Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cognitive Complexity, Mindfulness, And Reflection In Mental Health Professionals, Dharshini Goonetilleke

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In this cross sectional quantitative investigation, the relationships among mental health professionals' cognitive complexity, mindfulness, and reflection were explored. To determine if there was a correlation between mindfulness and cognitive complexity, a Pearson's correlation was conducted: There was a strong positive correlation between mindfulness and cognitive complexity. To determine whether observing and describing (two key variables of mindfulness) could predict counselor overall cognitive complexity, a simultaneous multiple regression was conducted. The observing subscale significantly predicted counselor cognitive complexity and the describing subscale did not significantly predict mindfulness. To determine if there is a correlation between mindfulness and reflection, a Pearson's …

Utopia: An Integrated Stepped-Care Program For Stress Reduction, Antoinette Cornute Booth

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This research culminates in a design for an integrative psychological program aimed at reducing the stress of indicated patients at an Upstate New York obstetric and gynecologist (ob/gyn) practice.The program is named Utopia.This dissertation focuses solely on program development, not program implementation.The Utopia program is based on evidence-based practices and empirically supported research regarding Mindfulness, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Interpersonal Theory (IPT), the Psycho-Oncology Consultant Model (POCM) of care, and stepped-care treatment models.The target population is patients who experience various aspects of stress due to medical and/or psychological symptomology.Patients are referred based on their scores on a program-modified stress …

Evaluating The Immediate Impacts Of Brief Mindfulness Versus Lovingkindness Meditation, Jamie Rae Forsyth

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Although meditation has been around for centuries, it’s only recently that the utility of such an ancient practice has gained popularity within Western psychology. A vast body of literature supports the notion that meditation can have important impacts on suffering and psychopathology; however, few studies have evaluated differential effects between various forms of meditation. The aims of this study are threefold: 1) to determine if a brief meditation can have immediate effects on an individuals’ mood, 2) to determine the validity of two different types of meditations (mindfulness and lovingkindness) and 3) to evaluate the differential efficacy of the two …

The Effect Of Internally Versus Externally Focused Balance Training On Mindfulness, Kathleen J. Pantano, Jeremy E. C. Genovese

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The purpose of this study was to determine how alternative types of instruction provided during a 6-week balance exercise program affect mindfulness. A sample of 63 college students was recruited for the study. Group 1 (N = 33) received a 6-week balance exercise intervention instructed with an internal focus of attention (IFA). Group 2 (N = 30) received the same intervention, but exercises were instructed with an external focus of attention (EFA). Mindfulness was measured at baseline and at 6 weeks using the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI). Baseline FMI scores between groups were similar (Group 1: 41.6; Group 2: 41.3), …

Abating Prejudice With Presence: Dispositional Mindfulness Increases Interracial Helping Behavior, Justin Tubbs, Daniel R. Berry, Kirk Warren Brown

Undergraduate Research Posters

Helping behavior is less frequently shown toward members of social out-groups (Cikra, Bruneau, & Saxe, 2011). Race defines a common source of social division in America and other countries, and although most condemn racial discrimination, helping is undermined in interracial interactions (Saucier, Miller, & Doucet, 2005). Recent theory suggests that mindfulness, a receptive attention to one’s present experience, can attenuate the conceptual boundaries that typically separate and distance oneself from others (Trautwein, Schmidt, & Naranjo, 2014). We designed an experiment to examine whether dispositional mindfulness would be associated with increased helping behavior in interracial contexts. Self-identifying White participants ( …

Promoting Prosocial Responsiveness Across Racial Divides Through Mindfulness, Chris J. Wall, Paul E. Plonski, Daniel R. Berry, Kirk W. Brown

Undergraduate Research Posters

In interracial and other intergroup interactions, prosocial emotions and actions are often undermined (Cikara & van Bavel, 2014). Perceiving psychological separateness between “us” and “them” – which is often an automatic, unintentional process – is psychological kindling for lower prosocial responsiveness that leads to prejudice, discrimination, aggressive conflict (Cikara, 2015). Recent research has shown that mindfulness, an open and unconditional attention to one’s present experiences, is associated with decreased automaticity and racial bias (Kang, Gruber, & Gray, 2013; Lueke & Gibson, 2014), barriers that hinder prosocial responsiveness (Trautwien, Schmidt, & Naranjo, 2014). Two experiments investigated whether brief mindfulness training promoted …

