Aspects of self-awareness in meditators and meditation-naïve participants:Self-report versus task performance

Objectives Meditation may be viewed as a way to enhance mindfulness and self-awareness. To date, most studies have relied on instruments based on self-evaluations. The aim of this study was to explore aspects of self-awareness in experienced meditators compared to non-meditators using a multi-method approach. Methods Thirty-five experienced meditators and 47 matched control participants completed tests ranging from self-report questionnaires of mindfulness skills and psychological mindedness to emotion reports in a scenario task and a behavioral task in which spontaneous momentary experiences are verbally reported. Results Compared to controls, meditators scored higher on self-reported introspective interest and mindfulness skills, but not on emotional awareness. Meditators also showed higher interoception scores during the spontaneous verbal reports task. Interestingly, while mindfulness/Vipassana meditators scored lower on a self-reported mindfulness skill compared to transcendental meditators, they reported more momentary interoceptive and exteroceptive phenomena during the task, the differences being large. Conclusions Different methods assessing complementary aspects of self-awareness show partially mutually opposing results when meditator and non-meditator groups are compared. These results indicate the added value of behavioral tasks when assessing awareness-related phenomena

The relation between thinking and mood in daily life:The effects of content and context of thought

The association between thought content and mood in daily life is far from established. The aim of the present investigation was to examine the role of content and context of thought in daily life mood (i) concurrent and across time, and (ii) as simple effects and as interactions between them. Participants were 50 university students (82% female), who completed experience sampling assessments for a week. Linear mixed-effects models showed that time and object aspects of thought were significantly associated with concurrent mood. In addition, interaction effects between object of thought and thought context (activity) significantly predicted concurrent, but not future, mood, sometimes showing a switch from a positive to a negative association in certain contexts. It is concluded that associations between thought content and mood in daily life (i) are depending on the activity context, and (ii) seem to be relatively short-lived in most cases

Introspective interest and insight in the context of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction:A randomized trial

Objective Introspective interest and insight have long been argued to be important factors in psychotherapy. However, empirical studies are scarce and their results equivocal. Therefore, in the present study, the potential moderating and mediating roles of introspective interest and insight were examined in the context of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Methods In a randomized controlled trial, 72 MBSR participants were compared with 71 waitlist control participants. Their mean age was 46.1 years (SD = 10.3), 31.5% were male and all were white. Pre-to-post changes in mood, perceived stress, quality of life, mindfulness skills, and introspective interest and insight were compared between the groups and the moderating and mediating effects of introspective interest and insight were examined, adjusting for effects of mindfulness skills. Results Introspective interest nor insight moderated the effects of MBSR. However, increase in insight, but not interest, significantly mediated favorable effects of MBSR on all outcome variables, over and above changes in mindfulness skills: perceived stress (B = − 1.43, 95% CI − 2.63 to − 0.54), negative affect (B = − 0.11, 95% CI − 0.23 to − 0.00), positive affect (B = 0.12, 95% CI 0.03–0.23) and psychological quality of life (B = 0.16, 95% CI 0.02–0.34). Conclusions Increase in introspective insight may form a potentially important mechanism of the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions, and possibly also other psychological interventions