Drs. Pauly and MacPherson, two researchers in the United Kingdom, recently published a qualitative of self-compassion. Using Dr. Kristin Neff's conceptualization of self-compassion, the researchers explored the self-compassion in a small group of people with anxiety and depressive disorders.
Participants saw "kindness" as the key component of compassion, and they indicated compassion is best expressed through action. Other insights are discussed in the article. As the sample consisted of 10 Caucasian British participants, all but one of whom were female, it's unclear how representative the sample is. One neat thing about the article is that it contains the researchers' self-compassion interview in the Appendix.
If you're interested, you can download the article in Neff's Self-Compassion website here.
For the full citation:
Pauley, G. & McPherson, S. (2010). The experience and meaning of compassion and self-compassion for individuals with depression or anxiety. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 83, 129–143.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
On Being Aware and Accepting: A One-Year Longitudinal Study into Adolescent Well-Being
As my work is with adults, I don't tend to read a lot of research on children and adolescents. However, this article came up on a listserv and sounded interesting. It's currently in press at the Journal of Adolescence and hasn't made print yet. Dr. Joseph Ciarrochi and colleagues, mainly located in Australia, looked at how aspects of mindfulness--specifically the ability to observe one's experience and engage one's life with awareness--predicted adolescent well-being.
The researchers gave a battery of measures to adolescents across five Catholic high school in Australia in 10th grade and again in 11th grade. They were able to collect the second data set for 572 of the original 776 participants. Reasons students couldn't complete the second battery included absence, conflicting school activities, changing schools, and leaving school for technical training.
One thing that impressed me about this study is how precise the researchers were in selecting the constructs they wanted to measure. For example, they specifically selected items in the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure reflecting the mindfulness facets "observing" and "acting with awareness"; they left out questions related non-judgment of experience, explaining that they had a another measure of what the called emotional acceptance, which they noted overlapped with non-judgment. There are too many measures to go through one-by-one, but I recommend checking out the article if you're interested.
Engaging one's life with awareness, emotional acceptance, and acceptance of experiences were all related to well-being and a lower tendency to experience negative emotions. Additionally, the longitudinal aspect of the study allowed the researchers to suggest there may be a causal role between awareness and acceptance and well-being: greater awareness and acceptance preceded increases in well-being, and decreases in sadness, fear, and hostility. However, because the study is not experimental, we can't say for certain there is a causal relationship.
The results suggest that teenagers may benefit from interventions that promote awareness and acceptance of internal (e.g., thoughts, emotions) and external experiences. As the researchers suggest, a longitudinal study with a mindfulness and acceptance-based intervention for adolescents would be a really interesting next step. It would great to see a study that shows that adolescents respond to an intervention that increases awareness and acceptance, and that these increases lead to greater well-being over time. Hopefully, this study provides some momentum towards that aim.
To download a PDF of the full article, click here. For a selection of other downloadable articles by Dr. Ciarrochi, click here.
For the full citation:
Ciarrochi, J., Kashdan, T. B., Leeson, P., Heaven, P., & Jordan, C. (2010). On being aware and accepting: A one-year longitudinal study into adolescent well-being. Journal of Adolescence.
The researchers gave a battery of measures to adolescents across five Catholic high school in Australia in 10th grade and again in 11th grade. They were able to collect the second data set for 572 of the original 776 participants. Reasons students couldn't complete the second battery included absence, conflicting school activities, changing schools, and leaving school for technical training.
One thing that impressed me about this study is how precise the researchers were in selecting the constructs they wanted to measure. For example, they specifically selected items in the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure reflecting the mindfulness facets "observing" and "acting with awareness"; they left out questions related non-judgment of experience, explaining that they had a another measure of what the called emotional acceptance, which they noted overlapped with non-judgment. There are too many measures to go through one-by-one, but I recommend checking out the article if you're interested.
Engaging one's life with awareness, emotional acceptance, and acceptance of experiences were all related to well-being and a lower tendency to experience negative emotions. Additionally, the longitudinal aspect of the study allowed the researchers to suggest there may be a causal role between awareness and acceptance and well-being: greater awareness and acceptance preceded increases in well-being, and decreases in sadness, fear, and hostility. However, because the study is not experimental, we can't say for certain there is a causal relationship.
The results suggest that teenagers may benefit from interventions that promote awareness and acceptance of internal (e.g., thoughts, emotions) and external experiences. As the researchers suggest, a longitudinal study with a mindfulness and acceptance-based intervention for adolescents would be a really interesting next step. It would great to see a study that shows that adolescents respond to an intervention that increases awareness and acceptance, and that these increases lead to greater well-being over time. Hopefully, this study provides some momentum towards that aim.
To download a PDF of the full article, click here. For a selection of other downloadable articles by Dr. Ciarrochi, click here.
