On the Relationship Between the Practice of Mindfulness Meditation and Personality—an Exploratory Analysis of the Mediating Role of Mindfulness Skills
Mindfulness Journal
June 18, 2011
Mindfulness meditation (MM) has often been suggested to induce fundamental changes in the way events in life are experienced and dealt with, presumably leading to alterations in personality. However, the relationship between the practice of MM and personality has not been systematically studied. The aim of this study was to explore this relationship and to investigate the mediating role of mindfulness skills. Thirty-five experienced mindfulness meditators (age range, 31–75 years; meditation experience range, 0.25–35 years; mean, ∼13 years) and 35 age-, gender-, and ethnicity-matched controls (age range, 27–63 years) without any meditation experience completed a personality (NEO-FFI) and mindfulness (KIMS) questionnaire. The practice of MM [mindfulness meditation] was positively related to openness and extraversion and negatively related to neuroticism and conscientiousness. Thus, the results of the current study associate the practice of MM with higher levels of curiosity and receptivity to new experiences and experience of positive affect and with less proneness toward negative emotions and worrying and a reduced focus on achievements. Furthermore, the mediating role of specific mindfulness skills in the relationship between the practice of MM and personality traits was shown...
Meditators scored significantly lower on conscientiousness than the control participants, but the amount of MM experience in the group of meditators was not related to conscientiousness. This pattern of findings suggests that people scoring low on conscientiousness might be more likely to start with the practice of MM. At first instance, the lower level of conscientiousness in the group of meditators seems somewhat puzzling since one hallmark of conscientiousness is self-discipline, a factor that is often considered essential for the continuity of the MM practice...Over the time of practice, being mindful likely becomes a way of life rather than a, sometimes forced, formal practice for which a substantial amount of self-discipline is needed, reducing the level of conscientiousness again...
Full article
Mindfulness Journal
June 18, 2011
Mindfulness meditation (MM) has often been suggested to induce fundamental changes in the way events in life are experienced and dealt with, presumably leading to alterations in personality. However, the relationship between the practice of MM and personality has not been systematically studied. The aim of this study was to explore this relationship and to investigate the mediating role of mindfulness skills. Thirty-five experienced mindfulness meditators (age range, 31–75 years; meditation experience range, 0.25–35 years; mean, ∼13 years) and 35 age-, gender-, and ethnicity-matched controls (age range, 27–63 years) without any meditation experience completed a personality (NEO-FFI) and mindfulness (KIMS) questionnaire. The practice of MM [mindfulness meditation] was positively related to openness and extraversion and negatively related to neuroticism and conscientiousness. Thus, the results of the current study associate the practice of MM with higher levels of curiosity and receptivity to new experiences and experience of positive affect and with less proneness toward negative emotions and worrying and a reduced focus on achievements. Furthermore, the mediating role of specific mindfulness skills in the relationship between the practice of MM and personality traits was shown...
Meditators scored significantly lower on conscientiousness than the control participants, but the amount of MM experience in the group of meditators was not related to conscientiousness. This pattern of findings suggests that people scoring low on conscientiousness might be more likely to start with the practice of MM. At first instance, the lower level of conscientiousness in the group of meditators seems somewhat puzzling since one hallmark of conscientiousness is self-discipline, a factor that is often considered essential for the continuity of the MM practice...Over the time of practice, being mindful likely becomes a way of life rather than a, sometimes forced, formal practice for which a substantial amount of self-discipline is needed, reducing the level of conscientiousness again...
Full article
