Mindfulness meditation and explicit and implicit indicators of personality and self-concept changes
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The scientific interest on mindfulness meditation (MM) has significantly increased in the last two decades probably because of the positive health effects that this practice exerts in a great variety of clinical and non-clinical conditions. Despite attention regulation, emotional regulation, and body awareness have been argued to be critical mechanisms through which MM improves well-being, much less is known on the effects of this practice on personality. Here we review the current state of knowledge about the role of MM in promoting changes in practitioners' personality profiles and self-concepts. We first focus on studies that investigated the relations between mindfulness and personality using well-known self-report inventories such as the Five-Factor model of personality traits and the Temperament and Character Inventory. Second, based on the intrinsic limitations of these explicit personality measures, we review a key set of results showing effects of MM on implicit, as well as explicit, self-representations. Although the research on MM and personality is still in its infancy, it appears that this form of meditative practice may notably shape individuals' personality and self-concept toward more healthy profiles.
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Positive correlations of neuroticism with negative affect, anxiety and stress, as well as negative correlations with well-being and mindfulness, have been found.
“Positive correlations of neuroticism with negative affect, anxiety and stress, as well as negative correlations with well-being and mindfulness, have been found.15–17”
From Prevalence, predictors and types of unpleasant and adverse effects of meditation in regular meditators: international cross-sectional study (2022) · cites this paper as [17]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Crescentini, C., & Capurso, V.
- Affiliations
- University of Udine (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Crescentini, Cristiano
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2015-01-29
- Volume
- 6
- Pages
- 44-44
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4310269
- OpenAlex
- W2021518782
- Cited by
- 88
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 4
- FWCI
- 1.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Institutional Research Information System (University of Udine) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Università degli Studi di Udine
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Keywords
- mindfulness meditation, personality change, self-concept, Big Five personality traits, Temperament and Character Inventory, personality traits
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