Katy Sine, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, andWendy Birmingham, Brigham Young University, United States
published in the Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Love and Relationship Studies, 6-8 March, 2026
You can see the full video recording of this presentation at the YouTube channel of the International Institute of Love Studies
Introduction
Self-love has garnered some scholarly recognition as essential to psychological well-being (Henschke & Sedlmeier, 2023). Still, empirical research on self-love remains limited and fragmented, and the concept remains somewhat controversial. Prior research has largely conflated self-love with constructs, such as self-esteem, self-compassion, or narcissism (Neff, 2003; Fredrickson, 2013; Campbell & Baumeister, 2003; Bushman & Baumeister, 1998). Therefore, self-love remains an inconsistently defined construct, often conflated with other associated concepts.
Conceptualization of self-love as whole self-love in this study is based on the following theoretical ideas:
(1) Aristotle’s philautia as a model of healthy self-love;
(2) Fromm’s (1964) “whole love” as an unconditional life force;
(3) Judeo-Christian ethics of loving others as oneself;
(4) Eastern philosophies recognizing inner divinity as a foundation for connection.
Whole self-love is defined as an accurate, active, unconditional, and integrative form of love toward the self, encompassing both the desirable and undesirable aspects of one’s being.
A pilot study developed the Whole Self-Love Scale (WSLS) and provided preliminary evidence supporting the discriminant validity of construct from both theoretically similar constructs (e.g., self-compassion, self-esteem, self-liking) and dissimilar constructs (e.g., narcissism, contingencies of self-worth, negative affect) (Sine, 2019).
The aim of this study was to further validate the WSLS and clarify its conceptual distinctiveness by examining its associations with emotional, social, personality, well-being, and health outcomes.
Methodology and Methods
The Whole Self-Love Scale (WSLS) is a 10-item self-report measure developed through qualitative interviews and iterative item refinement. Items reflect central aspects of whole self-love, including awareness of both desirable and undesirable aspects of the self, and an unconditional, enduring motivation to support one’s well-being in both positive and challenging circumstances. Items are phrased as first-person statements, such as “Even when I don’t like myself, I still love myself,” and “I love myself with all my imperfections.” Responses are rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from not like me at all to very much like me, yielding a total score that reflects overall levels of whole self-love.
Participants from a cross-sectional, nationally representative U.S. adult sample (N = 1,000) completed the online survey that included the WSLS along with measures of affect, emotion regulation, social connection, personality traits, depression, social anxiety, well-being, and self-rated health. Data was analyzed examining internal consistency reliability, exploratory factor analysis, and evaluation of convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity to assess the scale’s psychometric properties. Spearman’s rank-order correlations were used to examine associations between whole self-love and psychological outcomes.
Results of the Study
The WSLS demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α = .96), with all items loading strongly on a single factor, supporting its unidimensional structure. Whole self-love showed strong positive correlations with life satisfaction, positive affect, and balanced affect. It was moderately to strongly associated with social connection, cognitive reappraisal, self-rated health, and adaptive personality traits such as conscientiousness and agreeableness supporting convergent validity, although the reliability of the personality trait measures ranged from low to unacceptable.
Negative correlations were observed with depression, loneliness, negative affect, neuroticism, social anxiety, and expressive suppression, indicating lower emotional distress and maladaptive regulation among individuals with higher self-love. Importantly, the association with narcissism was negative and small (r = −.21), providing strong evidence for discriminant validity and distinguishing whole self-love from inflated or self-aggrandizing self-regard. Collectively, the pattern of results supports the WSLS as a psychometrically sound and theoretically distinct measure of non-narcissistic self-love.
Discussion and Conclusions
Results of the study support evidence that whole self-love is a valid, adaptive, and non-narcissistic form of self-regard. Its positive association with social connection and inverse relationship with loneliness challenge assumptions that self-love promotes egoism, hyper-independence, or social disengagement. Associations with cognitive reappraisal and balanced affect suggest benefits for emotional integration and regulation. Thus, the WSLS offers a psychometrically sound tool for future research, including longitudinal studies, cross-cultural validation, and the exploration of self-love in therapeutic and preventive mental health contexts.
References
Bushman, B. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (1998). Threatened egotism, narcissism, self-esteem, and direct and displaced aggression: Does self-love or self-hate lead to violence? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 219–229. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.219
Campbell, W. K., & Baumeister, R. F. (2003). Narcissism, self-esteem, and the positivity of self-views: Two portraits of self-love. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(4), 469–482. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202250910
Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Love 2.0: How our supreme emotion affects everything we feel, think, do, and become. Hudson Street Press.
Henschke, A., & Sedlmeier, P. (2023). What is self-love? Redefinition of a controversial construct. The Humanistic Psychologist. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000306
Neff, K. D. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and Identity, 2(2), 85–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860309032
Sine, K. (2019). Love’s liberation: The science of whole self-love (Master’s capstone project, University of Pennsylvania). ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/entities/publication/0f88c71e-1c2f-47e8-a18a-8812bb5ed685
Key words: Self, individual, social connection, emotion regulation, well-being