Mindfulness Research Research Articles

Minding the Mindfulness Research in Healthcare: More Data on Diversity are Urgently Needed

Securing a residency position has become increasingly competitive, thereby making the interview crucial in matching successfully. In this commentary, what I consider “Ten Commandments” of a successful interview are elaborated. Although this is geared to those applying in dermatology, the principles are applicable for any medical student applying for a residency program.

Mindful Mindset, Interconnectedness and Dignity

There is a growing body of mindfulness research documenting the beneficial aspects of mindfulness to improve one’s psychological well-being. However, mindfulness research is also criticized for reducing mindfulness to a self-enhancement tool without sufficient engagement with issues of interconnectedness and growing health and income disparities. Drawing inspiration from Buddhism, social justice, critical theory and labor studies, I propose a mindful mindset framework with a specific focus on dignity to address this critique of using mindfulness merely as a self-enhancement tool. The mindful mindset has seven interrelated features: (a) compassion; (b) sympathetic joy; (c) situated intersectional awareness; (d) negative capability; (e) cultural humility; (f) wonder; and (g) generosity. A mindful mindset fosters interconnectedness so that we engage with our lives with a deeper commitment to dignity. Dignity as an embodied praxis has three components: personal, intersubjective and processual. Further, I discuss the relevance of mindful mindset and dignity for the well-being of youth.

Examining the Impact of a Single Session of Mountain Meditation on Attentional Scope

Leading theories propose that mindfulness broadens attentional scope (Dreyfus. Contemporary Buddhism, 12(1), 41-54. 2011; Garland et al. Psychological Inquiry, 26(4), 293-314. 2015). Empirical research has not yielded clear support for a link between mindfulness and adaptive change in attentional scope. In addition, much of this work has focused only on perceptual attention, and attentional scope has been typically assessed after but not before the intervention. In this study, we assessed mood and three components of attentional scope, including perceptual (peripheral vs. central), conceptual (accessibility of mental representations), and thought-action repertoires (accessibility of thoughts and actions one is prepared to pursue) before and after a mountain meditation vs. relaxation vs. control intervention in novice meditators (N = 219). Contrary to hypotheses, participants demonstrated a broadened scope of attention over time regardless of intervention, but we observed that 75% of participants exhibited a broad attentional scope prior to the intervention. Exploratory analyses of participants who exhibited a narrow attentional scope pre-intervention (N = 51) suggested that both mountain meditation and relaxation broadened conceptual attention but that mountain meditation was associated with greater thought-action repertoires than relaxation or control interventions. Methodological issues for mindfulness research are discussed.

A Psychometric Review and Conceptual Replication Study of the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire Latent Structure.

The Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) is a popular tool in mindfulness research. However, its psychometric qualities and its replicability have caused controversy. This study carried out a psychometric review and a conceptual replication of the FFMQ latent structure. The review showed that previous validation studies of the FFMQ used nonoptimal methods. In addition, this conceptual replication study tested the structure of the FFMQ using frequentist and Bayesian techniques. The original structure did not provide a good fit with both techniques, while the proposed alternative provided mixed results. We also found systematic fit improvements in both techniques when the Observe facet was excluded and method factors were included. With these findings, we conclude that the conceptual replication of the FFMQ's structure failed. Alternatively, we propose a new provisional FFMQ model with a set of recommendations regarding its application. Future research proposals on improving techniques and models toward mindfulness assessment are also presented and discussed.

