Positive Psychological Covariates of Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a specific positive psychology construct that can be simply defined as a state of active attention to the present moment, in which thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations are observed from a stance of psychological neutrality, without judgment. Mindfulness strategies seek to replace ruminative and/or avoidant thinking with a more neutral stance of acceptance of, and “peaceful coexistence” with, distressing thoughts and emotions. Our purpose is to extend understanding of the construct of mindfulness by studying psychological characteristics that are likely to co-vary (either positively or inversely) with dispositional mindfulness in university students. This study is the second of three phases in an overarching research agenda. In the initial phase we piloted our measure with a smaller sample. The second phase of the project, presented here, used a refined, expanded version of the measure which included two new variables and was converted to electronic (Qualtrics) format. (The final phase is described below). Self-report data were collected using an online Qualtrics questionnaire. The convenience sample included 200 students enrolled in undergraduate psychology courses. The measure was a composite of numerous psychological instruments shown by previous research to have strong reliability and validity. The composite measure investigated numerous psychological variables including emotion regulation, distress tolerance, psychological well-being, forgiveness, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness, resilience, and symptoms of psychological distress or disturbance – particularly anxiety and depression. This presentation focuses specifically on positive correlates of mindfulness. Analyses (not yet initiated at the time of this writing) will include simple, zero-order correlations and multiple regression analyses. The findings of these analyses will be used to inform the development of a brief (6-week) mindfulness intervention for use in a clinical setting, to alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression (Phase 3)