title: Relationship between self-focused attention and mindfulness in people with and without hallucination proneness.
abstract: The purpose of this work was to study the relationship between self-focused attention and mindfulness in participants prone to hallucinations and others who were not. A sample of 318 healthy participants, students at the universities of Sevilla and Almería, was given the Launay-Slade Hallucinations Scale-revised (LSHS-R, Bentall & Slade, 1985). Based on this sample, two groups were formed: participants with high (n = 55) and low proneness (n = 28) to hallucinations. Participants with a score higher than a standard deviation from the mean in the LSHS-R were included in the high proneness group, participants with a score lower than a standard deviation from the mean in the LSHR-R were included in the second one. All participants were also given the Self-Absorption Scale (SAS, McKenzie & Hoyle, 2008) and the Southampton Mindfulness Questionnaire (SMQ, Chadwick et al., 2008). The results showed that participants with high hallucination proneness had significantly higher levels of public (t(80) = 6.81, p < .001) and private (t(77) = 7.39, p < .001) self-focused attention and lower levels of mindfulness (t(81) = -4.56, p < .001) than participants in the group with low hallucination proneness. A correlational analysis showed a negative association between self-focused attention (private and public) and mindfulness (r = -0.23, p < .001; r = -0.38, p < .001 respectively). Finally, mindfulness was found to partly mediate between self-focused attention and hallucination proneness. The importance of self-focused attention and mindfulness in understanding the etiology of hallucinations discussed and suggest some approaches to their treatment.
authors.affiliation: Hospital Universitario "Virgen del Rocío" (Spain).
authors.forename: Salvador
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Perona-Garcelán
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Almería (Spain).
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: García-Montes
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Sevilla (Spain).
authors.forename: Ana M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: López-Jiménez
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Sevilla (Spain).
authors.forename: Juan Francisco
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Testal
authors.affiliation: Hospital Universitario "Virgen del Rocío" (Spain).
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Veguilla
authors.affiliation: Hospital Universitario "Virgen del Rocío" (Spain).
authors.forename: María Jesús
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Ductor-Recuerda
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Sevilla (Spain).
authors.forename: María del Mar
authors.initials: Mdel M
authors.lastname: Benítez-Hernández
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Sevilla (Spain).
authors.forename: M Ángeles
authors.initials: MÁ
authors.lastname: Arias-Velarde
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Sevilla (Spain).
authors.forename: María Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Gómez-Gómez
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Oviedo (Spain).
authors.forename: Marino
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pérez-Álvarez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D064866:Mindfulness; D055815:Young Adult