Internalizing symptoms and loneliness: Direct effects of mindfulness and protection against the negative effects of peer victimization and exclusion

Drawing from dispositional mindfulness research and stress and coping theories, we tested whether adolescents’ dispositional mindfulness was associated with perceptions of peer victimization and exclusion and internalizing symptoms. We further explored the role of dispositional mindfulness as a protective factor buffering the impact of peer victimization and exclusion (PVE) on internalizing symptoms. Participants were 361 (40% boys) adolescents aged between 11 and 18 years (M = 14.9, SD = 1.4) who completed a questionnaire to assess dispositional mindfulness, perceptions of PVE, social anxiety and depressive symptoms, and loneliness. As expected, more frequent experience of PVE was associated with reporting more symptoms of social anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Further, adolescents who reported higher dispositional mindfulness also reported fewer symptoms of social anxiety, depression, and loneliness, even after controlling for gender and experiences of PVE. Dispositional mindfulness was not protective against (i.e., did not buffer) the effects of PVE on internalizing symptoms. Instead, we found that PVE had a stronger association with symptoms of social anxiety, depression, and loneliness when mindfulness was high relative to when it was medium or low. Yet, victimization was associated with greater social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and loneliness at all levels of mindfulness.

A Brief Review of the EEG Literature on Mindfulness and Fear Extinction and its Potential Implications for Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms (PTSS).

Neuroimaging studies in the area of mindfulness research have provided preliminary support for the idea of fear extinction as a plausible underlying mechanism through which mindfulness exerts its positive benefits. Whilst brain regions identified in the fear extinction network are typically found at a subcortical level, studies have also demonstrated the feasibility of cortical measures of the brain, such as electroencephalogram (EEG), in implying subcortical activations of the fear extinction network. Such EEG studies have also found evidence of a relationship between brain reactivity to unpleasant stimuli (i.e., fear extinction) and severity of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Therefore, the present paper seeks to briefly review the parallel findings between the neurophysiological literature of mindfulness and fear extinction (particularly that yielded by EEG measures), and discusses the implications of this for fear-based psychopathologies, such as trauma, and finally presents suggestions for future studies. This paper also discusses the clinical value in integrating EEG in psychological treatment for trauma, as it holds the unique potential to detect neuromarkers, which may enable earlier diagnoses, and can also provide neurofeedback over the course of treatment.

Comparative Effects and Social Validation of Support Strategies to Promote Mindfulness Practices Among High School Students

We compared the effects of support strategies for promoting formal mindfulness practices of 9th grade high school students who participated in a 10-week school-based mindfulness education program. The students also completed social validity ratings of the support strategies they selected and the formal mindfulness practices they learned. All of the support strategies were associated with increased average minutes of formal mindfulness practices. Students who did not select an extra support strategy also had increased minutes of formal mindfulness practices but of less magnitude in contrast to the two most effective strategies. The social validity ratings of the support strategies ranged from equivocal to good approval, and the students gave positive ratings to the majority of formal mindfulness practices. We discuss the implications of these findings for designing mindfulness education programs, implementing practice-promoting support strategies, and conducting mindfulness research with school children and youth.

A Roadmap for State Mindfulness Research

The state mindfulness induction experimental paradigm allows researchers to examine the state level changes of mindfulness, as well as to observe psychological consequences. Yet, the methodological...

Nonreactivity and Resilience to Stress: Gauging the Mindfulness of African American College Students

Resilience is a protective factor against stress and research indicates that mindfulness is associated with increased resilience. Few mindfulness studies have specifically focused on African American college students, who are at heightened risk to the effects of stress due to race-related factors such as social, economic, and political exclusion relative to their Caucasian counterparts, who have received the bulk of mindfulness research attention. It is important to understand how mindfulness is related to resilience within this population and to examine if specific components of mindfulness are particularly predictive of increased resilience. In this study, African American undergraduate students attending a Historically Black University administered the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). Mindfulness was found to be positively associated with resilience (r = .68). A multiple hierarchical regression indicated that the nonreactivity facet of mindfulness, the capacity to pause before responding to stimuli, explained the largest amount of unique variance (∆R2 = .11, p < .001) compared to acting with awareness (∆R2 = .07), nonjudging (∆R2 = .03), and describing (∆R2 = .02), as unique predictors. Results indicated that the capacity for nonreactivity may play a unique potentiating role in the relationship between mindfulness and resilience in African American college students, which could inform the development of college programming. The results indicate that it may be useful to create new mindfulness-based interventions specifically with the intention of building the skill of nonreactivity in order to cultivate resilience.

