Dataset Information

Mindfulness and compassion: an examination of mechanism and scalability.

ABSTRACT: Emerging evidence suggests that meditation engenders prosocial behaviors meant to benefit others. However, the robustness, underlying mechanisms, and potential scalability of such effects remain open to question. The current experiment employed an ecologically valid situation that exposed participants to a person in visible pain. Following three-week, mobile-app based training courses in mindfulness meditation or cognitive skills (i.e., an active control condition), participants arrived at a lab individually to complete purported measures of cognitive ability. Upon entering a public waiting area outside the lab that contained three chairs, participants seated themselves in the last remaining unoccupied chair; confederates occupied the other two. As the participant sat and waited, a third confederate using crutches and a large walking boot entered the waiting area while displaying discomfort. Compassionate responding was assessed by whether participants gave up their seat to allow the uncomfortable confederate to sit, thereby relieving her pain. Participants' levels of empathic accuracy was also assessed. As predicted, participants assigned to the mindfulness meditation condition gave up their seats more frequently than did those assigned to the active control group. In addition, empathic accuracy was not increased by mindfulness practice, suggesting that mindfulness-enhanced compassionate behavior does not stem from associated increases in the ability to decode the emotional experiences of others.

SUBMITTER: Lim D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4331532 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Mindfulness and compassion: an examination of mechanism and scalability.

Lim Daniel D Condon Paul P DeSteno David D

PloS one 20150217 2

Emerging evidence suggests that meditation engenders prosocial behaviors meant to benefit others. However, the robustness, underlying mechanisms, and potential scalability of such effects remain open to question. The current experiment employed an ecologically valid situation that exposed participants to a person in visible pain. Following three-week, mobile-app based training courses in mindfulness meditation or cognitive skills (i.e., an active control condition), participants arrived at a lab ...[more]

PMID: 25689827

Similar Datasets

Project description:Health care professionals (HCPs) are a population at risk for high levels of burnout and compassion fatigue. The aim of the present systematic review was to give an overview on recent literature about mindfulness and compassion characteristics of HCPs, while exploring the effectiveness of techniques, involving the two aspects, such as MBSR or mindfulness intervention and compassion fatigue-related programs. A search of databases, including PubMed and PsycINFO, was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and the methodological quality for this systematic review was appraised using AMSTAR-2 (A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews-2). The number of articles that met the inclusion criteria was 58 (4 RCTs, 24 studies with pre-post measurements, 12 cross-sectional studies, 11 cohort studies and 7 qualitative studies). MBSR intervention was effective at improving, and maintaining, mindfulness and self-compassion levels and to improve burnout, depression, anxiety, stress. The most frequently employed interventional strategies were mindfulness-related trainings that were effective at improving mindfulness and self-compassion, but not compassion fatigue, levels. Compassion-related interventions have been shown to improve self-compassion, mindfulness and interpersonal conflict levels. Mindfulness was effective at improving negative affect and compassion fatigue, while compassion satisfaction may be related to cultivation of positive affect. This systematic review summarized the evidence regarding mindfulness- and compassion-related qualities of HCPs as well as potential effects of MBSR, mindfulness-related and compassion-related interventions on professionals' psychological variables like mindfulness, self-compassion and quality of life. Combining structured mindfulness and compassion cultivation trainings may enhance the effects of interventions, limit the variability of intervention protocols and improve data comparability of future research.

Project description:Compassion has long been regarded as a core part of our humanity by contemplative traditions, and in recent years, it has received growing research interest. Following a recent review of existing conceptualisations, compassion has been defined as consisting of the following five elements: 1) recognising suffering, 2) understanding the universality of suffering in human experience, 3) feeling moved by the person suffering and emotionally connecting with their distress, 4) tolerating uncomfortable feelings aroused (e.g., fear, distress) so that we remain open to and accepting of the person suffering, and 5) acting or being motivated to act to alleviate suffering. As a prerequisite to developing a high quality compassion measure and furthering research in this field, the current study empirically investigated the factor structure of the five-element definition using a combination of existing and newly generated self-report items. This study consisted of three stages: a systematic consultation with experts to review items from existing self-report measures of compassion and generate additional items (Stage 1), exploratory factor analysis of items gathered from Stage 1 to identify the underlying structure of compassion (Stage 2), and confirmatory factor analysis to validate the identified factor structure (Stage 3). Findings showed preliminary empirical support for a five-factor structure of compassion consistent with the five-element definition. However, findings indicated that the 'tolerating' factor may be problematic and not a core aspect of compassion. This possibility requires further empirical testing. Limitations with items from included measures lead us to recommend against using these items collectively to assess compassion. Instead, we call for the development of a new self-report measure of compassion, using the five-element definition to guide item generation. We recommend including newly generated 'tolerating' items in the initial item pool, to determine whether or not factor-level issues are resolved once item-level issues are addressed.

Project description:BackgroundThere is growing research support for the use of mindfulness training (MT) in schools, but almost no high-quality evidence about different training models for people wishing to teach mindfulness in this setting. Effective dissemination of MT relies on the development of scalable training routes.ObjectiveTo compare 4 training routes for school teachers wishing to deliver MT differing in intensity and potential scalability, considering teaching competency, training acceptability, and cost-effectiveness.MethodsSchools were randomized to an existing route comprising an 8-session instructor-led personal mindfulness course, combined with 4-day MT program training, or 1 of 3 more scalable, lower intensity, alternatives: an instructor-led personal mindfulness course combined with 1-day MT program training, a self-taught personal mindfulness course (delivered through a course book) combined with 4-day MT program training, and a self-taught personal mindfulness course combined with 1-day MT program training.ResultsAttrition from training was substantial across all routes. The instructor-led course was more effective than the self-taught course in increasing teachers' personal mindfulness skills. Even the most intensive (existing) training route brought only 29% of the teachers commencing training, and 56% of those completing the study protocol, to the required minimum competency threshold (an advanced beginner rating on an adapted version of the Mindfulness-based Interventions Teaching Assessment Criteria). The differences in levels of competency achieved by existing training compared with the more scalable alternatives were modest, with economic evaluation suggesting that the existing route was both more expensive and more effective than lower intensity alternatives, but with no statistically significant differences between routes.ConclusionsThis research questions the move toward abbreviating teacher training to increase scalability and suggests instead that many teachers require additional support to ensure competency from first delivery of MT in the classroom.

Dataset Information

Mindfulness and compassion: an examination of mechanism and scalability.

Publications

Mindfulness and compassion: an examination of mechanism and scalability.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets