The Theoretical Construction And Empirical Study Of The Mindful Self

There are two different self-views in the western and in the eastern culture(e.g.,India and China).The former holds a dualistic view of self which is characterized by viewing self as a dualistic entity and the latter(especially the Indian Buddhism,as well as the Chinese Zen/Chan)holds a monistic view of self which is characterized by viewing self as “oneness” or “nothingness”(e.g.,the no-self).Over the past two decades,an increasing number of researchers in the West have recognized that Buddhist doctrines(especially those concerning meditation practice)offer some profound observations and effective methods to enlighten the experiencing self.Numerous studies have suggested that mindfulness meditation offers significant positive effects in enhancing self-functioning,facilitating self-integration and self insight.This dissertation analyzes numbers of studies of mindfulness and the self from different psychological disciplines.Our review of empirical research reveals that positive changes in attitudes and knowledges toward self as a result of mindfulness practices can play an important role in modulating many mental and physical health problems.Accordingly,we introduce a new concept—“the mindful self”(MS)—and compare it with related psychological constructs to describe the positive changes in self-knowledge and self-attitude associated with mindfulness meditation practices or interventions.The mindful self is conceptualized as a mindfulness-enlightened self-knowledge and attitude developed by internalizing and integrating the essence of Buddhist psychology into one's self-system,which takes self as a dynamic process of self-experiences with mindful awareness,emphasizing the core role and effect of minful awareness in the process of “governing” self experiences.We further posit that the mindful self will have important indirect effect between mindfulness intervention and mental health problems,as well as in promoting well-being.Four empirical studies were carried out in this dissertation to test the above hypothesis of MS.Based on the analysis of a qualitative investigation on 26 mindfulness meditators,study 1 developed the mindful self scale(MSS)as an instrument of MS.Study 2 and study 3 investigated the relationship of mindfulness,MSS with self development,different personality,well-being and psychological symptom(anxiety and depression)from two different perspectives-postive psychology and clinical psychology.A 5-weeks randomized controlled pilot study based on MBCT was designed in study 4 to evaluate the effect of a brief mindfulness intervention on MS for non-clinical participants.These results suggested that:(1)MS is a mindfulness-based self-construct,which is associated with and different from dispositional mindfulness.(2)Based on exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis,the MSS with 15 items was tested as a reliable and valid instrument.It suggested that the 4 factors of MSS-self insight(5 items),non-attachment(4 items),self-compassion(3 items)and self-acception(3 items)explained 62% variance variation,and had a good reliability(the Cronbach's Alpha coefficiants of the four factors and the total scale is between 0.66 to 0.86).(3)MSS is correlated to personality traits(neuroticism was found to be negatively associated,and extraversion,agreeableness,openness to experience,conscientiousness positively associated,with MSAS).(4)MSS mediates the relationship between mindfulness and well-being for all five different personality traits.(5)MSS moderates the relationship between vulnerability narcissism and anxiety,as well as the relationship between positive perfectionism and depression.(6)5-weeks brief mindfulness intervention increased in the mindfulness facet of Observe,Describe,Nonreact in the treatment but not the wait-list control group.(7)5-weeks brief mindfulness intervention increased in the mindful self attitude of non-attachment and self-compassion,as well as cognitive emotion regulation strategy.In all,this dissertation proposed a new self construct –“ the mindful self” and carried out 4 emprical studies to test the hypothesis of the mindful self.The results suggested MS is an vauble concept for the study of the relationship between mindfulness and self.However,the following limitations of the present study are acknowledged.The first limitation was the sampling bias.Enough meditators in the present China were not easy to be found.Therefore,a comparative study of MS is missing between the meditators and non-meditators in the current study.Another limitation is the the small sample size in the randomized controlled pilot study.There were only 19 participants who completed the whole mindfulness intervention as well as three times test due to a relatively high drop-out rate in the present study for some objective cause.The further study need to extent the sample range and conduct an intention-to-treat analyses rather than only analysing complete repeated measures data as in the present study.