For the full citation:
Ciarrochi, J., Kashdan, T. B., Leeson, P., Heaven, P., & Jordan, C. (2010). On being aware and accepting: A one-year longitudinal study into adolescent well-being. Journal of Adolescence.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Vs. Cognitive Therapy for the Treatment of Comorbid Eating Pathology
Recently, a group of researchers at Drexel University--including Dr. James Herbert, who we interviewed about mindfulness over the summer--conducted a study comparing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Therapy (CT) for disordered eating. Juarascio and colleagues looked at people in treatment with "subclinical eating pathology"--meaning that most people identified problematic eating behavior but didn't qualify for an official eating disorder diagnosis.
Although CBT is considered the gold-standard for eating disorder treatment, some research indicates only 30-50% of people completely stop binging and purging, according to research cited by the authors. Consequently, there seems to be some room for improvement.
This study appears to have been culled from the leftovers from a previous study of ACT and CT treatment for anxiety and depression (Foreman et al., 2007), that it was pulled from the same data set. It looks like the authors found that a number of participants (N = 55) from the data set reported eating disordered behavior and ran additional analyses on these individuals.
This study is what is known as an effectiveness study. It doesn't have the control of an efficacy study, but it plays out closer to what happens in real life. This makes it more naturalistic. (Click here for a quick explanation of efficacy vs. effectiveness.)
Participants agreed to the study and were randomly assigned to either an ACT or a CT therapist. These were students at a post-baccalaureate institution who received treatment from one of 23 doctoral students trained in both ACT and CT. Therapy was not conducted through a manual or protocol, as would happen in an efficacy study.
The researchers predicted people who received ACT would show greater improvements than those who received CT, and analyses supported this hypothesis. Although CT lead to small improvements in eating disorder behavior, ACT led to very large improvements.
Because treatment wasn't manualized, we don't know exactly what components of CT and ACT were drawn upon in therapy. In addition, CT participants didn't necessarily receive gold-standard CT protocols for eating disordered behavior. In fact, as they note, the researchers are not certain if eating disordered behavior was a focus. And, as was noted, the eating disordered problems were generally subclinical. For these reasons, this study cannot be considered a test of a gold-standard cognitive behavioral treatment for eating disorders against ACT.
That said, this study has wonderful real world validity. If someone with eating disordered problems walked into a CT or an ACT therapist's office, this is the kind of treatment he or she may be likely to receive. Fewer clinicians use the kind of manualized treatments that are used in more controlled studies (e.g., RCT's), although knowledge of manualized treatments can be very useful in real world practice.
This study provides pretty good evidence for the effectiveness of ACT in addressing eating disordered behavior. ACT promotes greater mindfulness, acceptance, and movement towards valued directions; by contrast, CT focuses on changing the content of one's thinking. Results suggest ACT processes of change may be more appropriate for individuals with eating disordered problems than CT processes.
Drs. Forman and Herbert have large collection of their research available as PDF's on their Drexel research lab page. Click here to download a copy of the article.
For the full citation:
Juarascio, A. S., Forman, E. M., & Herbert, J. D. (2010). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy versus Cognitive Therapy for the treatment of comorbid eating pathology. Behavior Modification, 34(2), 175-190.
Although CBT is considered the gold-standard for eating disorder treatment, some research indicates only 30-50% of people completely stop binging and purging, according to research cited by the authors. Consequently, there seems to be some room for improvement.
This study appears to have been culled from the leftovers from a previous study of ACT and CT treatment for anxiety and depression (Foreman et al., 2007), that it was pulled from the same data set. It looks like the authors found that a number of participants (N = 55) from the data set reported eating disordered behavior and ran additional analyses on these individuals.
This study is what is known as an effectiveness study. It doesn't have the control of an efficacy study, but it plays out closer to what happens in real life. This makes it more naturalistic. (Click here for a quick explanation of efficacy vs. effectiveness.)
Participants agreed to the study and were randomly assigned to either an ACT or a CT therapist. These were students at a post-baccalaureate institution who received treatment from one of 23 doctoral students trained in both ACT and CT. Therapy was not conducted through a manual or protocol, as would happen in an efficacy study.
The researchers predicted people who received ACT would show greater improvements than those who received CT, and analyses supported this hypothesis. Although CT lead to small improvements in eating disorder behavior, ACT led to very large improvements.
Because treatment wasn't manualized, we don't know exactly what components of CT and ACT were drawn upon in therapy. In addition, CT participants didn't necessarily receive gold-standard CT protocols for eating disordered behavior. In fact, as they note, the researchers are not certain if eating disordered behavior was a focus. And, as was noted, the eating disordered problems were generally subclinical. For these reasons, this study cannot be considered a test of a gold-standard cognitive behavioral treatment for eating disorders against ACT.