Towards a refined model of mindfulness related to consciousness: A systematic review of ERPs findings

Background Based on neuroimaging, behavioral and self-report evidences, four main cognitive mechanisms through which mindfulness works were described: – self-regulation of attention; – improvement of the emotional regulation; – better performance monitoring; – enhancement of the body awareness. Objectives Electrophysiological background using Event Related Potentials (ERPs) were used for evaluating this mechanistic model. Methods We performed a systematic review of studies including ERPs recordings acquired in relation to mindfulness. A total of 27 articles were included. Results Results showed that neural features of mindfulness were consistently associated with self-regulation of attention, and in most cases with lower emotional response to negative stimuli and improvement of performance monitoring. Enhancement of the body awareness was never investigated. We link these electrophysiological findings to models of consciousness and introduce an unique structure for the mechanistic model of mindfulness. This refined model assumes that mindful functioning could decrease the threshold access to consciousness. Conclusion We conclude with several working hypotheses that could direct future research in mindfulness and give some leads about how to clarify these hypotheses.

Mindfulness meditation for workplace wellness: An evidence map.

BACKGROUND:Mindfulness interventions aim to foster greater attention and awareness of present moment experiences. Uptake of mindfulness programs in the workplace has grown as organizations look to support employee health, wellbeing, and performance.OBJECTIVE:In support of evidence-based decision making in workplace contexts, we created an evidence map summarizing physical and mental health, cognitive, affective, and interpersonal outcomes from systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of mindfulness interventions.METHODS:We searched nine electronic databases to July 2017, dually-screened all reviews, and consulted topic experts to identify systematic reviews on mindfulness interventions. The distribution of evidence is presented as an evidence map in a bubble plot.RESULTS:In total, 175 systematic reviews met inclusion criteria. Reviews included a variety of mindfulness-based interventions. The largest review included 109 randomized controlled trials. The majority of these addressed general health, psychological conditions, chronic illness, pain, and substance use. Twenty-six systematic reviews assessed studies conducted in workplace settings and with healthcare professionals, educators, and caregivers. The evidence map shows the prevalence of research by the primary area of focus. An outline of promising applications of mindfulness interventions is included.CONCLUSIONS:The evidence map provides an overview of existing mindfulness research. It shows the body of available evidence to inform policy and organizational decision-making supporting employee wellbeing in work contexts.

Psychology's own mindfulness: Ellen Langer and the social politics of scientific interest in "active noticing".

Ellen Langer's mindfulness construct is presented as "indigenous" to disciplinary psychology. Langer's early work laid the foundations for the research program she would come to call the psychology of possibility. Studying inattentive behavior (mindlessness) and intentionally reflective cognition (mindfulness) placed her work directly in line with the theoretical priorities of the 1970s and influenced the direction of research in several subdisciplines related to social cognition. Positioning Langer's work at an intersection crossed by various discourse communities in psychology explains much of its influence within the discipline. However, its relevance is additionally related to a broader field of research and application also employing the terminology of mindfulness. While superficially synonymous, the majority of mindfulness research is distinguished from Langer's due to differences in origination, definition, and goals. Comparative assessments are used as a lens through which to interrogate the social politics of mindfulness theories' burgeoning success over the past half century.

Addressing Diversity in Mindfulness Research on Health: A Narrative Review using the ADDRESSING Framework

Addressing Diversity in Mindfulness Research on Health: A Narrative Review using the ADDRESSING Framework

Scoping Review of Mindfulness Research: a Topic Modelling Approach

As the volume of mindfulness research continues amassing exponentially, there have been attempts to review works in various aspects of mindfulness research systematically. The present study provides a scoping review via a topic modelling approach to supplement the overall research synthesis effort. Specifically, the objective is to scope the mindfulness research by identifying topics relevant to mindfulness research using the probabilistic topic modelling approach. A literature search based on “mindfulness” returned 5947 bibliographical records from the Web of Science Core Collection platform (for records up to 20 October 2017). The combined field of titles and abstracts was subjected to probabilistic topic modelling based on latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA). The optimal number of topics suggested was 106. Further interpretation by the research team resulted in a total of 231 Suggested Terms. The terms were further categorised into Condition/Issue, Construct/Philosophy, Modality, Population/Setting and Research Methodology. The topic modelling process obtained a panoptic view of mindfulness research, providing mindfulness researchers with some indicators regarding the range of topics researched. The outcome of this topic modelling effort has been made available at https://hdl.handle.net/10497/20862 .

