Development of a self-distancing task and initial validation of responses

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Mindfulness-based interventions may reduce psychopathology by counteracting cognitive biases.
• Decentering, a self-distanced perspective on experiences, is linked to mental health.
• Objective measures of mindfulness and decentering skills are needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a behavioral task to assess self-distancing skills related to mindfulness and decentering.
• To evaluate the utility of this task in non-meditating individuals.

Main Methods:

• Developed a behavioral task involving mental manipulation of emotional material away from the self (self-distancing).
• Administered the task to two non-meditating university samples.
• Assessed self-reported mindfulness and decentering.

Main Results:

• Higher self-reported mindfulness predicted better performance on the self-distancing task.
• A specific facet of decentering (adopting a distanced perspective) also predicted self-distancing behavior.
• The developed task showed promise in capturing skills associated with mindfulness and decentering.

Conclusions:

• The novel self-distancing behavioral task is a promising tool for objectively measuring skills central to mindfulness and decentering.
• This task may aid in understanding the mechanisms and benefits of mindfulness-based interventions for emotional processing and mental health.