Contemplative practices cultivate well-being in oneself but also foster other-oriented emotions, such as empathy, perspective-taking, and compassion. This may be due to a reduction in egocentric thought. However, the neural mechanisms behind how mindfulness reduces ego and how this might impact romantic relationships has not yet been explored. This study proposes a multi-method investigation of …
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The role of state mindfulness and self-compassion in attenuating depressive symptoms: Early prediction through ecological momentary assessment and smartphone sensing
Depression is a serious mental health condition and is highly prevalent among college students. One-occasion depression-related self-report measures can provide early indication of upcoming depressive episodes, but such assessments are typically infrequent, burdensome, and thus hinder prevention efforts. Recent technological advancements in app-based, automatic smartphone-sensing can now permit collection of depression-related, day-to-day location, mobility, and …
Effects of Mindful Compassion Training on social emotion regulation in daily life
Many contemplative traditions emphasize social benefits of contemplative practice, yet more research is needed to determine whether and how contemplative training supports social well-being. Recent advances in understanding social emotion regulation (SER) highlight the importance of both intrapersonal and interpersonal strategies, and offer exciting new approaches and methods for investigating social effects of contemplative practice. …
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Transforming habits from the heart: From good intentions to reliable prosocial response
Good intentions are important to live a moral life, but they are not enough because people often do not act on them. Indeed, moving from thought to action often requires cognitive resources that can be elusive, in which case we rely on more automatic patterns of thinking and acting. When these automatisms are non-virtuous, individuals …
Motivating engagement with social justice issues through compassion training: A multi-method randomized control trial
Working towards social justice necessitates dominant group members’ willingness to share the feelings of oppressed outgroup members (outgroup empathy) and to engage in difficult intergroup dialogue. Nevertheless, empathic and behavioral engagement is especially avoided in social justice contexts due to the high demands/costs of such engagement. It is, however, possible to offset high demands and …
How does self-compassion influence pain and self-related functioning in patients with chronic pain? A pilot RCT trial combining fMRI and experience sampling
Chronic pain is a major physical and mental health care problem, and is challenging to treat. In addition to pain, many patients feel bad about themselves and may experience guilt or shame. Self-compassion is an element of mindfulness-based interventions, and describes the skill of being kind and caring towards oneself. Thus, for patients with chronic …
An action phase model of compassion: Predictors and effects of helping goal commitment
It is unclear exactly why, or when, compassion-eliciting situations evoke responses that are pleasant and productive, versus aversive and potentially detrimental to one’s health. The proposed work seeks to clarify the role of mindset on the experience of compassion-eliciting situations, helping behavior, and responses to unrelated stressors. Specifically, I propose the action-phase model of compassion, …
Bridging the empathy gap: Effects of brief mindfulness training on helping outgroup members in need
When humans witness others in need, we empathize with them and often help them. It is well documented that empathy occurs automatically, but when those in need are not members of a social ingroup, empathy and helping are often lower. One major social division in America and in other countries is based on race. Although …
The effects of mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation on teachers’ emotional abilities, compassion, and prosocial classroom engagement
This Varela research examined the differential effects of mindfulness and kindness meditation on teachers’ emotional abilities, compassion, and prosocial behavior. The purpose of the 8-week randomized controlled trial was to empirically probe the prosocial mechanisms of meditation, which are now actively debated in contemplative science and psychology but remain poorly understood. In addition, this research …
Synchronizing brains through loving-kindness meditation
What enables people to connect with one another, and how may people overcome barriers to social bonds? Empathy is one critical component of social bonds; however, self-focused motivational drives can cause empathic failures. Thus, having other-focused motivations that transcend self interest may promote empathic accuracy. The current study tested whether compassion practice, compared to a …
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