The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our daily lives and restricted access to traditional psychological interventions. Hence there is an immediate and growing demand for accessible and scalable mental health solutions. Emotion-focused training for self-compassion and self-protection was developed and distributed using mobile phone technologies, and its effectiveness was tested. The available research sample consisted of 97 participants with a mean age of 26.06 years and a standard deviation of 10.53. Participants using the mobile app underwent a 14-day program aimed at reducing self-criticism while increasing self-compassion and self-protection. Pre- and post-measurements were collected. The results showed a statistically significant medium effect on self-compassion, self-criticism, and self-protection performance and a significant small effect on self-protection distress. The finding that a 14-day mobile app was able to foster well-being in the form of self-compassion, self-protection, and self-criticism is promising. It indicates the potential for individuals to obtain help through the use of remote tools such as MHapps for a fraction of the usual cost, at their own pace, and without other restrictions.

IntroductionBeing self-compassionate is considered a beneficial emotion regulation strategy. Therefore, the acquisition of emotional skills can raise self-compassion levels and consequently reduce self-criticism.MethodsHence, the goal of the current study was to develop a mobile app based on the empirically proven group version of Emotion-Focused Training for Emotional Coaching (EFT-EC) and test its effectiveness in reducing self-criticism and raising self-compassion and self-protection. The sample consisted of 85 participants, of whom 22.4% were men and 77.6% were women. The mean age was 32.53 (SD = 14.51), ranging from 18 to 74 years. The participants filled out the following scales immediately before and after using the fourteen-day mobile app: The Forms of Self-Criticizing/Attacking & Self-Reassuring Scale (FSCRS), The Sussex-Oxford Compassion for the Self Scale (SOCS-S), and The Short-form Version of The Scale for interpersonal behaviour (s-SIB).ResultsUse of the 14-day EFT-EC mobile app significantly improved self-compassion and self-reassurance and significantly reduced self-criticism compared to pre- and post-measurements.DiscussionThe results are promising as self-criticism is a transdiagnostic phenomenon observed in various kinds of psychopathology and reducing it may prevent the emergence of psychopathologies. Moreover, the mobile app intervention can easily be accessed by a wide range of users, without requiring the services of a mental health professional, and thereby reduces the potential risk of shame or stigmatization.

Competitive pressures are increasing demands on managerial performance and, thus, on creating effective management development programs. The purpose of this study was to compare group and individual approaches to developing line and middle managers. The Managerial Tools and Managerial Training Simulator programs were used, with 256 managers participating. We examined the following five soft management skills: effective goal setting, giving feedback and evaluating performance, accepting feedback as a manager, management coaching, and leading discussions and team meetings using a facilitative leadership style. After both types of development programs, both groups of managers showed improvements in developing skills as assessed by their subordinates. At the first measurement, individual and group development resulted in the same positive increase in subordinates' perceptions. However, in terms of a long-term effect (the second measurement), this positive increase was maintained for the individual development programs but not group programs, where it decreased. Thus, the effect of the individual development programs appears to be longer-term. Overall, we found no significant difference between line and middle managers - both groups responded similarly to the development activities. Regarding developing individual skills, the smallest change was found in the ability to set goals and provide feedback. The most considerable change was the ability to accept feedback, coach, and facilitate. This research provides information for specialists in education and development and may help select appropriate leadership development tools, particularly for individual programs with longer-term impacts.