Abstract
BackgroundThe primary aim of this study was to explore how metacognition, as implicated in Wells and Matthews’ metacognitive theory of emotional disorder, might relate to the concept of mindfulness, and whether metacognition or mindfulness best predicted symptoms of emotional disorder.MethodsData was collected from 224 community controls on the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), the Metacognitions Questionnaire-30 (MCQ-30), the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item (PHQ-9), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7), and the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory Revised (OCI-R).ResultsThe MCQ-30 and FFMQ subscales constituted two latent factors which appeared to assess metacognition and mindfulness. The FFMQ subscales nonjudging of inner experience and acting with awareness loaded on metacognition, while observing, nonreacting to inner experience and describing formed a unique mindfulness factor. Metacognition correlated strongly with symptoms of depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Regression analyses found metacognition to be an important predictor of symptoms explaining between 42 % and 49 % of the variance when controlling for age and gender, while mindfulness was a weaker predictor explaining between 0 % and 2 % of the variance in symptoms.ConclusionsThe structure amongst scales and the pattern of correlations with symptoms were generally consistent with the metacognitive theory which focuses on metacognitive beliefs, enhancing awareness of thoughts and disengaging extended processing.
Highlights
The primary aim of this study was to explore how metacognition, as implicated in Wells and Matthews’ metacognitive theory of emotional disorder, might relate to the concept of mindfulness, and whether metacognition or mindfulness best predicted symptoms of emotional disorder
When we refer to metacognitions in the current study, we refer to metacognitions as specified in this metacognitive model of emotional disorders and as operationalized by the Metacognitions Questionnaire30 (MCQ-30)
In conclusion, the results of the present study suggest that mindfulness and metacognition traits as assessed by the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and metacognitions questionnaire (MCQ)-30 can be described by two latent factors
Summary
The primary aim of this study was to explore how metacognition, as implicated in Wells and Matthews’ metacognitive theory of emotional disorder, might relate to the concept of mindfulness, and whether metacognition or mindfulness best predicted symptoms of emotional disorder. Metacognition was originally defined as knowledge or beliefs about thinking and strategies used to regulate and control thinking processes (Flavell, 1979). As such metacognition refers to cognition applied to cognition. Metacognition has since been developed as a basis for understanding and treating psychological disorders (Wells and Matthews, 1994; 1996). In this metacognitive theory of emotional disorders it is argued that disorder is associated with a non-specific style of thinking termed CAS. For a detailed theoretical discussion on metacognition in general (not restricted to Wells’ metacognitive model) and mindfulness confer Jankowski and Holas (2014)
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