That said, this study has wonderful real world validity. If someone with eating disordered problems walked into a CT or an ACT therapist's office, this is the kind of treatment he or she may be likely to receive. Fewer clinicians use the kind of manualized treatments that are used in more controlled studies (e.g., RCT's), although knowledge of manualized treatments can be very useful in real world practice.
This study provides pretty good evidence for the effectiveness of ACT in addressing eating disordered behavior. ACT promotes greater mindfulness, acceptance, and movement towards valued directions; by contrast, CT focuses on changing the content of one's thinking. Results suggest ACT processes of change may be more appropriate for individuals with eating disordered problems than CT processes.
Drs. Forman and Herbert have large collection of their research available as PDF's on their Drexel research lab page. Click here to download a copy of the article.
For the full citation:
Juarascio, A. S., Forman, E. M., & Herbert, J. D. (2010). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy versus Cognitive Therapy for the treatment of comorbid eating pathology. Behavior Modification, 34(2), 175-190.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Differential Effects of Mindful Breathing, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, and Loving-Kindness Meditation on Decentering and Negative Reactions to Repetitive Thoughts
"Decentering" is a term used to describe a process in which individuals learn to take a step back and observe a thought more objectively as content, rather than perceiving thoughts as accurate reflections of reality. For example, a non-decentered stance might be something like, "I'm too anxious to attend thw party," believing the thought, and canceling plans to attend, even though one would like to go. A more decentered stance is, "I'm having the thought, 'I'm too anxious to attend the party,'" and attending anyway. Decentering came out of the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy camp (Click here for other SM MBCT posts), and is similar to "defusion" in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Click here for other SM ACT posts).
In a recent study published in Behaviour Research and Therapy, Dr. Greg Feldman of Simmons College and colleagues examined the impact of a 15 minute intervention on decentering, as measured by the Toronto Mindfulness Scale.
As Simmons College is an all girls' school, all participants were female. They were randomly assigned to one of three 15 minute guided exercises: 1.) mindful breathing, adapted from a MBCT script; 2.) a Buddhist loving-kindness meditation, adapted from Insight Meditation by Buddhist teachers Sharon Salzburg and Joseph Goldstein; and 3.) progressive muscle relaxation, a decades old relaxation practice that is just like it sounds.
Mindful breathing was related to greater scores on decentering compared to loving-kindness and progressive muscle relaxation. Also, even though people who practiced mindful breathing endorsed greater repetitive thoughts (e.g., worrying, making mental lists), mindful breathing was associated with a weaker relationship between negative affect and repetitive thoughts. This finding adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that mindfulness shift the way people respond to negative thoughts and feelings, making them less aversive. (Similarly, the MBRP study we recently wrote about had a similar finding with depression and relapse.)
Several years ago, I never would have thought we could find signficant changes from only 15 minutes of mindfulness, but there is a growing body of research using similarly short interventions. We still need to be careful of other confounds, such as demand characteristics (e.g., people responding a certain way because they feel expected to), but the research is very promising.
For the abstract, click here. For the full citation:
Feldman, G., Greeson, J., & Senville, J. (2010). Differential Effects of Mindful Breathing, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, and Loving-Kindness Meditation on Decentering and Negative Reactions to Repetitive Thoughts. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48, 1002-1011.
In a recent study published in Behaviour Research and Therapy, Dr. Greg Feldman of Simmons College and colleagues examined the impact of a 15 minute intervention on decentering, as measured by the Toronto Mindfulness Scale.
As Simmons College is an all girls' school, all participants were female. They were randomly assigned to one of three 15 minute guided exercises: 1.) mindful breathing, adapted from a MBCT script; 2.) a Buddhist loving-kindness meditation, adapted from Insight Meditation by Buddhist teachers Sharon Salzburg and Joseph Goldstein; and 3.) progressive muscle relaxation, a decades old relaxation practice that is just like it sounds.
Mindful breathing was related to greater scores on decentering compared to loving-kindness and progressive muscle relaxation. Also, even though people who practiced mindful breathing endorsed greater repetitive thoughts (e.g., worrying, making mental lists), mindful breathing was associated with a weaker relationship between negative affect and repetitive thoughts. This finding adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that mindfulness shift the way people respond to negative thoughts and feelings, making them less aversive. (Similarly, the MBRP study we recently wrote about had a similar finding with depression and relapse.)
Several years ago, I never would have thought we could find signficant changes from only 15 minutes of mindfulness, but there is a growing body of research using similarly short interventions. We still need to be careful of other confounds, such as demand characteristics (e.g., people responding a certain way because they feel expected to), but the research is very promising.
For the abstract, click here. For the full citation:
Feldman, G., Greeson, J., & Senville, J. (2010). Differential Effects of Mindful Breathing, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, and Loving-Kindness Meditation on Decentering and Negative Reactions to Repetitive Thoughts. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48, 1002-1011.
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