Meditations On The Machine, Stephanie Schapowal

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

I've been thinking a lot lately about the machine. In my last project the machine took on many different roles, many of which were very human. I recently found myself explaining to someone my empathy for machines and their personalities, and how they shouldn’t necessarily be struggled against or eliminated, but rather embraced. This made me realize my connection to machines is deeper than previously realized, and I wondered–

Can this role reversal work in the other direction? Can I become a machine?

By definition, what is the machine?

Mindful Fitness: Guidelines For Prenatal Practice, Kimberlee Bethany Bonura

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

Mindfulness exercise practices offer a form of physical activity which is uniquely suited to support both psychological and physical health during pregnancy. Mindfulness exercise practices, which include yoga, qi gong, tai chi, and martial art forms such as kung fu, karate, and tae kwon do, combine physical activity with deliberate breathing exercises and focused attentional strategies. The purpose of this article is to review the various forms of mindfulness exercise and outline basic guidelines for mindfulness exercise training during pregnancy.

Clinician Mindfulness Practice And The Implications For Burnout Mitigation: Mindfulness As A Values Component Of Self-Care, Stephanie Wachter

Counselor Education Theses

Over 40 years after Freudenberger (1975) introduced the term, burnout remains a critical concern among mental health clinicians. Many researchers in recent decades have focused their attention upon burnout prevention, exploring the practices of clinicians, and proposing the possible factors at-play in counselor, therapist, and social workers’ resiliency in the face of vicarious trauma, and other burnout factors. Mindfulness is a growing area of interest in this course of study, with yoga, meditation, and visualizations as some of the exercises associated with the practice and its apparent benefits. This qualitative study examined mindfulness as a component of mental health clinician …

Self-Compassion, Mindfulness And Wellbeing In Counselors-In-Training, Lea Fairbanks

All Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine if self-compassion and mindfulness predict wellbeing in counselors-in-training. The sample was made up of counselors-in-training from CACREP accredited programs in the WACES region of the United States (N=45). Data was collected from three scales including the Self-Compassion Scale, Five Facet Mindfulness Scale and the Psychological Wellbeing Scale. To analyze the data, a simultaneous regression was used to determine if self-compassion and mindfulness significantly predicted wellbeing in counselors-in-training. The results showed that self-compassion and mindfulness was positively correlated with wellbeing and significantly predicted 64.9% of the variance in wellbeing for counselors-in-training. The results …

From Intra- To Inter-Personal: Effects Of Mindfulness Training On Emotion Regulation In Social Contexts, Jordan T. Quaglia

Theses and Dissertations

The social and emotional lives of people are highly interdependent. Incipient evidence suggests that attention may also play an essential role in determining one’s social and emotional well-being. Mindfulness, as a manner of attending, entails greater moment-to-moment awareness to internal and external events, and is thought to have both intra- and inter-personal benefits. Here a study of mindfulness training (MT) examined whether training mindful attention would improve emotion regulation in social contexts as indexed by neural, behavioral, and experience sampling measures. More specifically, 60 participants in romantic relationships were randomly assigned to either four brief (20 min.) MT sessions or …

How Therapists Use And Choose Mindfulness To Treat Trauma, Jessica M. King

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

This qualitative study used the phenomenological method to examine how therapists use mindfulness therapies and interventions to address trauma-salient issues with their clients. Specifically, it explored therapists’ use of and choices about mindfulness-based treatments when addressing post-traumatic stress symptoms, and trauma-relevant emotion dysregulation and attachment injury. Informants were associate and fully-licensed local therapists, recruited using convenience sampling and snowball sampling by word-of-mouth referrals. Data was collected by semi-structured interviewing. Interview data was analyzed with Moustakas’ (1994) recommended procedures for analysis of phenomenological data. Results, Discussion, Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research are described at the end.

