Implications of a “Null” Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions in Healthy Adults

Kaplan, Deanna M.; Mehl, Matthias R.; Pace, Thaddeus W.W.; Negi, Lobsang Tenzin; Silva, Brendan Ozawa-de; Lavelle, Brooke D.; Sivilli, Teri; Williams, A.R.; Comstock, Tom; Price, Bryan; Medrano, Vicente Abril López de; Robbins, Megan L.; Cole, Steven P.; Craighead, W. Edward

doi:10.1007/s12671-022-01861-3

Cited by 16 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As research on mindfulness-based interventions has been criticized to suffer from severe methodological problems (S. B. Goldberg et al, 2018; Schindler & Pfattheicher, 2021), and existing research following a more elaborate study design (e.g., active control groups) could not find convincing evidence for the effectiveness of mindfulness (Kaplan et al, 2022), better designed intervention studies are needed. Implementing active control groups, assessing other variables potentially affected by mindfulness-based interventions, randomly assigning participants to groups, studying change at a latent variable level, and implementing multiple follow-up measurements could all contribute to understanding how and to what extent mindfulness-based interventions are an effective tool to improve mental health.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do you mind a closer look? A jingle-jangle fallacy perspective on mindfulness

2023

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Mindfulness is defined inconsistently, and its various measures resemble established personality self-report scales. Therefore, jingle and jangle fallacies are likely to undermine the construct’s utility. To address these issues, we conducted two studies to test three hurdles of validity: 1) a sound definition and measurement model, 2) empirical distinctiveness, and 3) incremental criterion validity. We established an overarching and inclusive mindfulness definition covering twelve aspects. Based on this definition, we used an item sampling algorithm to select items from eight mindfulness scales. We established an eclectic bi-factor and a single-factor model, both fitting the data well. Bivariate latent variable correlations between a single mindfulness factor and big-five/six personality factors reached up to .68. Although 50% of mindfulness' variance was unaccounted for by the personality factors, it provided no meaningful incremental criterion validity over personality factors. Our results indicate that mindfulness has little or no incremental utility above established personality factors.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do you mind a closer look? A jingle-jangle fallacy perspective on mindfulness

2023

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“…The EAR has since become an increasingly widely used tool for investigating the role of social context in clinically relevant processes (Ebner-Priemer & Trull, 2009; Mehl et al, 2012). It has been used to examine the behavioral, linguistic, and social-environmental correlates for a variety of phenomenon relevant to psychotherapy, such as social behaviors during a depressive episode (Baddeley et al, 2013), behavioral expressions of affective instability in individuals with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (Tomko et al, 2014), daily behavioral outcomes of meditation interventions (Kaplan et al, 2022), psychosocial challenges faced by postpartum women (Metcalf & Dimidjian, 2020), and family interactions after a potentially traumatic pediatric injury (Alisic et al, 2015, 2017; Mangelsdorf et al, 2020), among others. To date, the EAR has been used in research on clinical and healthy populations, with strong acceptability and compliance, ranging from early childhood to old age (Mehl, 2017).…”

Section: The Electronically Activated Recorder (Ear)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotional change in its “natural habitat”: Measuring everyday emotion regulation with passive and active ambulatory assessment methods.

Kaplan¹,

Hughes²,

Schatten³

et al. 2023

Journal of Psychotherapy Integration

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Ambulatory assessment methods have made it possible to study psychological phenomena in real-time, with translational potential for psychotherapy process research. This article uses case example data to demonstrate applications of ambulatory assessment to measuring emotion regulation, a process with relevance across diagnoses and treatment modalities that may be particularly important to measure in situ. Two methods are reviewed: Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), which enables self-reported momentary assessments as people go about their days, and the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), an unobtrusive naturalistic observation methodology that collects short audio recordings from participants' moment-to-moment environments, capturing an acoustic diary of their social interactions, daily behaviors, and natural daily language use. Using case example data from research applying EMA and EAR methods in the context of adolescent self-injurious thoughts and behaviors, we illustrate how EMA can be used to measure emotion regulation over time and across contexts, and how EAR can assess the behaviors and social-environmental factors that interact with emotion regulation in clinically important ways. We suggest applications of this measurement approach for investigations of clients' emotional change over the course of psychotherapy, as well as potential clinical applications of these methods. Deanna M. Kaplan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9300-3029 Nicole R. Nugent https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8756-5618 Deanna M. Kaplan served as lead for conceptualization, writingoriginal draft, and writingreview & editing, contributed equally to formal analysis and methodology, and served in a supporting role for project administration and visualization. Christopher D. Hughes served as lead for visualization, contributed equally to formal analysis and methodology, and served in a supporting role for writingoriginal draft and writingreview & editing. Heather T. Schatten served in a supporting role for visualization and writingreview & editing. Matthias R. Mehl served as lead for data curation, contributed equally to methodology, and served in a supporting role for funding acquisition, investigation, project administration, visualization, writingoriginal draft, and writingreview & editing. Michael F. Armey contributed equally to methodology and served in a supporting role for funding acquisition, investigation, project administration, visualization, writingoriginal draft, and writingreview & editing. Nicole R. Nugent served as lead for funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, and resources and served in a supporting role for conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, visualization, writingoriginal draft, and writingreview & editing.

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“…In another recent study, researchers used the EAR method to record soundbites of the daily lives of healthy adults before and after they participated in an eight-week mindfulness meditation, compassion meditation intervention, or health education discussion group (Kaplan et al, 2022). In addition to collecting behavioral data, pre and post assessments in this clinical trial also included self-report psychosocial questionnaires and physiological measures of biological stress reactivity that have been commonly used in efficacy trials of meditation interventions.…”

Section: Evaluating the Effectiveness Of Interventions At Facilitatin...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Social-Ecological Measurement of Daily Life: How Relationally Focused Ambulatory Assessment Can Advance Clinical Intervention Science

Kaplan

2022

Review of General Psychology

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Individuals’ daily behaviors and social interactions play a central role in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders. Despite this, observational ambulatory assessment methods—research methods that allow for direct and passive assessment of individuals’ momentary activities and interactions—have a remarkably scant history in the clinical science field. Prior discussions of ambulatory assessment methods in clinical science have focused on subjective methods (e.g., ecological momentary assessment) and physiological methods (e.g., wearable heart rate monitoring). Comparatively less attention has been dedicated to ambulatory assessment methods that collect objective, relational data about individuals’ social behaviors and their interactions with their momentary environmental contexts. Drawing on extant social-ecological measurement frameworks, this article first provides a conceptual and psychometric rationale for the integration of daily relational data into clinical science research. Next, the nascent research applying such methods to clinical science is reviewed, and priorities for further research organized by the NIH Stage Model for Clinical Science Research are recommended. These data can provide unique information about the social contexts of diverse patient populations; identify social-ecological targets for transdiagnostic, precision, and culturally responsive interventions; and contribute novel data about the effectiveness of established interventions at creating behavioral and relational change.

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Implications of a “Null” Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions in Healthy Adults

Cited by 16 publications

References 57 publications

Do you mind a closer look? A jingle-jangle fallacy perspective on mindfulness

Do you mind a closer look? A jingle-jangle fallacy perspective on mindfulness

Emotional change in its “natural habitat”: Measuring everyday emotion regulation with passive and active ambulatory assessment methods.

Social-Ecological Measurement of Daily Life: How Relationally Focused Ambulatory Assessment Can Advance Clinical Intervention Science

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