A mindful product acceptance model

We posit, develop and test a new mindful product acceptance model that includes the independent variable constructs of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, mindful judgement constructs (taste and environmental concerns), trust and perceived safety. Concerns about the environment are addressed in the bottled water context because of its ubiquitous use and increasing sales. This increasing bottled water use raises the question about why people drink bottled water versus tap water and provides a venue for testing how mindfulness influences the decision process. This study contributes to the literature by providing a new application of technology acceptance model (TAM) that includes the ‘mindful’ judgement construct as well as the context of applying TAM to a non-traditional technology. This research found that increasing mindfulness of environmental concerns in our community limits bottled water consumption. The statistically significant findings of this research suggest that companies can benefit from examining their manufacturing and recycling processes

Leveraging Mindfulness to Build Resilience and Professional Quality of Life in Human Service Professionals

Objective: Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have shown promise in cultivating resilience and are widely accepted as efficacious in the treatment of a range of psychological disorders. This paper explores the feasibility of a Mindful-Awareness and Resilience Skills Training (MARST) program to enhance mindfulness and resilience, as a means of increasing psychological well-being and alleviating burnout and compassion fatigue in human service professionals. Method: In this randomised control trial, 46 human service professionals were randomly allocated to either a MARST group or to a no intervention, control group. Results: Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), with pre-test scores as the covariates, revealed that the MARST intervention resulted in significant improvements in mindfulness, resilience, compassion satisfaction, and psychological well-being, and significant reductions in burnout and compassion fatigue; at post-intervention. These results were maintained at one month follow-up, with the exception of compassion satisfaction which was non-significant. Mediation analysis using a bootstrap resampling method indicated that mindfulness fully mediated changes in resilience and psychological well-being, as a result of the MARST intervention. Self-reported reductions in burnout following the intervention were mediated by mindfulness and resilience, and decreased compassion fatigue was mediated by resilience. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the MARST program may assist in developing resilience and ameliorating burnout and compassion fatigue in human service professionals. The study also provides evidence for the potential of mindfulness-based approaches to enhance resilience.</jats:p

Meditation Based Awareness Training (MBAT) for psychological wellbeing: a qualitative examination of participant experiences [forthcoming]

Mindfulness-based interventions are reported as being efficacious treatments for a variety of psychological and somatic conditions. However, concerns have arisen relating to how mindfulness is operationalized in mindfulness-based interventions and whether its ‘spiritual essence’ and full potential treatment efficacy have remained intact. This qualitative study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to examine participant experiences regarding the acceptability and effectiveness of a newly designed secularized intervention called Meditation Awareness Training (MAT) that follows a more traditional Buddhist approach to meditation. Participants (with issues of stress and low-mood) reported experiencing improvements in psychological well-being due to receiving MAT. The wider implications are discussed

The Way of the Servant Citizen: Building, Mindfulness and Reverence for Work (BMW): A Thematic Synthesis of Servant Attributes from Servant Leadership, Organizational Citizenship Behavior and the Servanthood of Jesus

The servant-first is central in writings on servant leadership and the biblical Jesus on becoming servants. A servant-first on its own volition seeks to serve, and to serve first the welfare of others before their own, and it does not necessarily hold a formal leadership position. The study introduces the term servant citizen to refer to one who is servant-first and an ordinary member of community. The study aimed to provide leaders, educators and trainers with teachable content that aids in the formation of servant citizens ─ more than nominal service-providers ─ from organization members. The study’s starting reference was servant leadership which, as related studies suggested, bore similarities with the servanthood of Jesus, and separate empirical studies associated with organization citizenship behavior. The researcher reviewed selected writings related to the three discrete concepts, gathered servant attributes and coded these, then distilled integrative themes. Preliminary analyses produced seven higher-level themes around the servant-first: (1) Developing character and self-concept; (2) Building capacity and readiness to serve; (3) Building people, relationships and sense of community; (4) Recognizing Thou in the other; (5) Adherence to laws, standards and norms; (6) Awareness of interdependencies and personal responsibilities; and (7) Getting the work done. The thematic analytical process, when saturated, yielded an ultimate synthesis: a triad of themes consisting of Building, Mindfulness and Reverence for Work (BMW). The study originates a new paradigm for servant citizenship as BMW simultaneously enacted. Abundant in meanings in either secular or Christian perspective considered independently, BMW provides a foundational content for teaching to develop individuals and institutions toward becoming servant citizens. The study contributes toward setting a future research agenda on servant citizenship ─ a concept heretofore non-extant in literature ─ and on BMW as a conceptual tool for weaving servanthood into the fabric of community, institutions and society

The Role of Mindfulness in the Regulation of Behavior Among Those Prone to Negative Urgency

Negative emotions can be challenging to regulate, and for some individuals can lead to failures of behavior regulation. The present study is an initial effort to explore the role that mindfulness may play in fostering effective behavior regulation among those prone to high negative urgency (NU). Eighty undergraduate students were recruited based on their high or low scores of NU. First, participants completed a self-report measure of mindfulness (Mindful Attention Awareness Scale; MAAS), an Emotional Go/No Go task in an fMRI scanner, and then reported alcohol consumption. Results showed that those with high in NU had low levels of mindfulness compared to those low in NU. Mindfulness predicted substance use at the one- month follow-up after controlling for the predictive roles of NU and gender. Further exploration of the underlying neural mechanisms of mindfulness is needed to better understand its impact on emotion- and self-regulatory processes, especially during difficult emotional experience

Effect of a 14-Day Mindfulness Intervention on Daily Desire Experiences and Desire Regulation

A growing body of research suggests that mindfulness, a receptive attentiveness to one’s present moment experiences, has the potential to adaptively regulate habitual behaviors. No prior study has tested the effect of mindfulness interventions on people’s daily desire experiences to inform the potential for adaptive desire regulation. The present exploratory randomized controlled trial examined the effect of a 14-day smartphone-based mindfulness intervention (versus a coping control intervention) on the frequency, intensity, duration, and enactment of everyday desires in 19 participants. The desire domains included basic need-based desires (i.e., for food, drink, sleep) and secondary desires (e.g., for sex, media, social interactions, work), assessed for 7 days pre- and post-intervention through ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Emotion data collected alongside, also through EMA, permitted examining the role of the mindfulness intervention in altering a potential link between experienced emotion (positive and negative) and desire. Results showed that intervention condition significantly predicted post-intervention desire frequency; those in the mindfulness condition experienced a higher frequency of desires post-training, and specifically, increased secondary desire frequency, but not basic desire frequency. Intervention condition did not predict the other desire outcomes (enactment, strength, or duration). Results also revealed that intervention significant moderated the association between positive emotion and overall desire frequency; those in the mindfulness condition experienced fewer desires when experiencing increased positive emotion, whereas there was no association between positive emotion and desire after coping training. Intervention condition did not moderate associations between positive emotions and other desire variables, or negative emotions and any desire variables

Bodily crises in skilled performance: Considering the need for artistic habits

Empirical evidence demonstrates that performing artists are confronted by a variety of ‘bodily crises’ (e.g., injury, attrition of habits induced by ageing) over the course of their careers (Wainwright, Williams, & Turner, 2005). Such crises may present a serious threat to the embodied subject. Unfortunately, many prominent theories of skill acquisition (e.g., Fitts & Posner, 1967) appear to evacuate the body from performance by suggesting that any form of conscious processing (i.e., paying conscious attention to one's action during motor skill execution) will disrupt habitual behaviour. As a result, few researchers have considered how performers might tackle bodily anomalies. In the current paper, we seek to address this issue by discussing a variety of the ‘crises’ that confront the performing body. We start by discussing a number of disciplinary practices that may contribute to these crises. Next, we argue that habitual movements must be open to ‘acts of creativity’ in order to maintain a productive relationship between the performing body and the environment. Then we consider what this ‘creative action’ might involve and discuss a number of approaches (e.g., mindfulness, somaesthetic awareness) that could maintain and improve one's movement proficiency. Here, our argument draws on Dewey's (1922) pragmatist philosophy and his belief that ‘intelligent habit’ was required to help people to improve their movement functioning. Finally, we consider the implications of our argument for current conceptualisations of ‘habitual’ movement and recommend that researchers explore the adaptive and flexible capacity of the performing body

Mediating role of resilience in the relationships of physical activity and mindful self-awareness with peace of mind among college students

Abstract Peace of mind (PoM) is an index of mental health in Asian culture and emphasizes low arousal, happiness, harmony, and an internal state of peacefulness. While previous studies have found that mindful self-awareness can contribute to PoM, regular physical activity (PA) is also an important factor contributing to one’s PoM due to its function in promoting one's resilience. The study aims to investigate a hypothetical model that assumes PA is associated with resilience while controlling for mindful self-awareness, contributing to PoM. The PoM scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Chinese translation of Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, and PA self-report questionnaire were used. A path analysis was applied to test the association between these variables and the mediating role of resilience. A total of 436 students from a university in Taiwan were recruited; the mean age was 20.87, with 46.3% female and 73.6% engaging in over 150 min/week of moderate PA. Gender and age negatively correlated with PA. After controlling for age and gender, there was no direct effect of physical activity on PoM; both mindful self-awareness and PA predict resilience, which in turn predicts PoM, suggesting that both cognitive (i.e., mindful self-awareness) and PA are important to cultivate resilience and thus PoM

Supporting shop floor workers with a multimedia task-oriented information system

This paper reports the work carried out as part of an industrial research project sponsored by a major telecommunication industry based in the UK. The main aim of the research was to investigate the extent to which a multimedia- based information system, developed for shop floor workers, has contributed to the increased efficiency and productivity Of manufacturing operations. To achieve this, the work has focused on the design and execution of the evaluation of the system. Due to the fact that the direct impact of the implementation of the information system developed was difficult to demonstrate, it was decided to adopt the system usage as a surrogate of the system's Success and the User acceptance of the system was evaluated using both the Technology Acceptance Model and the Task-Technology Fit model. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved