Meditation and Health: The Search for Mechanisms of Action

Psychological interest in the impact of mental states on biological functioning is growing rapidly, driving a need for new methods for inducing mental states that last long enough, and are sufficiently impactful, to have significant effects on physical health. The many traditions of meditative practice are one potential pathway for studying mind‐body interactions. The purpose of this review is to introduce personality and social psychologists to the field of meditation research. Beginning with a brief introduction to meditation and the heterogeneity of meditative practices, we showcase research linking meditative practice to changes in immune and cardiovascular functioning and pain perception. We then discuss theoretical and empirical evidence that meditation works by inducing changes in psychological capacities such as emotion regulation and self‐regulation or through repeated induction of specific mental states such as love or meta‐cognitive awareness. At the frontier of the science of meditation is the need to empirically test whether meditation‐driven changes in cognitive and affective processes are the cause of improvements in physical health. Emerging challenges in meditation research include a need for large studies using randomized controlled and dual‐blind designs with active control groups and an increased focus on measuring mechanisms of action as well as outcomes. Meditation represents a potentially powerful tool for generating new knowledge of mind‐body interactions.     

A Tale of Two Cities: Predicting Homeless People's Uptake of Outreach Programs in London and New York

Two studies involved structured interviews with 203 homeless people to examine the impact of sociodemographic variables, prior behavior, and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) variables, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intention, on uptake of outreach services. Study 1 was conducted in London, and Study 2 involved a comparable sample in New York. In line with previous research, the psychological variables accounted for more variance than the sociodemographic variables, and there was no evidence that the effects of TPB variables were moderated by sociodemographics. In London intentions and behavior were most affected by perceived control and subjective norms. In New York they were most affected by perceived control and attitude. These differences may be attributable to different institutional structures and opportunities for service uptake in the two cities. Sensitivity of the TPB to social context and implications for intervention strategies are discussed in light of these differences.     

The role of career adaptability and work conditions on general and professional well-being

This study, conducted with a representative sample of employed and unemployed adults living in Switzerland (N = 2002), focuses on work conditions (in terms of professional insecurity and job demands), career adaptability, and professional and general well-being. Analyses of covariance highlighted that both unemployed and employed participants with low job insecurity reported higher scores on career adaptability and several dimensions (notably on control) than employed participants with high job insecurity. Moreover, structural equation modeling for employed participants showed that, independent of work conditions, adaptability resources were positively associated both with general and professional well-being. As expected professional outcomes were strongly related to job strain and professional insecurity, emphasizing the central role of the work environment. Finally, career adaptability partially mediated the relationship between job strain and professional insecurity, and the outcome well-being.     

Validation of the German version of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale and its relation to orientations to happiness and work stress

Career adapt-ability has recently gained momentum as a psychosocial construct that not only has much to offer the field of career development, but also contributes to positive coping, adjustment and self-regulation through the four dimensions of concern, control, curiosity and confidence. The positive psychology movement, with concepts such as the orientations to happiness, explores the factors that contribute to human flourishing and optimum functioning. This research has two main contributions; 1) to validate a German version of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS), and 2) to extend the contribution of adapt-abilities to the field of work stress and explore its mediating capacity in the relation between orientations to happiness and work stress. We used a representative sample of the German-speaking Swiss working population including 1204 participants (49.8% women), aged between 26 and 56 (M_age = 42.04). Results indicated that the German version of the CAAS is valid, with overall high levels of model fit suggesting that the conceptual structure of career adapt-ability replicates well in this cultural context. Adapt-abilities showed a negative relationship to work stress, and a positive one with orientations to happiness. The engagement and pleasure scales of orientations to happiness also correlated negatively with work stress. Moreover, career adapt-ability mediates the relationship between orientations to happiness and work stress. In depth analysis of the mediating effect revealed that control is the only significant mediator. Thus control may be acting as a mechanism through which individuals attain their desired life at work subsequently contributing to reduced stress levels.     

The shape of things to come: Exploring goal-directed prospection

Through the ability to preview the future (i.e., prospection), people can anticipate how best to think, feel and act in just about any setting. But exactly what factors determine the contents of prospection? Extending research on action identification and temporal construal, here we explored how action goals and temporal distance modulate the characteristics of future previews. Participants were required to imagine travelling to Egypt (in the near or distant future) to climb or photograph a pyramid. Afterwards, to probe the contents of prospection, participants provided a sketch of their imaginary experience. Results elucidated the impact of goal type and temporal distance on mental imagery. While a climbing goal prompted participants to draw a larger pyramid in the near than distant future, a photographic goal influenced only the compositional complexity of the sketches. These findings reveal how action goals and temporal distance shape the contents of future simulations.     

Pro‐Diversity Beliefs and Everyday Ethnic Discrimination on Grounds of Foreign Names

The paper examined the effect of positive beliefs about the value of ethnic diversity (i.e. diversity beliefs) on discrimination due to foreign sounding names. It was hypothesized that pro‐diversity beliefs reduce discrimination. Results from two studies (N = 29 and N = 104) confirmed this hypothesis. Practical implications of our results are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of variety expectations on interest, enjoyment, and locus of causality in exercise

Most attempts to influence intrinsic motivation have focused on contextual support for basic need satisfaction, including the provision of autonomy support, structure, and interpersonal involvement (e.g., Edmunds et al. in Eur J Soc Psychol 38:375–388, 2008). This study explored the extent to which another factor, expectations for task variety, influenced interest, enjoyment, and locus of causality in a novel exercise setting. Results showed that participants exposed to messages about variety in an exercise class enjoyed the class more, found it more interesting, and perceived greater internal causality than those who received messages about similarity in the class. Moderator analyses indicated that expectations of task variety were particularly conducive for task interest among participants who usually demonstrated lower intrinsic motivation for exercise. Discussion focuses on the relevance of these findings to self-determination theory and on opportunities for future research.     

Autobiographical Memory in Patients with Tinnitus

Studies on psychiatric patients have found that their memories of the past are often unspecific and overgeneral, but the extent to which this is the case for patients with somatic problems has so far only been examined in patients with chronic pain and in patients with diabetes. The present study investigated autobiographical memories in 19 tinnitus patients and 19 controls without tinnitus. Participants were administered the autobiographical memory test (AMT), the Controlled word association test, and self-report measures of depression, anxiety, and tinnitus distress. Compared to control participants, tinnitus patients had difficulty retrieving specific memories and showed longer retrieval latencies. Additionally, tinnitus patients had fewer specific memories to positive cue words. While AMT responses were associated with depression scores, the difference between controls and patients remained significant for positive cue words after controlling for depression scores. Results suggest that cognitive components should be an integral element of the psychological management of tinnitus. The use in future studies of experimental methods such as AMT in health psychology is encouraged.     

Public engagement with emerging infectious disease: The case of MRSA in Britain

As a route to providing a framework for elucidating the content of public thinking concerning emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases (EID), this article examines public engagement with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). It explores how British lay publics represent MRSA utilising a social representations framework. For this group, MRSA is associated primarily with dirty National Health Service (NHS) hospitals that have been neglected due to management culture having superseded the matron culture that dominated the putative golden age of the NHS. Furthermore, MRSA represents a transgression of the purpose of a hospital as a clean and curative institution. While this widely shared picture is accompanied by a strong sense of general concern, the respondents associate contracting MRSA with other identities, such as hospitalised, young and old people. These associations are linked to feelings of personal invulnerability. There is also blame of foreigners – especially cleaners and nurses – for MRSA's spread. Thus, the data corroborate a key pattern of response found in relation to myriad EID – that of othering. However, the identities associated with contracting MRSA are mutable; therefore, the threat cannot be distanced unequivocally. Beyond developing an understanding of the relationship between epidemics and identities, this article proposes a fitting theory with which to explore EID-related public thinking.