PSY 121 Midterm 2 + Final
what are the critiques of mindfulness?
self-reports (the fact that a lot of research is based on ppl's self-characterization of M; measured by various personality measures but not clear how it is distinguished from other traits-closely correlated with, stress (neg), adaptive functioning, inattentiveness (neg); diff measures focus on diff aspects; changes may be due to factors unrelated to Ml questionable relationship between training and scales; scales rely on introspection which may not be accurate or may change with training) clinical interventions (variability efficacy of interventions) harmful effects (case reports of neg. side effects of M including (psychosis, mania, depersonalization, anxiety, panic, traumatic memory, re-experiencing, and other forms of clinical deterioration); patients may avoid more effective treatments) neuroscience (accounts oversimplified; comparisons of experts aggregate over diff types of training; artifactual diff due to physiological changes (breathing, movement)) defining M (there is no single def for what M is or what exactly it corresponds to; instances where it is used as an umbrella term and as a cognitive process)
how do major life events impact us in the short-term and the long-term?
w/ positive events (e.g. marriage) their life satisfaction will start to increase the year before, peak at marriage and return to average baseline w/ negative events (e.g. widowhood, divorce), before their happiness declines, it comes to an all-time low, but will return to baseline, but lower than it was before live event tend to return to baseline, whether pos or neg although we have set points, there are things you can do to change it and keep it lower/higher basic system tends to maintain homeostasis the fact that we come back to baseline, is not appreciated enough, need to see things as transient
what are the elements of a 'minimal conscious experience'?
wakefulness= the phenomenal character of tonic alertness low complexity= often described as the complete absence of content, in particular of high-level symbolic mental content (i.e. discursive, conceptual, or propositional thought), but also of sensorimotor or affective content additional elements Non-sensory: MPE itself instantiates no perceptual qualities. This also includes "no-thingness", i.e., the absence of the phenomenal property of "objecthood". no subjective experience of distinct multimodal objects as integrated from different sensory features Non-motor: absolute stillness, no motion in space; Atemporal: an absence of temporal experience, no motion in time; Non-cognitive: non-symbolic and non-conceptual, no mind-wandering; Non-egoic: no self-location in time, no self-location in space, no quality of agency (either mental or bodily), no localized unit of identification Unbounded: there is no second, finite region to which attention could be directed, and there are no consciously experienced boundaries, limits, or a horizon; Aperspectival: no epistemic agent model, no passive personal- level self-as-subject.
what does it mean to blur boundaries?
what appears to be salient boundaries break down under close investigation
how do we cultivate lasting happiness?
3 common strategies (each with value and limitations) accumulate good circumstances string together sensory pleasures engage in meaningful activities cultivating circumstances of the mind-- if you ever manage lasting happiness, it won't be from what happens to you; most people put much more time into cultivating external circumstances or pursing sensory pleasures than into creating the right conditions of the mind (virtue, mindfulness, gratitude, goodwill, discernment); happiness sustained by the qualities of the mind can be more reliable mindfulness promotes happiness changing outlook rather than conditions emphasis on acceptance and discernment
what does equanimity mean?
4/4 of the 4 immeasurables meeting both happiness and suffering with balance and peace cultivating a source of reliable happiness that can persist even in the face of suffering to care for others in just the right way: a lot, but without clinging offering kindness, compassion, and empathic joy to everyone without prejudice
what are the obstacles in practicing mindfulness? how can we overcome them?
5 steps to overcome hindrances 1) understand them 2) recognize them when they arise 3) see through them 4) release them 5) apply an antidote first hindrance: drowsiness should be able to be fully alert even without movement/stimulation antidotes: choose optimum time of day, adjust posture (sit tall, raise hands, open eyes, raise gaze), view energy as a non-limited resource, value awareness second hindrance: excitation should be able to sit still even when excited antidotes: choose optimum time of day, adjust posture (close eyes, lower gaze), reframe stress as excitement, if positive think of sobering things, if negative reframe and focus on breath other three: discomfort, ill-will, sensory desires
What is the Default Mode Network?
