Journalists simplify empirical research findings into consumer news stories by summarizing the study into interesting, nontechnical terms for the general public, potentially resulting in misleading information that deviates from the findings of the research (Morling, 2012). In the popular press article, "Mindfulness Meditation Can Help You Make Smarter Decisions", Christopher Bergland (2012) suggests that brief sessions of meditation can result in making "smarter" decisions. Bergland based this claim on a an empirical study conducted by Andrew Hafenbrack, Zoe Kinias, and Sigal Barsade, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Psychological Science (2014). This article (Bergland, 2014) proposes that doing meditation prevents succumbing sunk cost bias, defined in the peer-reviewed article (Hafenbrack et al., 2014) as the propensity to continue and endeavor after money, time, or effort has been invested. Though Hafenbrack (2014) accurately portrays the findings of the study, the article puts too much of an emphasis on the conclusions while essential details from the methods are left out, potentially misleading readers.
In a multipart experiment, Hafenbrack et al. (2014) devoted Study 1 to establishing a positive correlation between mindfulness meditation and resisting suck cost bias. However, the popular press article is centered around studies 2, 3, and 4 of the experiment, all of which make causal claims (Bergland, 2014). In his article, Bergland (2014) correctly indentifies the testing of causal hypotheses by Hafenbrack et al. (2014); however, he fails to mention that the first of the four studies makes an association claim and incorrectly categorizes it as a causal claim. While this inaccuracy does not ...
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...y associated with the study, leaving looming questions of statistical significance, construct validity and internal validity. Consequently, I deem "Mindfulness Meditation Can Help You Make Smarter Decisions" as a meager portrayal of the Hafenbrack et al. empirical study.
Works Cited
Christopher, B. (February 13, 2014). Mindfulness meditation can help you make smarter decisions. Psychology Today. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the- athletes-way/201402/mindfulness-meditation-can-help-you-make-smarter-decisions
Hafenbrack, A. C., Kinias, Z., & Barsade, S. G. (2014). Debiasing the mind through meditation: Mindfulness and the sunk-cost bias. Psychological Science, 25(2), 369-376. doi:10.1177/0956797613503853
Morling, B. (2012). Research methods in psychology: Evaluating a world of information. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Deleanu, Florin. "Agnostic Meditations On Buddhist Meditation." Zygon: Journal Of Religion & Science 45.3 (2010): 605-626. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
Mindfulness meditation is a growth of person`s perception at the present time and some people think is a unique way to overcome anxiety and discover greater wisdom in our minds. A person who practices this meditation tries to get rid of any unwanted thoughts, concentrate on present ones, focus on attention and breathing. Some contemporary psychotherapists suggest that we can train our mind by practicing mindfulness meditation. Often almost all people catch themselves on thoughts that transfers from the present to the past and future. This is called mind wandering. This can be very distracting when a person tries to focus on certain task. Naturally, people who experience less mind wandering demonstrated greater mindfulness, and previous studies showed that practicing mindfulness meditation even for eight minutes can increase and mind wandering will decrease (Hafenbrack, 2013).
Toneatto, T. (2010, March). Lecture 21: Cognitive Therapies with Buddhism. Lecture for Buddhism and Psychology (NEW232Y1Y) Course presented at the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON.
Each subtopic area features different reasons to use mindfulness and the impacts of mindfulness on the subtopic area. The future research that is proposed in the article is the mindfulness field itself. The article recognizes although mindfulness has been utilized for decades the study of the practice is still fairly new. Several issues arose in the article. Two issues that stood out were the measurement of mindfulness and the lack of agreement of the mindfulness construct. The article uses several findings from different methodologies to show that mindfulness can be beneficial and that there is still much to learn about the topic such as the agreement of the
The double-blind procedure, a procedure that eliminates biasness hence generating more precise results is widely used by psychologists in experimental research to determine the cause-effect relationship. This essay will describe the nature, the purpose and advantages of using the double-blind procedure in scientific research.
Davis, D.M., & Hayea J.A. (2011). What are the benefits of mindfulness? A practice review of psychotherapy-related research. Psychotherapy, 48, pp. 198-208.
For thousands of years people have practiced mediation for spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being. Albeit there are many mediation types, in this paper I will be discussing and focusing on mindfulness mediation. Before further exploring mindfulness mediation, it is crucial to define mediation as a whole. Tang, Holzel, & Posner, 2016 state “Meditation can be defined as a form of mental training that aims to improve an individual’s core psychological capacities, such as attentional and emotional capacities” (p.213). Having that in mind, we can dive into mindfulness mediation. Mindfulness meditation is defined as “nonjudgmental attention to present-moment experiences (Tang, Holzel, & Posner, 2016).” A useful analogy to consider is going to the gym, going to the gym allows one to enhance the body, well similarly, practicing mindfulness is akin to taking the mind to the psychic gym, it enhances it. Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on your breathing and then bringing your mind’s attention to the present all while dismissing discursive thoughts and maintaining a special focus on breathing.
Psychotherapist and former Buddhist Monk Donald Altman once said, “If you truly want to change your life, you must first be willing to change your mind.” As research suggests, changing your mind can have drastic benefits for your personal health and well-being. Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding experience moment by moment.” (Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Context) “[T]he principles and practices associated with mindfulness have been applied within many of the world’s great spiritual or wisdom traditions for millennia, most notably in Buddhism.” (Dobkin and Hassed 9) In fact, it was a physician from the Rochester School
After decades of research, it has demonstrated that “Within the field of psychology, the focus of meditation research has been physiological change and the reduction of medical or psychological symptoms of stress or even both”. [1] Mediations help deal with solving problems and distracting thought...
Aside from that, meditation has scientific backing to its logic and why people should do it. In the video lectures, a study involving brain scans and meditation was mentioned several times. The studies showed that while meditated, the subjects showed signs of thought processes slowing down and changes occurring in the brain.
Meditation is an age-old practice that has renewed itself in many different cultures and times. Despite its age, however, there remains a mystery and some ambiguity as to what it is, or even how one performs it. The practice and tradition of meditation dates back thousands of years having appeared in many eastern traditions. Meditation’s ancient roots cloud its origins from being attributed to a sole inventor or religion, though Bon, Hindu, Shinto, Dao, and later, Buddhism are responsible for its development. Its practice has permeated almost all major world religions, but under different names. It has become a practice without borders, influencing millions with its tranquil and healing effects.
Research of brainwaves implies that meditation can definitely improve health insurance and wellness of the person. Neuroscientists discovered that individuals who meditate can change the mind activity to various regions of the mind. This type of change lessens the results of anxiety and stress. For this reason this type of person more happy and calmer than ever before.
The first grant proposal addressed the effects of meditation on life-span cognitional developmental processes. From my understanding, there is a strong connection to the mindset and self-awareness, as one chooses to mediate for their own reason. Based on the informed information, meditation is used to decrease stress and maintain a healthy lifestyle. The provided background information and predicted research study will help determine the pros and cons of the process, using the meditation techniques.
By utilizing a set of research methods, that inducts different types of mindfulness meditation training programs, and advanced mindfulness practitioners to matched control, with a capitulation of detection that enhance our understanding of the nature of mindfulness. While providing insights that will help me to target symptoms and populations that are likely to benefit from mindfulness meditation
First, I will present the research of the physical effects that meditation has on our body’s major internal systems and other common physical chronic conditions. Secondly, I will discuss how meditation practices can impact one 's mental and emotional health. Lastly, I will offer a definition of spirituality and how meditation can bring positive spiritual results.