Mindfulness as a means of reducing aggressive behavior: dispositional and situational evidence.
Recent research and theory suggest that mindfulness, or enhanced attention and awareness in the present moment [Brown and Ryan, 2003], may be linked to lower levels of ego-involvement and, as a result, may have implications for lowering hostility and aggressive behavior. Accordingly, we conducted two studies to examine the potential aggression-mitigating role of mindfulness. In Study 1, we found that dispositional mindfulness correlated negatively with self-reported aggressiveness and hostile attribution bias. In Study 2, participants made mindful before receiving social rejection feedback displayed less-aggressive behavior than did rejected participants not made mindful. Discussion centers on potential mechanisms by which mindfulness operates to reduce aggressive behavior.
Heppner
Whitney L
WL
Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia 30602-3013, USA. whithepp@uga.edu
Kernis
Michael H
MH
Lakey
Chad E
CE
Campbell
W Keith
WK
Goldman
Brian M
BM
Davis
Patti J
PJ
Cascio
Edward V
EV
D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D003243:Consciousness; D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D012963:Sociometric Techniques; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires