Examining the Impact of a Prewriting Exercise on Self-Compassion Guided Meditation Among Young Adults: A Pilot Study
Major
Psychology
Submission Type
Oral Presentation
Area of Study or Work
Psychology
Faculty Advisor
Marie Nebel-Schwalm
Location
CNS E104
Start Date
4-13-2024 8:30 AM
End Date
4-13-2024 9:30 AM
Abstract
This pilot study investigated whether modifying a meditation protocol to increase self-compassion altered its effectiveness. Expressive writing self-compassion activities regularly use a pre-writing step for the individual to recall a past event that made one feel badly about oneself, followed by an opportunity to process this event using the tenets of self-compassion (i.e., common humanity, mindfulness, and self-kindness). Despite the effectiveness of using pre-writing recall, self-compassion meditations do not include this preparatory step and no studies have examined whether doing so is effective in eliciting greater self-compassion. To examine this, the present study utilized a within-group repeated measures design with 35 participants who each listened to two separate meditations over the span of a few days: one meditation included a pre-meditation writing activity and the other did not (the order of these were randomized). State measures of self-compassion were taken before and after each meditation to determine whether the meditation experiences altered state self-compassion and whether the pre-meditation writing condition differed from the control condition. Results showed that the pre-meditation writing condition had a larger increase in state self-compassion (Mdiff scores = .24) compared to the control condition (Mdiff scores = .09); however, these differences did not reach statistical significance (p = .053). These findings show that modifying the meditation with a pre-writing activity did not alter the level of self-compassion and the nearly significant difference suggests that further study is needed.
Examining the Impact of a Prewriting Exercise on Self-Compassion Guided Meditation Among Young Adults: A Pilot Study
CNS E104
This pilot study investigated whether modifying a meditation protocol to increase self-compassion altered its effectiveness. Expressive writing self-compassion activities regularly use a pre-writing step for the individual to recall a past event that made one feel badly about oneself, followed by an opportunity to process this event using the tenets of self-compassion (i.e., common humanity, mindfulness, and self-kindness). Despite the effectiveness of using pre-writing recall, self-compassion meditations do not include this preparatory step and no studies have examined whether doing so is effective in eliciting greater self-compassion. To examine this, the present study utilized a within-group repeated measures design with 35 participants who each listened to two separate meditations over the span of a few days: one meditation included a pre-meditation writing activity and the other did not (the order of these were randomized). State measures of self-compassion were taken before and after each meditation to determine whether the meditation experiences altered state self-compassion and whether the pre-meditation writing condition differed from the control condition. Results showed that the pre-meditation writing condition had a larger increase in state self-compassion (Mdiff scores = .24) compared to the control condition (Mdiff scores = .09); however, these differences did not reach statistical significance (p = .053). These findings show that modifying the meditation with a pre-writing activity did not alter the level of self-compassion and the nearly significant difference suggests that further study is needed.