Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


KShepherd_Dissertation_2017.pdf (1.68 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Validation of Self-Distancing Task Responses In Experienced Meditators and Meditation Naive Individuals

Shepherd, Kathrine A
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1505061040188154

Abstract Details

2017, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences.
As mindfulness-based interventions increase in popularity, there is a growing need for objective measures of mindfulness and decentering that can be used to evaluate and compare their benefits with other psychotherapeutic interventions. In a previous investigation, we developed a self-distancing task to assess mental manipulation skills associated with adaptive emotional processing, which are thought to be cultivated with mindfulness and decentering practices. The initial study demonstrated that self-distancing task responses were associated with self-reported mindfulness and decentering abilities in the predicted manner. Thus, in the current investigation, we attempted to further validate self-distancing task responses by examining self-distancing task responses in long-term meditators and meditation naive control participants, who were similar to meditators in age, education, and levels of depression. In addition, we obtained behavioral performance measures of executive attention, response inhibition, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and verbal comprehension, as well as self-report measures of mindfulness, decentering, rumination, worry, and common dimensions of personality. Results revealed differences between experienced meditators and meditation naive individuals on key dimensions of cognitive, emotional, and executive functioning, which appear to reflect skills practiced in various forms of meditation, and which are consistent with previous research examining the longitudinal impact of meditation experience. However, meditation experience was not significantly associated with self-distancing task responses, and post-hoc analyses of task responses revealed important limitations of the task design, as well as targets for future task refinement and response validation.
David Fresco, PhD (Advisor)
Karin Coifman, PhD (Committee Member)
William Merriman, PhD (Committee Member)
Will Kalkhoff, PhD (Committee Member)
Donald White, PhD (Committee Member)
90 p.
Psychology
Mindfulness; Decentering; Self-distancing; Meditation

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Shepherd, K. A. (2017). Validation of Self-Distancing Task Responses In Experienced Meditators and Meditation Naive Individuals [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1505061040188154

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Shepherd, Kathrine. Validation of Self-Distancing Task Responses In Experienced Meditators and Meditation Naive Individuals. 2017. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1505061040188154.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Shepherd, Kathrine. "Validation of Self-Distancing Task Responses In Experienced Meditators and Meditation Naive Individuals." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1505061040188154

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1505061040188154
401
© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.