A set of brain regions that typically show greater activation at rest Has been linked to mind-wandering Midline core composed of DMN "hubs": Posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) Anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC)
Thompson (2020) What is Buddhist exceptionalism?
Belief that buddhism is superior among the world religions in being inherently rational and empirical Widespread and influential It shapes how people see buddhism in the battles between science and religion Present buddhism as uniquely suited to the modern world, but we can sanitize any religion in this modernist way
What do the results from Crane et al (2014) suggest?
Crane et al examined the role of home practice on the impact of MBCT Practice outside of class was recorded and turned in at weekly classes Followed participants in remission for 1 year or more post-MBCT (or until relapse) Cumulative survival: proportion of patients who have not relapsed Those who practiced 3 or less times a week were more likely to relapse Censoring: end of patient's participation in study (last MD visit) 58% of those who practiced <3 times a week relapsed 39% of those who practiced 3+ times a week relapsed **we see a relationship between frequency of those who practice meditation and those who relapsed Confounds? This is a correlational study Self-selected themself, maybe those who decided to seek more help were more motivated, thus relapsing less Hard to know if meditating more made them less likely to relapse
Which population does MBCT help most?
Depressed people
What are the effects of empathy and compassion training?
Empathy training increased empathy and negative affect Compassion training increased positive affect and reversed the increase in negative affect Compassion can be the antidote for the negative experience of empathy
What is decentering?
Experiencing thoughts and feelings as transient, impersonal, and not necessarily accurate One's natural ability at decentering predicts lower risk of depressive relapse Those who were helped by the therapy(MBCT) (i.e. prevention of relapse), developed a greater ability for decentering
Know the results of the Weng et al (2013) study
Found that compassion training increased altruistic redistribution of funds to a victim encountered outside of the training context Compassion training was associated with altered activation in regions implicated in social cognition and emotion regulation, including the inferior parietal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and DLPFC connectivity with the nucleus accumbens Compassion can be cultivated with training, where greater altruistic behavior may emerge from increased engagement in neural systems implicated in understanding the suffering of others, executive and emotional control, and reward processing
Know the two different types of neuroimaging techniques discussed
Functional neuroimaging: Functional MRI (fMRI): degree of brain activation Functional connectivity mRI (fcMRI): correlation between activation of different regions Morphometric neuroimaging: Grey matter density: contains mostly cell bodies and relatively few myelinated axons White matter density: composed mostly of long-range myelinated axon tracts
Goleman and Davidson (Ch. 6) How did the Dalai Lama react when hearing that many Westerners felt self-loathing? What did he suggest?
He was astonished, he'd never heard of this He had always assumed that people naturally loved themselves The Dalai Lama pointed out that in the English word compassion, it signifies the wish that others be well-- but it does not include oneself. He explained that in his own language, tibetan, as well as in the classical tongues pali and sanskrit, the word compassion implies feeling this for oneself as well as others He added that english needs a new word, self-compassion
Van Dam et al. 2017 What are the methodological issues in mindfulness meditation research and how can they be remedied?
Insufficient construct validity in measures of mindfulness Challenges to (clinical) intervention methodology Potential adverse effects from practicing mindfulness Questionable interpretations of data from contemplative neuroscience concerning the mental processes and brain mechanisms underlying mindfulness
What is introspection and how does it differ from meta-cognition?
Introspection= process that involves looking inward to examine one's own thoughts and emotions Meta-cognition= knowledge of one's own cognitive processes; sometimes called "introspective accuracy"
Goleman and Davidson (Ch. 13) What is deliberate practice?
Involves an expert coach giving feedback on how you are doing, so that you can practice improving in a manner targeted to your progress
What is MBRP? MBRE?
MBRP= mindfulness-based relapse prevention MBRE= mindfulness-based relationship enhancement
What is MBSR? How is it different from MBCT?
