Mindfulness intervention is commonly employed to lower rumination due to its ability to target the components of the ruminative process. The current study attempts to examine how environmental settings, nature vs. urban, are able to affect the outcome of mindfulness practices in its ability to reduce rumination. A total of 316 participants completed a survey regarding their mindfulness practices, trait mindfulness, dysfunctional attitude, attention control and rumination. Data was analysed using block variable analysis. Results indicate during the initial stages of one’s practice, a naturalistic environment could help reduce rumination better than an urban environment. However, people who meditate in urban environments can better reduce their rumination levels as they persist in their practice over time.

We conducted a preregistered multilaboratory project (k = 36; N = 3,531) to assess the size and robustness of ego-depletion effects using a novel replication method, termed the paradigmatic replication approach. Each laboratory implemented one of two procedures that was intended to manipulate self-control and tested performance on a subsequent measure of self-control. Confirmatory tests found a nonsignificant result (d = 0.06). Confirmatory Bayesian meta-analyses using an informed-prior hypothesis (δ = 0.30, SD = 0.15) found that the data were 4 times more likely under the null than the alternative hypothesis. Hence, preregistered analyses did not find evidence for a depletion effect. Exploratory analyses on the full sample (i.e., ignoring exclusion criteria) found a statistically significant effect (d = 0.08); Bayesian analyses showed that the data were about equally likely under the null and informed-prior hypotheses. Exploratory moderator tests suggested that the depletion effect was larger for participants who reported more fatigue but was not moderated by trait self-control, willpower beliefs, or action orientation.

Although there has been substantial support for the strength model of self-control (Baumeister’s, 1998) in the last two decades, questions have been raised regarding its validity as a recent meta-analysis by Carter and McCullough (2014) concluded the ego-depletion effect was statistically negligible. We postulate that these results may be due to the previous studies not ascertaining how much exertion was put into the first task of a sequential-task experiment, resulting in conflicting outcomes of the depletion effect. The primary goal of this study was to explore possible methods to reliably evoke the ego-depletion effect during a strength model experiment. This project involves two laboratory experiments using the sequential-task experimental paradigm while attempting to manipulate the self-control effort exerted during the first task by either offering monetary incentives or extending task durations in order to manipulate self-control exertion level. Results found that neither offering of incentives nor extending of task duration was able to effectively trigger the ego-depletion effect. These results illuminated critical methodological shortcomings in the ways that strength model have been tested in the past and suggests the research focus in the immediate future is to re-examine some experiment protocols of strength model research.

Interest in the application of mindfulness-based intervention for the treatment of psychological disorders and promotion of wellbeing has grown exponentially in recent years. Mindfulness-based interventions have been found to be beneficial for treatment of various forms of psychopathology as well as improve psychological wellbeing and enhance physical health. Little research has investigated for whom and under what conditions training people to use mindfulness-based therapeutic techniques is most effective. Recent studies have found evidence that individual differences in personality traits are associated with mindfulness. For example, neuroticism has been found to be negatively associated with mindfulness. These associations raise the possibility that individual differences in personality may potentially moderate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions. In the present study we draw on Gray's revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (r-RST) to examine relationships between personality traits, mindfulness and psychological distress. We found that the Flight, Fight, Freeze system mediated the relationship between trait mindfulness and psychological distress, while trait mindfulness moderated the relationship between the Flight, Fight, Freeze system and psychological distress. Both results are consistent with the suggestion that acquiring the skills from learning and practicing mindfulness techniques is potentially useful, particularly for threat-sensitive individuals with low to moderate levels of trait mindfulness.

OPINION article Front. Psychol., 09 February 2016Sec. Personality and Social Psychology Volume 7 - 2016 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00136

A large body over the last 20 years has demonstrated that rumination is an important determinant of depression. Research has also shown that mindfulness practice can reduce rumination and depression. However, over this period the concept of rumination has evolved. Initially rumination was understood to be a single static construct that a person would engage in when they experience depressive mood. The Differential Activation Hypothesis introduced the idea that rumination involved an interaction between depressive mood and negative cognition. Later, this model was expanded with negative cognition seen to be the product of the memories of negative events and influenced by dysfunctional attitude. Rumination started to be viewed as an interactive cycle between depressive mood, memories of negative event and dysfunctional attitude. A separate but relevant literature has demonstrated the relationship between emotion and attention. However, to date no study has investigated the role of innate attention control capacity on the ruminative process. Similarly, despite attention control being viewed as a component of mindfulness, little research has investigated the relationship between attention control capacity and mindfulness. Thus, this study investigates how attention control capacity influences rumination and mindfulness. 392 adults recruited from two public universities and the general community were given a series of online survey questionnaires involving their depression and rumination levels, dysfunctional attitude, attention control, and different facets of trait mindfulness. Results found that attention control and dysfunctional attitude sequentially mediated the relationship between depressive mood and rumination. The mindfulness facets of Nonjudging and Nonreactivity also mediated the relationship between depressive mood and attention control. These results indicate that our theoretical understanding of the rumination process should include attention control for a more holistic conception. Further the results suggest that the enhancement of a Nonjudgemental attitude and Nonreactivity through mindfulness practice has the potential to interfere with the rumination process by enhancing a person’s attention control capacity and decreasing the attention allocation effects of emotional arousal.