Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Does Early Emotional Responding to Initial Mindfulness Training Impact Intervention Outcomes?

  • ORIGINAL PAPER
  • Published:
Mindfulness Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Rigorous study of the prevalence and functions of emotional responding to initial mindfulness training among meditation-naïve practitioners or clients is scarce, yet could be important for informing more personalized and effective delivery of mindfulness-based interventions. Accordingly, we modeled the function of emotional responding to initial mindfulness training on key outcomes of a 4-week mindfulness training intervention among N = 115 unselected meditation-naïve adults from the general community. We found that elevations and deterioration in both negative and positive affect in the week following initial mindfulness training did not predict prospective intervention retention/dropout, nor key intervention outcomes. These tests were statistically powered to detect small to moderate effects. In contrast to this pattern of null prospective effects on intervention outcomes, we found that the greater the degree of early elevation in positive affect, the greater the prospective likelihood of cultivating higher levels of trait mindfulness over the course of the intervention. Findings indicate that elevations in negative affect and deterioration of positive affect, in early phases of mindfulness meditation training, were not linked to an iatrogenic effect of the intervention nor to elevated risk of dropout. Together, the present findings may contribute to the emerging discourse on safety and adverse effects of mindfulness meditation and inform decision-making with respect to the delivery of mindfulness-based interventions to improve well-being and reduce vulnerability in the general community.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aderka, I. M., Anholt, G. E., van Balkom, A. J., Smit, J. H., Hermesh, H., Hofmann, S. G., & van Oppen, P. (2011). Differences between early and late drop-outs from treatment for obsessive–compulsive disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25(7), 918–923.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Arch, J. J., & Ayers, C. R. (2013). Which treatment worked better for whom? Moderators of group cognitive behavioral therapy versus adapted mindfulness based stress reduction for anxiety disorders. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51(8), 434–442.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bolzer, M., Strijbos, J. W., & Fischer, F. (2015). Inferring mindful cognitive-processing of peer-feedback via eye-tracking: role of feedback-characteristics, fixation-durations and transitions. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 31(5), 422–434.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). Perils and promise in defining and measuring mindfulness: observations from experience. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 11, 242–248.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112(1), 155-159.

  • Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2013). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Mahwah: Erlbaum.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Creswell, J. D. (2017). Mindfulness interventions. Annual Review of Psychology, 68, 491–516.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, R. J., & Lutz, A. (2008). Buddha’s brain: neuroplasticity and meditation [in the spotlight]. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 25(1), 176–174.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dempster, M., Bolderston, H., Gillanders, D., & Bond, F. (2009) The development of a measure of cognitive fusion: The CFQ. Conference Presentation, Association for Contextual Behavioral Science World Congress, Enschede, Netherlands, July 2009.

  • Dimidjian, S., & Segal, Z. V. (2015). Prospects for a clinical science of mindfulness-based intervention. American Psychologist, 70(7), 593-620.

  • Dobkin, P. L., Irving, J. A., & Amar, S. (2012). For whom may participation in a mindfulness-based stress reduction program be contraindicated? Mindfulness, 3(1), 44–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, I. R., & Aronson, J. K. (2000). Adverse drug reactions: definitions, diagnosis, and management. The Lancet, 356(9237), 1255–1259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 300-319.

  • Fredrickson, B. L., Cohn, M. A., Coffey, K. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(5), 1045-1062.

  • Garland, E. L., Fredrickson, B., Kring, A. M., Johnson, D. P., Meyer, P. S., & Penn, D. L. (2010). Upward spirals of positive emotions counter downward spirals of negativity: insights from the broaden-and-build theory and affective neuroscience on the treatment of emotion dysfunctions and deficits in psychopathology. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 849–864.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Garland, E. L., Gaylord, S. A., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2011). Positive reappraisal mediates the stress-reductive effects of mindfulness: an upward spiral process. Mindfulness, 2(1), 59–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garland, E., Farb, N., Goldin, P. R., & Fredrickson, B. (2017). Mindfulness-to-meaning theory-mindfulness broadens awareness and builds eudaimonic meaning: a process model of mindful positive emotion regulation. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2015.1064294.

