Mindfulness as a means of reducing aggressive behavior: dispositional and situational evidence
Whitney L Heppner1, Michael H Kernis, Chad E Lakey
1Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia 30602-3013, USA. whithepp@uga.edu
Abstract:
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.
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