MBSR is the most widely taught mindfulness program in the world, key element= breathing space meditation 8 week mindfulness training originally used for chronic illness Effective in addressing chronic pain, anxiety, depression, general stress reduction Generally helpful for psychological distress Usually not effective at addressing underlying illness (rarely the objective) More effective than waitlist control or treatment-as-usual Not always more effective than well-matched active controls Less stressed they were, the smaller their amygdalas became MBSR often effective in improving pain and related symptoms Mechanisms underlying the effects of MBCT Practicing meditation is important Decentering (thoughts as transient, impersonal, and not necessarily accurate) predictive of effectiveness
What is equanimity and what are some strategies to maintain equanimity?
Meeting both happiness and suffering with balance and peace Cultivating a source of reliable happiness that can persist even in the face of suffering To care for others in just the right way: a lot, but without clinging There is a considerable suffering we simply cannot relieve, at least for now Offering kindness, compassion, and empathic joy to everyone without prejudice Over time, generating these intentions toward expanding circles of people
Creswell (2017) What is the mindfulness stress buffering account? How is it related to brain activity and mindfulness?
Posits that stress reduction and resilience pathways explain mindfulness intervention effects on a broad range of physical health outcomes This account is based on the view that learning how to monitor experience with acceptance is an emotion regulation skill learned in mindfulness interventions, which fosters stress resilience and coping under stress These stress-buffering effects in turn reduce the negative impacts stress has on increasing risk for stress-related disease outcomes
Creswell (2017) What is RCT?
Randomized controlled trials Methodologically rigorous RCTs have demonstrated that mind- fulness interventions improve outcomes in multiple domains (e.g., chronic pain, depression relapse, addiction)
Van Dam et al. 2017 What are some limits of self-report measures of mindfulness?
Self-reported mindfulness may not relate to the actual practice of mindfulness meditation As figure 2 indicates, a large fraction of recent research studies has used questionnaires for their primary assessment of mindfulness (consistent with a broader trent roward measuring psychological constructs via self-report) Several of these scales exhibit different factor structures and response properties between meditators and non meditators, as well as before and after mindfulness training May be particularly vulnerable to limitations of introspection because participants may not know exactly which aspects of mental states should be taken into Social-desirability biases may be especially pronounced in self-reports about "mindfulness"
What are the limitations and challenges in understanding how neuroplasticity relates to mindfulness?
Sensitivity of methods are improving, but undoubtedly limited Sometimes difficult to know how to interpret changes-- what exactly does it mean? The majority of studies compare experienced meditators to matched controls Self-selection effects: something unique about meditators besides meditation Longitudinal training studies necessary, but methodologically challenging Pre-tests, random assignment, post-tests *could say impact on certain brain structures is different A huge diversity of meditation practices exist Different practices may lead to different changes-- leads to inconsistency in results Advances meditators almost always have experience with multiple practices-- leads to ambiguity in results
Goleman and Davidson (Ch. 6) What does metta mean?
Sharon has become the leading advocate of a method she first learned from goenka, called metta in pali and loosely translated into english as "loving-kindness"-- an unconditional benevolence and goodwill-- a quality of love akin to the greek agape
Goleman and Davidson (Ch. 8) What happens when we mind-wander? What do we think about?
The brain's default mode activates when we are doing nothing that demands mental effort, just letting our mind wander; we hash over our thoughts and feelings (often unpleasant) that focus on ourselves, constructing the narrative we experience as our "self"
Which brain regions are associated with meditation training?
Up-regulation in brain regions (e.g insula) of internalised attention and emotion processing with meditation Down-regulation of brain regions (default network) of regions associated with mind wandering and self reflection
How does mindfulness relate to the amygdala?
With MBSR, the less stressed they were, the smaller their amygdalas became
What are the psychological benefits of gratitude?
