Measuring Psychological Mechanisms in Meditation Practice: Using a Phenomenologically Grounded Classification System to Develop Theory-Based Composite Scores
[en] Objectives: Deepening our understanding of the mechanisms by which meditation practices impact well-being and human flourishing is essential for advancing the science of meditation. A recent phenomenologically grounded classification system distinguishes attentional, constructive, and deconstructive forms of meditation based on the psychological mechanisms these practices primarily target or necessitate. Our main aim was to understand whether this theory-based taxonomy could be used as a guiding principle for combining established psychological self-report measures of meditation-related mechanisms into psychometrically adequate composite scores. Methods: We used cross-sectional data to compute meditation composite scores in three independent samples, namely meditation-naïve healthy older adults from the Age-Well trial (n = 135), meditation-naïve older adults with subjective cognitive decline from the SCD-Well trial (n = 147), and healthy long-term meditators (≥ 10,000 h of practice including one 3-year meditation retreat) from the Brain & Mindfulness project (n = 29). The psychometric properties of the composite scores were assessed via floor and ceiling effects, composite intercorrelations, interpretability, and convergent validity in relation to well-being, anxiety, and depression. Results: Three theoretically derived meditation composite scores, reflecting mechanisms involved in attentional, constructive, and deconstructive practices, displayed adequate psychometric properties. Separate secondary confirmatory factor analyses empirically corroborated the theoretically predicted three-factor structure of this classification system. Conclusions: Complementing data-driven approaches, this study offers preliminary support for using a theoretical model of meditation-related mechanisms to create empirically meaningful and psychometrically sound composite scores. We conclude by suggesting conceptual and methodological considerations for future research in this area.
Research Center/Unit :
GIGA CRC (Cyclotron Research Center) In vivo Imaging-Aging & Memory - ULiège
Disciplines :
Theoretical & cognitive psychology
Author, co-author :
Schlosser, Marco ; Division of Psychiatry, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom ; Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Barnhofer, Thorsten; School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Surrey, United Kingdom
Requier, Florence ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Psychologie et Neuroscience Cognitives (PsyNCog) ; Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA > GIGA CRC In vivo Imaging - Aging and Memory
Deza-Araujo, Yacila I.; Laboratory for Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Abdoun, Oussama; Lyon Neuroscience Research Center Inserm U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon 1 University, Lyon, France
Marchant, Natalie L.; Division of Psychiatry, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom
Chételat, Gaël; UNICAEN, INSERM, U1237, PhIND “Physiopathology and Imaging of Neurological Disorders”, Institut Blood and Brain @ Caen-NormandieCyceron, Normandie Univ, Caen, France
Collette, Fabienne ; Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA > GIGA CRC In vivo Imaging - Aging & Memory ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Psychologie et Neuroscience Cognitives (PsyNCog)
Klimecki, Olga M.; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland ; Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Lutz, Antoine ; Lyon Neuroscience Research Center Inserm U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon 1 University, Lyon, France
Medit-Ageing Research Group
Language :
English
Title :
Measuring Psychological Mechanisms in Meditation Practice: Using a Phenomenologically Grounded Classification System to Develop Theory-Based Composite Scores
H2020 - 667696 - MEDIT-AGEING - Investigating the impact of meditation training on mental health and wellbeing in the ageing population FP7 - 617739 - BRAINANDMINDFULNESS - Impact of Mental Training of Attention and Emotion Regulation on Brain and Behavior: Implications for Neuroplasticity, Well-Being and Mindfulness Psychotherapy Research. H2020 - 667696 - MEDIT-AGEING - Investigating the impact of meditation training on mental health and wellbeing in the ageing population
Name of the research project :
MEDIT-AGEING - Investigating the impact of meditation training on mental health and wellbeing in the ageing population BRAINANDMINDFULNESS - Impact of Mental Training of Attention and Emotion Regulation on Brain and Behavior: Implications for Neuroplasticity, Well-Being and Mindfulness Psychotherapy Research.
Funders :
EU - European Union ERC - European Research Council
Funding number :
667696; 617739
Funding text :
GC has received research support from the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement number 667696), Inserm, Fondation d’entreprise MMA des Entrepreneurs du Futur, Fondation Alzheimer, Programme Hospitalier de Recherche Clinique, Région Normandie, Association France Alzheimer et maladies apparentées and Fondation Vaincre Alzheimer (all to Inserm), and personal fees from Fondation d’entreprise MMA des Entrepreneurs du Futur. All other authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.The Age-Well and SCD-Well Randomised Controlled Trials are part of the Medit-Ageing project funded through the European Union in Horizon 2020 program related to the call PHC22 “Promoting mental well-being in the ageing population” and under grant agreement No. 667696. The part of the Brain & Mindfulness project from which data was used in the present study was funded by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant awarded to Antoine Lutz under grant agreement No. 617739. FC was supported by Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FRS-FNRS, Belgium). The funders had no role in the study design, data acquisition, data analysis, data interpretation or manuscript writing.
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