found between agreeableness. While a moderate negative relationship was observed between social interest and neuroticism, a moderate positive relationship was found between extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and responsibility. Personality explained 47.6% of the variance regarding self-compassion and 42.2% of the variance regarding social interest.