Writing gratitude letters improves subjective well-being Trait levels of gratitude predict a wide variety of physical, mental, and social benefits Grateful is among the top 4% most desirable adjectives, ungrateful in bottom 2%
What are implementation intentions?
a tool for enhancing goal pursuit by committing to respond a particular way to a given scenario First identify a goal-relevant situational cue, then pair it with a desired response When a waitress asks if I want a second drink, I will order a mineral water When I notice that I am drowsy, I will adjust my posture and value awareness The key is to automate goal pursuit, usually by externalizing the trigger for action To the degree things are habitual, you don't have to think about them David Allen's system works similarly: a trusted external organizational system that triggers the needed actions at the appropriate times
what is the self-discrepancy theory?
actual (how you view yourself) ideal (who one wants to be) ought (who one thinks one should be) actual:ideal-> depression actual:ought-> social anxiety
what is 'pure consciousness'?
aka minimal phenomenal experience mystical like experience that includes nothing but "pure consciousness"
What are the classes of emotional regulation?
antecedent-focused= can be initiated prior to the emotion itself responses-focused= initiated after the emotion Situation focused= involves taking actions to make it more likely that we'll be in a situation we expect will give rise to the emotions we'd like to have Situation modification= modify the situation directly so as to alter its emotional impact Attentional deployment= influencing emotional responding by redirecting attention within a given situation Cognitive change= Changing appraisal in a way that alters the situation's emotional significance Response modulation= influencing physiological, experiential, or behavioral responses relatively directly.
What is interoception?
awareness of the body's internal and visceral states, including respiration and heart rate
what is the hedonic treadmill?
chasing contentment, quickly adapting to our new circumstances, and then chasing again as soon as you catch up, you slip back, never ending process
what is open mindfulness?
cultivating openness to experience along with M gains the benefits of both (creativity of openness and awareness of M) how to cultivate? engage in novel experiences everyday (listen to new music; try a new recipe; read on a new topic think about interesting topics) meditate
what is subjective well-being and how is it measured?
gallup measures of subjective well-being affect balance-- did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday? did you experience (enjoyment, worry, sadness, anger, depression) during a lot of the day yesterday? what would ideally want for yourself and why? two most common ways of assessing subjective well-being: life satisfaction: a reflective judgement about how good one's life is affect balance: one's ratio of positive to negative affect (i.e. moods and emotions)
what are some of the misconceptions around happiness?
human motivation is not fundamentally oriented toward happiness ->our minds were built to maximize reproductive fitness ->a variety of more specific motivations serve this larger purpose how does natural selection get us to pursue reproductive fitness? ->most of our evolved motivations link to forms of pleasure and pain ->happiness is the motivator, not the underlying objective
what are the fundamental characteristics of reality?
impermanence (becoming more aware of the intrinsically permanent nature) the dissatisfactory nature of experience the self is a kind of illusion
know yerkes-dodsan law
inverted U shape curve relationship between arousal and performance M may be optimized at some mid level of application
what is a mental vs. physical process
mental= sensation, perception, thought, feeling, motivation, etc. physical= respiration, circulation, digestions, elimination, movement, etc.
know the phenomenological matrix of M
object orientation= sense that an experience or mental state is oriented toward some object or class of objects dereification= the degree to which thoughts, feelings, and perceptions are phenomenally interpreted as mental processes rather than accurate depictions of reality meta-awareness= the mental state that arises when attention is directed toward explicitly noting the current contents of consciousness aperture= the broadness of the scope of attention (breadth of the spotlight of attention) clarity= the degree to which experience presents itself as persisting overtime effort= the phenomenal impression that one's current mental state is easy/difficult to sustain
how do sensory desires and drowsiness impact meditation?
obstacles to deepening your mindfulness practice if you don't proactively identify and deal with them, they will limit your progress
affect balance
one's ratio of positive to negative affect (i.e. moods and emotions)
what is bare attention?
perception minimally filtered through conceptual thought, biases, and expectations
Wallace and Shapiro (2006) What are the four elements of mental balance?
1) Conative balance is the first of the mental states discussed because of its central importance to all other mental states If one does not develop conative balance-- a reality-based range of desires and aspirations oriented toward one's own and others' happiness-- then there will be little or no incentive to try to balance one's attentional, cognitive, and affective faculties 2) attentional balance including the development of sustained, voluntary attention, is a crucial feature of mental health and optimal performance in any kind of meaningful activity According to buddhist teachings, it is achieved by overcoming attentional deficit, hyperactivity, and dysfunction, to which human beings at large, and not just those diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are prone 3) cognitive balance entails engaging with the world of experience without imposing conceptual assumptions or ideas on events and thereby misapprehending or distorting them Involves being calmly and clearly present with experience as it arises moment by moment Use the term cognitive in the sense of knowing as opposed to purely discursive thought 4) affective balance is a natural outcome of conative, attentional, and cognitive balance, but affective imbalances also impair those other facets Entails a freedom from excessive emotional vacillation, emotional apathy, and inappropriate emotions The cultivation of this is virtually equivalent to the development of emotional regulation skills
Wallace and Shapiro (2006) What are the four types of mental balance?
1) Conative balance= a reality-based range of desires and aspirations oriented toward one's own and others' happiness If one does not develop this, then there will be little or no incentive to try to balance one's attentional, cognitive, and affective faculties 2) Attentional balance= including the development of sustained, voluntary attention, is a crucial feature of mental health and optimal performance in any kind of meaningful activity 3) Cognitive balance= entails engaging with the world of experience without imposing conceptual assumptions or ideas on events and thereby misapprehending or distorting them Involves being calmly and clearly present with experience as it arises moment by moment 4) Affective balance= natural outcome of conative, attentional, and cognitive balance, but affective imbalances also impair those other facets of mental health Entails a freedom from excessive emotional vacillation, emotional apathy, and inappropriate emotions Virtually equivalent to the development of emotional regulation skills
Lutz et al. 2015 What are the 4 secondary qualities presented?
1) aperture Reflects the broadness of the scope of attention and is identical to the classical optical analogy of the "spotlight of attention" Can either be narrow (small circle), as during concentrative practice with a well-defined object such as the breath, or wide open (large circle) as during "choiceless awareness" 2) clarity Refers to the degree of vividness with which an experience occurs In experiences with strong object orientation, vividness manifests as a sense that an object is especially clear or salient In line with the fact that attention can change contrast appearance 3) stability Indicates the degree to which experience presents itself as persisting over time Refers to either a spontaneously arising state or an intentionally cultivated state ex) spontaneous state with high stability is persistent rumination ex) high stability in an intentionally cultivated state is FA meditation on an object when its content presents itself phenomenally as highly stable and not easily perturbed across time 4) effort Refers to the phenomenal impression that one's current mental state is easy or difficult to sustain When high, a deliberate attitude of control is present, when low, the state seems to require little deliberate intention to be maintained
Lutz et al. 2015 What are the 3 primary dimensions of mindfulness presented?
1) object orientation Modulated by many styles of mindfulness Concerns the phenomenological sense that an experience or mental state is oriented toward some object or class of objects object= one is aware of some particular thing Relevant phenomenological feature is not the actual selection of an object, but rather the sense that the state is strongly (or weakly) oriented toward an object, even when no object is clearly selected ex) when one is seeking to find a person in a crowd, off-target objects (e.g., other persons) do no present themselves phenomenally as strongly selected, but the state nevertheless seems to bear strongly on an object, namely, the person sought 2) dereification The dimension of this reflects the degree to which thoughts, feelings, and perceptions are phenomenally interpreted as mental processes rather than as accurate depictions of reality ex) when thinking about a stressful conversation that occurred yesterday, the series of thoughts that represent the event in one's mind may present themselves as a replaying of the memory of the conversation, to the point that a physiological stress response is induced 3) meta-awareness The dimension of this involves monitoring of experience It has been defined as the mental state that arises when attention is directed toward explicitly noting the current contents of consciousness ex) realising that one's mind has wandered
Thompson (2020) How does Thompson view Buddhism and meditation in relation to science?
Buddhist theories of the mind are based on textual traditions that purport to record the remembered word of the buddha, on religious and philosophical interpretations of those texts, and on buddhist practices of mental cultivation The theories aren't formulated as scientific hypotheses and they aren't scientifically testable Buddhist insights into the mind aren't scientifically testable They haven't resulted from an open-ended empirical inquiry free from the claims of tradition and the force of doctrinal and sectarian rhetoric They are stated in the language of buddhist metaphysics, not in an independent conceptual framework to which buddhist and non-buddhist thinkers can agree Buddhist meditate texts are saturated with religious imagery and language Buddhist meditation isn't controlled experimentation It guides people to have certain kinds of experiences and to interpret them in ways that conform to and confirm the buddhist doctrine The claims that people make from having these experiences aren't subject to independent peer review; they're subject to assessment within the agreed upon and unquestioned framework of the buddhist soteriological path
What is cognitive change?
Changing appraisal in a way that alters the situation's emotional significance, How one thinks either about: the situation itself; one's capacity to manage the demands it poses. Reappraisal leads to decreased negative emotion decreased startle responses decreased neuroendocrine responses decreased autonomic responses
Know the different types of empathy
Cognitive empathy: a conceptual understanding of others' distress Emotional empathy: a visceral experience of others' distress
Wallace and Shapiro (2006) What is conation?
Conation refers to the faculties of intention and volition ex) the intention to spend more time with one's children and the intent to lose weight are both cases of conation, with intention, or a goal, implying a stronger commitment to action than desire alone
Know the SIT study results
Overall Improvements in health, cognitive, and well being metrics Decreased connectivity between DMN and S1 Increased proportion of time spent in focus state of connectivity between executive and salience network Increased thickness of insula
Why do we need to regulate emotions? What is the evolutionary value of emotions?
PROBABILISTIC BY DESIGN: Emotions evolved because they worked on average, not always ANCESTRAL MISMATCH: Emotions evolved to work properly in ancestral environments EVOLUTION IS NOT BENEVOLENT: Emotions are not designed to optimize your happiness EMOTIONS CAN GO HAYWIRE: As evidenced by the prevalence of mood disorders In humans, emotions are not activated solely by external circumstances The way we think and evaluate exerts a powerful influence over emotion Evolutionary value of emotions= did not evolve to maximize well being; evolved to facilitate social relationships in ways that supported reproductive fitness of self and kin
What is the 'Planning Fallacy'?
People routinely underestimate how long it will take to complete tasks
Lutz et al. 2015 What features do all mindfulness practices share?
Physical posture, nonaversive affect, axiological framework, and task-set maintenance or retention
Schooler et al. (2013) What are the costs of mind-wandering?
Mind-wandering can significantly interfere with the individuals' primary task performance Costs for reading Poor comprehension (bc mind-wandering is associated with superficial perceptual encoding) Can also influence how individuals speak while reading out loud Deficits in immediate comprehension and at more complex levels of reading comprehension, such as recognizing meaning and creating models of situations and narratives Interfered with constructing the correct situational model of the narrative Costs for sustained attention When using the sustained attention to response task (SART)= a go/ no-go vigilance task that is commonly used to behaviorally index mind-wandering In this task, visual stimuli (e.g., digits) are presented sequentially on a computer monitor and participants are required to withhold responses to a rare target stimulus (e.g., the digit "3") while responding as quickly as possible to all nontarget stimuli (e.g., all other digits). Evidence that mind-wandering brings cost for the ability to sustain attention, in ways that range from subtle to gross Costs for mood and affect Recent evidence suggests that individuals are generally less happy when they are mind-wandering than when they are not. Inducing negative mood increases mind-wandering Costs for working memory and general aptitude Mind-wandering contributes to the strong relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and general fluid intelligence Through two studies, the results provided support that mind-wandering disrupts WMC test performance WMC and gF were positively correlated with each other and negatively correlated with mind-wandering More mind-wandering during the cognitive tests was associated with lower SAT scores To summarize, the research described here demonstrates covariation between mind-wandering and cognitive test performance, both between and within individuals, shows that mind-wandering precedes poor perfor- mance rather than vice versa, ruling out one alternative explanation propos- ing that mind-wandering is a consequence rather than a cause of poor performance
Schooler et al. (2013) What are some of the potential benefits of mind-wandering?
Mind-wandering promotes planning for the future Mind-wandering concurrently with a task clearly produces deficits in performance, but this cost could be partly offset by the benefits gained through prospective planning and mental simulation of future events. Results of study imply that mind-wandering indeed has a function: it enables goal-directed planning in relation to personal concerns Mind-wandering promotes creativity Individuals with ADHD tend to score higher on laboratory measures of creativity and on questionnaire-based assessments of achievement in the creative arts than individuals without ADHD Focused deliberation on problems can block creativity, whereas distraction can enhance it Because mind-wandering is more frequent in undemanding tasks than in demanding tasks, one feature that may characterize successful incubation intervals could be the opportunity for creative mind-wandering Our results confirmed that performing an undemanding task during the incubation period improved creative performance on the UUT to a greater extent than performing a demanding task, resting, or taking no break Importantly, the undemanding task condition was likewise the con- dition with the highest incidence of mind-wandering, but was not associated with more thoughts about the creativity problems (ruling out an alternative explanation that individuals simply were able to devote more resources to explicitly thinking about the prior problems)
How does mindfulness relate to creativity?
Mindfulness can enhance analytic creativity but may hamper insight May be ways to mindfully decide when to mind wander Mindfulness meditation can enhance creativity (ADHD associated with greater creativity; More trait mindfulness less creative on remote associates)
Teper et al (2013) What is their model of emotional regulation?
Mindfulness enhances executive control through its two facets-- awareness and acceptance. These facets work iteratively and independently to facilitate executive control and thus emotion regulation. Boxes A and B represent other hypothetical consequences of improved executive control that are not discussed here
Goleman and Davidson (Ch. 13) What are the characteristics associated with beginner, long term and yogi level practitioners?
The studies of beginners typically look at the impacts from under 100 total hours of practice--and as few as 7 (The evidence for some benefits in the first few months of daily practice are more subjective than objective-- and shaky Amygdala shows lessened reactivity after 30 or so hours over 8 weeks of MBSR practice Show improvements in attention very early on Such effects are unlikely to persist without sustained practice) The long-term group, mainly vipassana meditators, had a mean of 9,000 lifetime hours (the range ran from 1,000 to 10,000 hours and more) (Emergence of neural and hormonal indicators of lessened stress reactivity Functional connectivity in the brain in a circuit important for emotion regulation is strengthened, and cortisol, a key hormone secreted by the adrenal gland in response to stress, lessens Attention strengthens in many aspects Enhanced ability to down-regulate the mind-wandering and self-obsessed thoughts of the default mode, as well as weakening connectivity within those circuits--signifying less self-preoccupation) Yogies studies in richie's lab, had all done at least one tibetan-style three year retreat, with lifetime hours up to mingyu's 62,000; on average had more lifetime hours than did long term (Altered traits in the yogi's brain function and even structure, along with strongly positive human qualities Small bit of data showing shrinking in the nucleus accumbens in long-term meditators)
How do awareness and acceptance influence executive control?
This refined attunement and openness to subtle changes in affective states fosters executive control because it improves response to incipient affective cues that help signal the need for control. This, in turn, enhances emotion regulation Mindfulness promotes conflict-monitoring by refining attention to the sensory cues that are crucial for instigating control-- connection between the attentional skills inherent in mindful awareness and executive control may be self-evident, the connection between mindful acceptance and control may be less so The non judgemental acceptance of thoughts and emotions are integral to the effective initiation of executive control *Mindful awareness is probably involved in the early detection of affective cues necessary for recognizing goal conflict, whereas mindful acceptance may be important for cultivating a non judgemental openness to such cues