Mindfulness in and as education: A map of a developing academic discourse from 2002 to 2017

Since the turn of the millennium there has been a clear rise in the implementation and research of mindfulness across primary, secondary and postsecondary education. These implementations, however, hardly constitute a uniform phenomenon. They reflect a variety of framings, modalities and educational aims, as documented in hundreds of peer‐reviewed papers. To date no overarching review has provided an empirically based mapping of this multifaceted and rapidly developing discourse. This paper offers a first‐of‐its‐kind map of mindfulness in education stemming from the 447 peer‐reviewed papers published between 2002 and 2017 that constitute this academic discourse, and based on grounded theory methodology. The research reveals an exponential rise in the amount of publications over years, with a complex discourse that evolves from seven different framings of the practice, applied to nine different educational domains and based on various types of implementation. It maps this complex discourse and describes its two main patterns to date as they emerged from the research: (1) Mindfulness in education, which comprises mostly of outsourced, secularised interventions aimed at improved mental–physical health, social–emotional learning and cognitive functions, (2) Mindfulness as education, which is a less common yet more transformative strand and manifests in contemplative pedagogy in higher education and in some rare whole‐school implementations. Overall, in the studied period mindfulness has been moving from near‐anonymity towards the mainstream; however, this discourse reflects a nascent phase given that it is only beginning to critique itself. Furthermore, its two patterns reflect a split discourse that is challenged by the practice's psychological–secular framing and its Buddhist framing.

Effects of Brief Mindfulness Exercise on Employment Interview Performance: An Exploratory Investigation

Over the past decade, an interest in mindfulness research and practice has emerged within industrial-organizational psychology. Recent studies have indicated the beneficial effects of mindfulness meditation for employee engagement, performance, health, and well-being (e.g., Dane & Brummel, 2014; Karlin, 2018; Reb, Narayanan, & Ho, 2015). In the current study, we investigated the effects of brief mindfulness-meditation exposure on interviewee performance in responding to interview questions in an employment interview. Participants were randomly exposed to either a guided mindfulness meditation or a lecture on nutritional benefits of various food sources before participating in a role play that involved reviewing a job description and answering structured interview questions. Participant responses to interview questions were scored by trained raters. Results suggest that participants exposed to brief mindfulness meditation performed better on the interview than those exposed to the nutrition lecture. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Mindfulness in organizations (part 1): a critical literature review

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the growing science and application of mindfulness as an intervention within organizations.Design/methodology/approachThis is the first in a pair of papers exploring the science and application of mindfulness in organizations. The first section of the paper provides a brief review of the research into mindfulness and its perceived benefits from a health perspective. In the second section, the author considers the neurobiological mechanisms behind mindfulness meditation, before finally considering the organizational research and the limitations of mindfulness at work research.FindingsThe paper notes that while there has been considerable research into health outcomes, organizational mindfulness research is still developing a comprehensive case for the wide-scale application of mindfulness.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper calls for greater research into organizational mindfulness interventions through collaborations between organizations and consultants.Practical implicationsThe paper calls for organizations to adopt an evidence-led approach to using mindfulness and evaluate its impact on employees and organizational performance.Originality/valueThe paper provides a starting point for trainers and organizational development professionals to take stock and consider how mindfulness can be employed as a tool for the benefit of organizations.

Effects of a Mindfulness Meditation App on Subjective Well-Being: Active Randomized Controlled Trial and Experience Sampling Study.