  • Geisinger, K. F. (1994). Cross-cultural normative assessment: translation and adaptation issues influencing the normative interpretation of assessment instruments. Psychological Assessment, 6, 304–312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geschwind, N., Peeters, F., Drukker, M., van Os, J., & Wichers, M. (2011). Mindfulness training increases momentary positive emotions and reward experience in adults vulnerable to depression: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 79(5), 618-628.

  • Grabovac, A. D., Lau, M. A., & Willett, B. R. (2011). Mechanisms of mindfulness: a Buddhist psychological model. Mindfulness, 2(3), 154–166. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-011-0054-5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grossman, P. (2008). On measuring mindfulness in psychosomatic and psychological research. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 64(4), 405-408.

  • Hadash, Y., Plonsker, R., Vago, D. R., & Bernstein, A. (2016a). Experiential self-referential and selfless processing in mindfulness and mental health: conceptual model and implicit measurement methodology. Psychological Assessment, 28(7), 856–869.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hadash, Y., Segev, N., Tanay, G., Goldstein, P., & Bernstein, A. (2016b). The decoupling model of equanimity: theory, measurement, and test in a mindfulness intervention. Mindfulness, 7(5), 1214–1226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanley, A. W., Abell, N., Osborn, D. S., Roehrig, A. D., & Canto, A. I. (2016). Mind the gaps: are conclusions about mindfulness entirely conclusive? Journal of Counseling and Development, 94(1), 103–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hart, W. (1987). The art of living: Vipassana meditation as taught by SN Goenka. San-Francisco: HarperOne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsieh, F. Y., Bloch, D. A., & Larsen, M. D. (1998). A simple method of sample size calculation for linear and logistic regression. Statistics in Medicine, 17(14), 1623–1634.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990). Full catastrophe living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness. New York: Dell Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knowles, R., Tai, S., Christensen, I., & Bentall, R. (2005). Coping with depression and vulnerability to mania: a factor analytic study of the Nolen-Hoeksema (1991) Response Styles Questionnaire. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 44(1), 99–112.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Korotitsch, W. J., & Nelson-Gray, R. O. (1999). An overview of self-monitoring research in assessment and treatment. Psychological Assessment, 11, 415–425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazar, S. W., Kerr, C. E., Wasserman, R. H., Gray, J. R., Greve, D. N., Treadway, M. T., et al. (2005). Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. Neuroreport, 16(17), 1893-1897.

