Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy
Open Access

Mindfulness and its impact on attitudes toward life after social exclusion

29^th World Summit on Positive Psychology, Mindfulness and Psychotherapy

May 21-22, 2018 | New York, USA

Esther Park, Chia-li Yu and Wenqi Zheng

University of Washington, USA

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Psychol Psychother

Abstract :

Background: Our previous study demonstrated that individuals in the experimentally induced social exclusion condition showed a weaker self-association to life-related words. While ample studies investigating the effect of long-term mindfulness intervention suggest the potential benefit of mindfulness interventions for suicidal behaviors, the underlying mechanism is unclear. Objectives: The current study is conducted in two phases. The pilot study validated the mindfulness activity for the main study, using State Mindfulness Scale. The main study assesses the potential mediating role of brief mindfulness intervention by comparing the group differences between Mindfulness group and control groups (filler activity and no activity) in their implicit attitudes toward death and level of emotion dysregulation after experiencing social exclusion. Methods: Data is currently being collected. We investigated the groups differences in Mindfulness group (n=50), filler activity group (n=50), and no activity group (n=50) in their implicit attitudes toward death (death/suicide Implicit Association Test) and their level of emotional dysregulation (State Emotion Dysregulation Scale) after experiencing the experimental social exclusion. Hypothesis: The predicted result of the study is that participants in Mindfulness intervention group will have higher emotion regulation after the social exclusion task. Their self-association to life is also predicted to be stronger than the no Mindfulness activity groups. Discussion: Such findings will support the role of brief mindfulness intervention in buffering the negative effects of stressful experiences such as social exclusion by increasing emotion regulation and state mindfulness. It will be able to address the research gap of the importance of mindfulness interventions on social exclusion and suicide-relevant constructs.

Biography :

Esther Park is a recent graduate of University of Washington. She received a bachelor's degree in Psychology and recently applied for Clinical Psychology PhD program. She is interested in interactions of different dispositional and proximal risk factors that underlie the suicidal behaviours among adolescents and young adults.

E-mail: park.estherc@gmail.com