Neuropsychological and emotional correlates of mindfulness traits
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Neuropsychological and emotional correlates of mindfulness traits in neurological and neurotypical samples
IRAS ID
219151
Contact name
Alan Bowman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Teesside University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 29 days
Research summary
The psychological benefit of mindfulness is an area of growing research interest. It has been suggested that mindfulness is a trait that varies between individuals. However, why individuals vary on this trait is currently unclear. Research evidence indicates that executive functioning may play an important role. To date the research investigating the relationship between trait mindfulness and executive functioning has focused on healthy participants. There is a lack of published research that has investigated levels of trait mindfulness in individuals who have damage to brain regions associated with executive functioning (i.e., the frontal lobe). Given the suggested contribution of executive functioning to individual differences in trait mindfulness, there is a need to investigate this ability in this clinical group. Understanding mindfulness abilities in this population may be beneficial to the design and provision of mindfulness-based psychological interventions. The current study will recruit individuals with hypothesised frontal lobe damage as well as their carers (who will act as a control group). Participants will be asked to complete four questionnaires, covering measures of mindfulness, executive functioning, emotion regulation (which is associated with both mindfulness and executive functioning), and mood, taking approximately 40 minutes. For carers, the executive function questionnaire contains an additional subsection about the functioning of the person they care for, which will require an extra 5-10 minutes to complete. The data from these questionnaires will enable the researcher to investigate whether trait mindfulness is compromised in participants with frontal lobe damage, and what the relationship is between mindfulness, executive functioning, and emotional regulation.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/NE/0324
Date of REC Opinion
11 Oct 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion