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Improving the Science and Measurement of Mindfulness

This project involves three interrelated studies attempting to broaden the methods by which the research community measures mindfulness and moving beyond self-report methodologies. 

The current project includes:

  • The validation of an instructor-rated measure of mindfulness
  • An examination of the convergent validity of a self-report measure of mindfulness practice quality with a behavioral measure of mindfulness
  • An assessment of expert and naïve raters’ ability to detect the effects of both short- and long-term mindfulness training    

 These first two projects will draw participants from ongoing mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) classes. The research includes the development of a brief instrument designed to assess instructors’ perceptions of their students’ level of trait mindfulness. In addition, a self-report measure of practice quality will be collected and examined in relation to participants’ self-reported trait mindfulness, instructor-rated mindfulness and behavioral mindfulness (i.e., breath counting).   

The third project will use images drawn from a larger study that includes long-term meditation practitioners and participants randomly assigned to receive MBSR, the Health Enhancement Program or a waitlist control condition. Still photographs will be rated by naïve observers and meditation instructors to examine the extent to which raters can detect pre-post intervention changes or the effects of long-term meditation practice.

People Working on This Study

Lisa Flook
Lisa Flook
Former Associate Scientist, Center for Healthy Minds
SimonGoldberg
Simon Goldberg
Core Faculty at the Center for Healthy Minds, Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology
Qiang Xie
Qiang Xie
Graduate Student, Department of Counseling Psychology and the Center for Healthy Minds

Related Publications

Goldberg, S. B., Wielgosz, J., Dahl, C., Schuyler, B., MacCoon, D. S., Rosenkranz, M., Lutz, A., Sebranek, C. A., & Davidson, R. J. (2016). Does the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire measure what we think it does? Construct validity evidence from an active controlled randomized clinical trial. Psychological Assessment, 28(8), 1009-14. doi:10.1037/pas0000233 PMCID: PMC4829487
Goldberg, S. B., Hirshberg, M., Tello, L. Y., Weng, H. Y., Flook, L., & Davidson, R. J. (2019). Still facial photographs of long-term meditators are perceived by naïve observers as less neurotic, more conscientious and more mindful than non-meditating controls. PLoS ONE14(8), e0221782. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0221782 PMCID: PMC6713443
Goldberg, S. B., Knoeppel, C., Davidson, R. J., & Flook. L. (2020). Does practice quality mediate the relationship between practice time and outcome in mindfulness-based stress reduction? Journal of Counseling Psychology, 67(1), 115-122. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000369 PMCID: PMC6937382
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