BackgroundMindfulness training (MT) includes a variety of contemplative practices aimed at promoting intentional awareness of experience, coupled with attitudes of nonjudgment and curiosity. Following the success of 8-week, manualized group interventions, MT has been implemented in a variety of modalities, including smartphone apps that seek to replicate the success of group interventions. However, although smartphone apps are scalable and accessible to a wider swath of population, their benefits remain largely untested.ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate a newly developed MT app called Wildflowers, which was codeveloped with the laboratory for use in mindfulness research. It was hypothesized that 3 weeks of MT through this app would improve subjective well-being, attentional control, and interoceptive integration, albeit with weaker effects than those published in the 8 week, manualized group intervention literature.MethodsUndergraduate students completed 3 weeks of MT with Wildflowers (n=45) or 3 weeks of cognitive training with a game called 2048 (n=41). State training effects were assessed through pre- and postsession ratings of current mood, stress level, and heart rate. Trait training effects were assessed through pre- and postintervention questionnaires canvassing subjective well-being and behavioral task measures of attentional control and interoceptive integration. State and trait training data were analyzed in a multilevel model using emergent latent factors (acceptance, awareness, and openness) to summarize the trait questionnaire battery.ResultsAnalyses revealed both state and trait effects specific to MT; participants engaging in MT demonstrated improved mood (r=.14) and a reduction of stress (r=−.13) immediately after each training session compared with before the training session and decreased postsession stress over 3 weeks (r=−.08). In addition, MT relative to cognitive training resulted in greater improvements in attentional control (r=−.24). Interestingly, both groups demonstrated increased subjective ratings of awareness (r=.28) and acceptance (r=.23) from pre- to postintervention, with greater changes in acceptance for the MT group trending (r=.21).ConclusionsMT, using a smartphone app, may provide immediate effects on mood and stress while also providing long-term benefits for attentional control. Although further investigation is warranted, there is evidence that with continued usage, MT via a smartphone app may provide long-term benefits in changing how one relates to their inner and outer experiences.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT03783793; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03783793 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/75EF2ehst)

Generalized Pliance in Relation to Contingency Insensitivity and Mindfulness

Conceptual accounts of pliance, a particular class of rule-governed behavior, propose that its generalization precipitates insensitivity to direct contingencies. Accordingly, a context of mindfulness has been theorized to influence the way in which rules function and facilitate effective contact with such contingencies. Despite the profound implications of these conceptualizations, there is a dearth of empirical support for their claims. This study aimed to investigate self-reported generalized pliance as a predictor of sensitivity to changing schedules of reinforcement and mindfulness. Forty young adults completed the Generalized Pliance Questionnaire (GPQ), Contingency-shifting variant Iowa Gambling Task (csIGT), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory—Short Form. Analyses revealed that higher scores on the GPQ were predictive of lower mindfulness and sensitivity to changing contingencies on the csIGT and WCST with medium to large statistically significant effect sizes. The findings support the aforementioned conceptual accounts and have implications for novel research in mindfulness.

A Critical Methodological Review of Mixed Methods Designs Used in Mindfulness Research

There is growing recognition of the importance and value of integrating quantitative and qualitative research in the same study to provide a better understanding of a research question, to capture the complexity of an experience, and for generating more questions of interest for future studies. As the interest in adopting a mixed methods approach in mindfulness research continues to grow, details can be lacking in terms of how a study was conducted and the procedures used to analyze and interpret the data. In an attempt to understand the pattern of how mixed methods research was used in mindfulness research, we conducted a critical methodological review using content analysis. Specifically, mixed methods articles related to mindfulness research were evaluated in terms of how the articles included key components of mixed methods research designs. From our sample (N = 35), none of the articles included all of the recommended components (explicitly state the mixed methods design, the mixed methods research question(s), the rationale for mixed methods, the priority of the strands, and cite mixed methods literature) in a published mixed methods research study. Findings reveal the growing acceptance of mixed methods studies in mindfulness research and the need for more rigor when using mixed methods designs. Researchers are encouraged to clearly outline the reasons for their design and their research questions. This article provides recommendations and can serve as a reference for mindfulness research using mixed methods designs.