Trait Mindfulness is Only Loosely Associated with State Mindfulness
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“Mindfulness is a “state” of mind that I can practice when I sit, but it is also a “trait” of mind, an “enduring characteristic,” that can become a part of my basic temperament.” – James Walsh
Mindfulness training has been shown to improve health and well-being. It has also been found to be effective for a large array of medical and psychiatric conditions, either stand-alone or in combination with more traditional therapies. As a result, mindfulness training has been called the third wave of therapies. One problem with understanding mindfulness effects is that there are, a wide variety of methods to measure mindfulness.
There two basic forms of mindfulness, trait and state mindfulness. Trait mindfulness is an enduring characteristic that is a long-term proclivity to be mindful. It remains relatively stable over time. On the other hand, state mindfulness is a short-term characteristic that is dependent upon circumstances and can change from moment to moment. The relationship between trait and state mindfulness has not been systematically explored.
In today’s Research News article “When Traits Match States: Examining the Associations between Self-Report Trait and State Mindfulness following a State Mindfulness Induction.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5800747/ ), Bravo and colleagues recruited college students 31% of which had previous meditation experience. They were randomly assigned to receive a brief (8 minute) recorded guided mindfulness meditation induction focused on body sensations and the breath or a control condition consisting of an 8-minute recorded educational presentation on fruit flies. They were measured before and after the induction for state mindfulness including mindfulness of mind and mindfulness of body, and trait mindfulness including observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging, non-reactivity.
They found that at baseline there were few, weak, and small relationships between trait mindfulness facets and state mindfulness of either mind or body. This makes sense as trait mindfulness is fairly stable while state mindfulness can be highly variable, high one moment and low another. After the brief body focused meditation there was a significant increase in the participants state of mindfulness of their body but not mind which also is to be expected. They also found that “the association between observing trait mindfulness and state mindfulness of mind and body strengthened with more frequent mindfulness meditation practice.”
These are interesting but not surprising findings that the enduring tendency to be mindful is not necessarily related to the moment by moment state of mindfulness. This also tells us that these are independent characteristics that can be accurately measured with existing scales of mindfulness. This suggests that measures of both should be included in research studies of mindfulness as they reflect different components of mindfulness.
So, trait mindfulness is only loosely associated with state mindfulness.
“the trait-like propensity to be mindful in everyday life may be modifiable (for at least some individuals) through intentional practice of evoking the corresponding state during meditation.” – Laura Kiken
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Bravo, A. J., Pearson, M. R., Wilson, A. D., & Witkiewitz, K. (2017). When Traits Match States: Examining the Associations between Self-Report Trait and State Mindfulness following a State Mindfulness Induction. Mindfulness, 9(1), 199-211.
Abstract
Previous research has found inconsistent relationships between trait mindfulness and state mindfulness. To extend previous research, we sought to examine the unique associations between self-report trait mindfulness and state mindfulness by levels of meditation experience (meditation-naïve vs. meditation-experienced) and by mindfulness induction (experimentally induced mindful state vs. control group). We recruited 299 college students (93 with previous mindfulness meditation experience) to participate in an experiment that involved the assessment of five facets of trait mindfulness (among other constructs), followed by a mindfulness induction (vs. control), followed by the assessment of state mindfulness of body and mind. Correlational analyses revealed limited associations between trait mindfulness facets and facets of state mindfulness, and demonstrated that a brief mindfulness exercise focused on bodily sensations and the breath elicited higher state mindfulness of body but not state mindfulness of mind. We found significant interactions such that individuals with previous meditation experience and higher scores on the observing facet of trait mindfulness had the highest levels of state mindfulness of body and mind. Among individuals with meditation experience, the strengths of the associations between observing trait mindfulness and the state mindfulness facets increased with frequency of meditation practice. Some other interactions ran counter to expectations. Overall, the relatively weak associations between trait and state mindfulness demonstrates the need to improve our operationalizations of mindfulness, advance our understanding of how to best cultivate mindfulness, and reappraise the ways in which mindfulness can manifest as a state and as a trait.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5800747/