  • Lilienfeld, S. O. (2007). Psychological treatments that cause harm. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(1), 53–70.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lindahl, J. R., Kaplan, C. T., Winget, E. M., & Britton, W. B. (2013). A phenomenology of meditation-induced light experiences: traditional Buddhist and neurobiological perspectives. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 973.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindahl, J. R., Fisher, N. E., Cooper, D. J., Rosen, R. K., & Britton, W. B. (2017). The varieties of contemplative experience: a mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists. PLoS One, 12(5), e0176239.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Linden, M. (2013). How to define, find and classify side effects in psychotherapy: from unwanted events to adverse treatment reactions. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 20(4), 286–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lomas, T., Cartwright, T., Edginton, T., & Ridge, D. (2015). A qualitative analysis of experiential challenges associated with meditation practice. Mindfulness, 6(4), 848–860.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lustyk, M. K., Chawla, N., Nolan, R., & Marlatt, G. A. (2009). Mindfulness meditation research: issues of participant screening, safety procedures, and researcher training. Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, 24(1), 20–30.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lutz, A., Greischar, L. L., Rawlings, N. B., Ricard, M., & Davidson, R. J. (2004). Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101(46), 16369–16373.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mahāsī, S. (1971). Practical insight meditation: Basic and progressive stages. Kandy: Buddhist Publications Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahāsī, S. (1978). Practical vipassanā meditational exercises. Rangoon: Buddhasāsanānuggaha Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malpass, A., Carel, H., Ridd, M., Shaw, A., Kessler, D., Sharp, D., et al. (2012). Transforming the perceptual situation: a meta-ethnography of qualitative work reporting patients’ experiences of mindfulness-based approaches. Mindfulness, 3(1), 60–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCracken, L. M., DaSilva, P., Skillicorn, B., & Doherty, R. (2014). The Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire: a preliminary study of psychometric properties and prediction of functioning in chronic pain. The Clinical Journal of Pain, 30(10), 894–901.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Muris, P., Merckelbach, H., & Horselenberg, R. (1996). Individual differences in thought suppression. The White Bear Suppression Inventory: factor structure, reliability, validity and correlates. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34(5), 501–513.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Morrow, J. (1991). A prospective study of depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms after a natural disaster: the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 115–121.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Parker, L. E., & Larson, J. (1994). Ruminative coping with depressed mood following loss. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 92–104.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Norman, G. R., Sloan, J. A., & Wyrwich, K. W. (2003). Interpretation of changes in health-related quality of life: the remarkable universality of half a standard deviation. Medical Care, 41(5), 582–592.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pandita, S. U. (2011). Timeless wisdom. Walnut Creek: Saddhamma Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Segal, Z. V., Williams, J. M., & Teasdale, J. D. (2013). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepherd, K. A., Coifman, K. G., Matt, L. M., & Fresco, D. M. (2016). Development of a self-distancing task and initial validation of responses. Psychological Assessment, 28(7), 841–855.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Shoham, A., Goldstein, P., Oren, R., Spivak, D., & Bernstein, A. (2017). Decentering in the process of cultivating mindfulness: an experience-sampling study in time and context. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 85(2), 123–134.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shoham, A., Hadash, Y., & Bernstein, A. (2018). Examining the decoupling model of equanimity in mindfulness training: an intensive experience sampling study. Clinical Psychological Science.

  • Tanay, G., & Bernstein, A. (2013). State mindfulness scale (SMS): development and initial validation. Psychological Assessment, 25(4), 1286–1299.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Treleaven, D. A. (2018). Trauma-sensitive mindfulness: Practices for safe and transformative healing. New York: WW Norton & Co..

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Dam, N. T., van Vugt, M. K., Vago, D. R., Schmalzl, L., Saron, C. D., Olendzki, A., et al. (2018). Mind the hype: a critical evaluation and prescriptive agenda for research on mindfulness and meditation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(1), 36–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617709589.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van de Mortel, T. F. (2008). Faking it: social desirability response bias in self-report research. The Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, 25(4), 40–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vörös, S. (2016). Sitting with the demons–mindfulness, suffering, and existential transformation. Asian Studies, 4(2), 59–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D. (2000). Mood and temperament. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wegner, D. M., & Zanakos, S. (1994). Chronic thought suppression. Journal of Personality, 62(4), 615–640.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. M. G., & Kabat-Zinn, J. (2011). Mindfulness: diverse perspectives on its meaning, origins, and multiple applications at the intersection of science and dharma. Contemporary Buddhism, 12(01), 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We want to thank Galia Tanay, Yaara Nitzan, Yael Lichtash, Koby Avital, Maayan Shenker, Hagai Schreuer, and David Spivak for their work carrying out the study and data collection.

Funding

Dr. Bernstein recognizes the funding support from the Israel Science Foundation (grant number no. 713/09).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioral Sciences Department, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer, Israel

    Or Harel & Yossi Levi-Belz

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel

    Yuval Hadash & Amit Bernstein

Authors
  1. Or Harel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yuval Hadash
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yossi Levi-Belz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Amit Bernstein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amit Bernstein.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Harel, O., Hadash, Y., Levi-Belz, Y. et al. Does Early Emotional Responding to Initial Mindfulness Training Impact Intervention Outcomes?. Mindfulness 10, 616–626 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-1018-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-1018-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation