| This study compares the presence of dialectical thinking in 15 short-term and 15 long-term meditators. Short-term meditation is defined as meditation experience lasting from 6 months to 2 years, while long-term meditation is experience lasting 10 years or more. This study proposed that long-term meditators will display characteristics of dialectical thinking in their conversation to a significantly greater degree than short-term meditators.;Postformal operations research proposes a fifth stage to follow Piaget's four stages of cognitive development. All models of postformal operational thinking are dialectical in nature. Philosophically, Western dialectical psychology is based upon Hegel's dialectics; Eastern dialectics is based upon Nagarjuna's Buddhist philosophy.;Texts of transcribed interviews were coded for the presence of any of the 24 moves-in-thought from Basseches's (1980) postformal model. In order to compare scores from the two groups, t-tests were used to determine if there was a significant difference between long- and short-term meditators.;This study found no significant difference in the ability of long- and short-term meditators to think dialectically as defined by Basseches's model. The scores for both groups of meditators were extremely low compared to scores from other studies using the same model.;Several reasons are suggested to account for the low scores. In part the low scores may be due to a conceptual difference between Western and Buddhist dialectics. In Hegel's dialectics, contradiction and conflict with the dialectical opposites is continual and the source of motivation, transformation, and change. In Buddhist dialectics, the extremes of the dialectical opposites (or dualistic pairs) can be transformed, as in Hegel's system, or can be negated or united (neither good nor bad; both good and bad). If the extremes are not denied or united, one remains in a dualistic conflict. The meditators may be manifesting the Buddhist dialectical system more than the Western one.;Another explanation for the low scores could be that Basseches's framework has been traditionally used to evaluate interviews that ask questions about epistemology, which might elicit a more dialectical outlook. In this study, personal questions, rather than epistemological questions, were asked. A final possible explanation for the low scores may be due to a difference in interviewing style. |
