Measuring and evaluating mindfulness based on its origin

Abstract

Mindfulness is originated from the core of Buddhist meditation which has a history of over 2500 years. Since mindfulness-based interventions were successfully applied in helping patients with different symptoms in the West three decades ago, scientific researches in mindfulness have increased exponentially. However, to date there is no consensus on the definition and measurement scales of mindfulness. The prevailing conceptualizations of mindfulness seem to be confounded with different mindfulness attitudes and skills. Their content also seems to be watered-down without capturing all the essential domains of mindfulness. Leading mindfulness researchers suggest referring to the origin of mindfulness to resolve the confounding and watered-down problems. This thesis thus aims to empirically investigate the construct and model of mindfulness with reference to its original Buddha’s mindfulness discourse. \n \nIn study 1, three self-report scales were developed based on Buddha’s conceptualization of mindfulness, namely the Body-Mind-Senses Awareness Scale, the Greed-Distress Unclinging Scale and the Mindfulness-related Features Scale. A quantitative survey was conducted with 415 participants to evaluate the scales. They demonstrated good factor structure, construct validity and internal consistency. Unexpectedly, the body-mind-sense awareness had no relation with greed-distress unclinging. But both of them were positively correlated with all mindfulness-related features. \n \nStudy 2 aims to answer the call for using multiple assessment modalities to clarify the construct of mindfulness. A semi-structured interview (interview mindfulness) and experience sampling method (momentary mindfulness) are developed to address the response and memory bias of self-report scale. Semi-structured interview focuses more on the unclinging aspect while experience sampling focuses more on the present-moment awareness aspect. The results show that interview mindfulness has a low correlation with momentary mindfulness. When triangulated with study 1, the body-mind-senses awareness was positively correlated with momentary mindfulness but not related to interview mindfulness. The greed-distress unclinging was positively correlated with interview mindfulness but not related to momentary mindfulness. The results are consistent with hypotheses and support the validity of self-report questionnaire. It further supports that awareness is not necessarily positively associated with unclinging. These two aspects are better measured and analyzed separately. \n \nStudy 3 aims to address the confounding and watered-down problem by building and evaluating a “pure” discernment-nonattachment mindfulness model that describes the pathway from mindfulness to stress reduction based on the Buddha’s discourse of mindfulness. It is then compared to a mindfulness-related features model to evaluate their contribution to stress reduction. The results reveal that awareness and unclinging contribute separately to stress reduction via self emotion appraisal, emotion regulation and nonattachment (complete mediation). No further explanatory contributions gained even when the mindfulness-related features model is incorporated into the “pure” mindfulness model. \n \nThis thesis proposes a conceptualization of mindfulness based on the original Buddha’s mindfulness discourse and develops three different measurements. Accordingly it constructs a “pure” discernment-nonattachment mindfulness model for stress reduction to address the confounding and watered-down problems of prevailing conceptualization of mindfulness. The implications, limitations and future directions are discussed as well.