January 1, 2003Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being.
Authors
Discussion
Loading...
Member takes
Implication
Multi-method evaluation demonstrates that higher mindfulness improves psychological well-being and lowers stress in clinical and nonclinical groups, indicating its key role in self-regulation.
Key Points
- To examine the theoretical and empirical contributions of mindfulness to psychological well-being and to develop and validate the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS).
- Developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of the MAAS across correlational, quasi-experimental, and laboratory studies.
- Used an experience-sampling methodology to assess real-time relations between dispositional and state mindfulness, behavioral self-regulation, and emotional states.
- Conducted a longitudinal clinical intervention study in cancer patients to evaluate changes in mindfulness alongside indices of mood disturbance and stress.
- The MAAS uniquely captured an open, present-centered state of consciousness that differentiated mindfulness practitioners from non-practitioners and positively associated with well-being and self-awareness.
- Both trait and state mindfulness significantly predicted higher levels of positive emotional states and more effective behavioral self-regulation in daily life.
- Increases in mindfulness during the clinical intervention were significantly associated with progressive declines in mood disturbance and stress over time among cancer patients.
Cite This Study
Brown et al. (2003) studied this question.