Psychology Commons^™

Skills To Support Mental Health In Uncertain Times, Part 2: Cultivating Awareness, Heather H. Kelley, Rachel Byers, Ty Aller, Timothy Keady

All Current Publications

Uncertainty and worry can be a common struggle for many people, whether they are uncertain about their jobs, health, or relationships. Events such as COVID-19 and the recent wars in Israel and Ukraine increase the stress and uncertainty many people face. This fact sheet discusses awareness, a fundamental part of psychological flexibility, which can help individuals maintain a high quality of life—even when experiencing uncertainty and mental health concerns.

Making Mindfulness More Accessible: A Practical Guide To Trauma-Informed Mindfulness, Leslie Formby

Mindfulness Studies Theses

Mindfulness is currently embedded in a growing understanding of how trauma permeates and adversely impacts peoples’ physical and psychological well-being. Increased awareness of the prevalence of trauma and its harmful effects has led to renewed interest in mindfulness to help manage the challenges generated by the detrimental effects of trauma.

These effects may draw people to mindfulness and, in turn, may make the benefits of mindfulness out of reach. Mindfulness methods and practice adaptations have been found to help trauma survivors experience the benefits of what the Buddha taught. As a support for those engaging in mindfulness and meditation, this …

A Mindfulness Intervention For Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Ashley N. Ries, Steven M. Gerardi Phd, Otd, Mss, Otr, Mary Horne Lcsw

Spring 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

Every day, many United States veterans are suffering from the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Responses to trauma may vary from person to person; however, a diagnosis of PTSD includes the individual experiencing clinically significant distress in their social and occupational areas of functioning. The impact of PTSD on a veteran’s life could impact their ability to carry out activities of daily living, decrease the amount of social participation they have, and limit their ability to perform instrumental daily activities, such as grocery shopping. Mindfulness is the practice of paying full attention to the present moment, without judgment, and …

The Breath As A Holistic Regulator: An Expressive Arts Therapy Community Project, Jacobita Munoz

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This capstone offers the idea that evolution has challenged appropriate breathing and led humans to breathe incorrectly, thus negatively affecting their physical and mental health. As breath can damage the body, it can also serve as a regulator of the mind and body. This thesis points out the multiple effects when uniting controlled respiration, drumming and nature sounds. Breathing, music and nature have many things in common. These include repetition, pattern, awareness of the present moment and relaxation. They all contain a rhythm, and they offer self-regulatory skills. Music-based expressive arts therapies intervention is postulated to provide breathing techniques, united …

Time Of Day Preferences And Daily Temporal Consistency For Predicting The Sustained Use Of A Commercial Meditation App: Longitudinal Observational Study, Vincent Berardi, Ryan Fowers, Gavriella Rubin, Chad Stecher

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background: The intensive data typically collected by mobile health (mHealth) apps allows factors associated with persistent use to be investigated, which is an important objective given users’ well-known struggles with sustaining healthy behavior.

Objective: Data from a commercial meditation app (n=14,879; 899,071 total app uses) were analyzed to assess the validity of commonly given habit formation advice to meditate at the same time every day, preferably in the morning.

Methods: First, the change in probability of meditating in 4 nonoverlapping time windows (morning, midday, evening, and late night) on a given day over the first 180 days …

The Relationship Between Loneliness And Experiential Avoidance After Implementation Of A Self-Compassion Intervention, Alyssa Mielock

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

An individual’s perception of a social relationship is distinct from an individual’s difficulty forming and maintaining social relationships. Loneliness is defined as an individual’s distress resulting from the discrepancy between perceived and desired social relationship quality. In the short term, loneliness may act as a motivator for an individual to seek social support to minimize distress. However, long-term loneliness is associated with physical and psychological impairments. There have been several risk factors identified that contribute to chronic loneliness, such as social isolation, psychopathology, and ineffective coping strategies. Ineffective coping may be one mechanism by which loneliness is associated with psychopathology …

Consideration Of Mindfulness Intervention For Hispanic Adolescents In A School Setting, Kierra Mcshine Gregory

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Hispanic adolescents’ accessibility to treatment options for depression is met with limitations associated with financial barriers and cultural misalignment. This research study aimed to bring to light an alternative psychotherapy treatment through the foundations of mindfulness interventions. The goal was to understand the experience of Hispanic adolescents when engaging in mindfulness in a school setting. The purpose of this study was to gather information about the experiences of Hispanic adolescents using mindfulness to support mental health practitioners, school counselors, and behavioral interventionists to provide treatment options that are accessible and meet the needs of this culture group. This explanatory case …

Consideration Of Mindfulness Intervention For Hispanic Adolescents In A School Setting, Kierra Mcshine Gregory

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Hispanic adolescents’ accessibility to treatment options for depression is met with limitations associated with financial barriers and cultural misalignment. This research study aimed to bring to light an alternative psychotherapy treatment through the foundations of mindfulness interventions. The goal was to understand the experience of Hispanic adolescents when engaging in mindfulness in a school setting. The purpose of this study was to gather information about the experiences of Hispanic adolescents using mindfulness to support mental health practitioners, school counselors, and behavioral interventionists to provide treatment options that are accessible and meet the needs of this culture group. This explanatory case …

Drivers Of Change In Mindfulness- And Acceptance-Based Interventions With Athletes: Investigating The Influence Of Dosage, Readiness, And Attitudes, Thomas O. Minkler

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Mindfulness- and Acceptance-based interventions (MABIs) are being used with increasing frequency with sport participants. Research suggests that such interventions may promote sport performance and impact performance-relevant factors, although the current quality and quantity of research is low. Specifically, questions about intervention engagement (i.e., dosage), potentially impacted by stage of change and attitudes toward sport psychology, need clarification. The present study utilized a multi-method, quasi-experimental longitudinal design with female- and male- identified NCAA collegiate athletes to investigate the effects of an MABI. Specifically, one NCAA Division II team (n = 16) and three NCAA Division III teams (n = …

The Effect Of Educational Versus Recreational Screen Time On Depression Levels Among University Students, Gage Guettler

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Despite the amount of people currently using technology and the overwhelming amount of data already presented on the topic of how technology affects a person's mental health, there seems to be little information on how the different types of activities on the different types of screens affect university student's mental states. This research study examined the amount of time that a University of Central Florida (UCF) student spends on what was defined as educational activities in front of screens and what was defined as recreational. The definitions of what is educational and what is recreational screen time came from a …

Authentic Mindfulness Within Mindfulness-Based Interventions: A Qualitative Study Of Participants' Experiences, Supakyada Sapthiang, Edo Shonin, Paul Barrows, William Van Gordon

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

There are concerns that participants of some modern mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are receiving a superficial form of mindfulness training. However, empirical investigation of this issue according to participants’ first-hand experiences has been limited. Thus, this qualitative study aimed to capture the first-hand perspectives relating to authentic mindfulness of participants who had recently attended an MBI in the UK. Ten adults completed a recorded, online semistructured interview. Based on a thematic analysis, the following four master themes were identified: (a) authentic mindfulness as a construct, (b) positive aspects of the training, (c) something missing, and (d) recommendations for authenticity. Although all …

Mindfulness Traps And The Entanglement Of Self: An Inquiry Into The Regime Of Mind, Richard Dixey, Ronald E. Purser

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Mindfulness meditation can provide salutary therapeutic benefits, as well as lead advanced practitioners to states of calm and equanimity. In this paper, we argue that such forms of meditation may subtly entrap practitioners in circular, self-reflexive feedback loops. Because these meditation traps fail to clearly discern the operations of mind, they offer a temporary oasis of peace within an unaltered dualistic realm of mind that leaves the root delusion of self-identity intact. Drawing upon Tarthang Tulku’s seminal book Revelations of Mind, we present what he refers to as the “regime of mind,” the processes of cognition, identification and re-cognition in …

Efficacy Of Adapted Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program In Treating Patients With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Kate Whipple

Scripps Senior Theses

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has been applied in many contexts, and has been found to be a helpful therapeutic intervention for people dealing with both mental and physical struggles. In recent years, studies exploring the effects of using MBSR in the neurorehabilitation people with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) have emerged. However, these studies are primarily pilot studies with very few participants. This proposed study will explore whether an adapted version of the MBSR program is effective in reducing apathy and improving motivation to recover in participants with mild TBIs (mTBIs). The proposed study will have 76 participants and will uses …