A Mindfulness-Based Intervention To Improve Family Functioning Among Child Welfare-Involved Families With Substance Use, Samantha Marie Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the frequent co-occurrence of parental substance misuse and child maltreatment, the field lacks feasible and effective intervention and strategies designed to meet the complex needs of child welfare-involved families with substance misuse. Mindfulness demonstrates promise in cultivating awareness and self-regulatory capacities, thereby reducing stress and substance use and improving parent-child interactions. The purpose of this mixed methods, randomized clinical trial was to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement adapted for child welfare families (MORE-CW), and to test initial treatment effects on proximal (i.e., parental stress, autonomic activity during a stress-induced state and recovery [heart rate variability], …

Depressive Symptoms And Alcohol-Related Problems Among College Students: A Moderated-Mediated Model Of Mindfulness And Drinking To Cope, Adrian J. Bravo, Matthew R. Pearson, Leah E. Stevens, James M. Henson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective: In college student samples, the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol-related problems has been found to be mediated by drinking-to-cope motives. Mindfulness-based interventions suggest that mindfulness may attenuate the conditioned response of using substances in response to negative emotional states, and trait mindfulness has been shown to be a protective factor associated with experiencing fewer alcohol-related problems. In the present study, we examined trait mindfulness as a moderator of the indirect associations of depressive symptoms on alcohol-related problems via drinking-to-cope motives. Method: Participants were undergraduate students at a large, southeastern university in the United States who drank at least …

Effect Of Mindfulness Training On Interpretation Exam Performance In Graduate Students In Interpreting, Julie E. Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations

Many graduate interpreting students struggle because the real-time, interactive nature of interpreting dictates that they be able to regulate their attention across different parallel cognitive activities and manage the inherent stress and unpredictability of the task. Within the framework of Cognitive Load Theory, this mixed-methods study explored the effect of short-term mindfulness training on consecutive interpreting exam performance using a quasi-experimental repeated-measures design. It also examined the relationships among mindfulness, stress, aspects of attention, and interpreting exam performance. The sample included 67 students (age M = 26.9 years; 82% female) across seven language programs (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, …

The Impact Of Mindfulness Meditation On Students' Creativity, Paige Poure

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Researchers have suggested a link between mindfulness meditation and increased creativity. Specifically, meditation seems to promote improved divergent thinking (Colzato et al., 2012). I sought to better understand mindfulness meditation and creativity by addressing the differential effects of brief meditation on divergent and convergent thinking, as well as investigating decreased anxiety and increased executive control as potential mechanistic mediators of this relationship. In a laboratory experiment 40 Butler University undergraduate students participated in either a sham or mindfulness meditation exercise, followed by several creativity assessments as well as measures of anxiety and executive control. The findings show that mindfulness meditation …

The Lived Experiences Of Counselor Educators Using Mindful Teaching Approaches, Abby E. Dougherty

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have indicated that mindful teaching approaches support students and educators throughout the learning process. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of counselor educators with a daily mindfulness practice in the classroom with culturally diverse students. Relational-cultural theory (RCT) was the conceptual framework. Relational cultural theory concepts of relational connections and disconnections were used to explore the participants' lived experiences implementing a mindful teaching approach. Purposeful sampling yielded 10 participants who participated in semi-structured interviews. Using an inductive approach, the data were analyzed to identify essential themes. Thematic analysis was conducted by hand …

Cultivating Resilience : Antidotes To White Fragility In Racial Justice Education, Katherine E. Roubos

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This qualitative study explores what skills, tools and approaches may be helpful antidotes to white fragility in racial justice education. This study is in response to the challenge posed by white fragility, as defined by Robin DiAngelo (2011) in which white people experience such extreme emotions in response to learning about racism in the USA that they become either defensive such that they are unable to engage in a learning experience, or so swept up in guilt or shame that they require substantial emotional tending in order to continue to engage in the educational experience. Robin DiAngelo frames this phenomenon …