First Advisor

Kimberly Barsamian Kahn

Term of Graduation

Spring 2024

Date of Publication

5-31-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Applied Psychology

Department

Psychology

Language

English

DOI

10.15760/etd.3765

Physical Description

1 online resource (xii, 339 pages)

Abstract

Researchers have investigated the relationship between mindfulness and prejudice, although the findings have been somewhat inconsistent. Two broad factors may be responsible for these mixed findings: different conceptualizations of mindfulness across studies, and ideological differences among participants. Attention monitoring and acceptance, together, are proposed to be responsible for the psychological benefits of mindfulness, including reduced emotion rumination. Attention alone, however, strengthens rumination, which predicts prejudice. Additionally, prejudice hinders the endorsement of equitable policy. As such, mindfulness measures and interventions that capture attention alone, then, may be positively related to prejudice and negatively associated with support for equitable policy, whereas mindfulness measures and interventions that capture attention and acceptance, together, may be negatively related to prejudice and positively related to support for equitable policy. Finally, if meditation strengthens awareness of one's current values, then it may enhance prejudice and discriminatory intent and reduce support for equitable policy for those who value power, such as political conservatives and those high in social dominance orientation (SDO). This dissertation consisted of three chapters that together established a nuanced mindfulness-prejudice relationship. The first project employed a correlational survey design to explore the relationship between a primarily attention-based measure of trait mindfulness (PABTM) and explicit prejudice and racial policy support. It was hypothesized that PABTM would positively predict explicit sexual and racial prejudice, and negatively predict support for equitable racial policy, and warmth towards racial minorities was predicted to mediate the PABTM-racial policy relationship. PABTM was associated with higher levels of explicit prejudice and with less support for equitable racial policy. The mindfulness-policy relationship was mediated by explicit racial prejudice. In the second paper, a correlational, survey-based study explored whether state attention monitoring and acceptance (Multidimensional State Mindfulness Questionnaire, MSMQ) in tandem predicted implicit racial prejudice, using the Implicit Association Test (IAT). It was hypothesized that state attention would predict greater implicit racial prejudice for those low in state acceptance but would predict reduced implicit racial prejudice for those high in state acceptance. State attention monitoring predicted greater implicit racial prejudice for those low in state acceptance, implying that attention alone may have a harmful relationship with implicit racial prejudice. Additionally, for those high in acceptance, attention monitoring was unrelated to implicit racial prejudice, connoting acceptance may serve as a buffer of the attention-prejudice relationship. In the final study, an experiment compared the effects of a brief attention-based meditation (ABM) to an attention and acceptance meditation (AAM). An ABM was expected to enhance explicit racial prejudice and decrease support for equitable racial policy, whereas an AAM was expected to decrease explicit racial prejudice and increase support for equitable racial policy. Further, SDO and political ideology were expected to moderate, with both meditations predicted to reduce explicit racial prejudice for those in low in SDO and political liberals but increase it for those high in SDO and political conservatives. Finally, explicit racial prejudice was expected to mediate the moderated meditation-policy and meditation-discriminatory intent relationships. As predicted, SDO moderated the meditation-explicit racial prejudice relationship, with the combined meditation conditions, which increased attention but not acceptance, predicting greater warmth towards racial minorities for those low in SDO, but less warmth for those high in SDO. Generally, this program of research clarifies the nuanced mindfulness-prejudice relationship by demonstrating under what circumstances it may alter prejudice. Specifically, PABTMs and ABMs may have a damaging relationship with prejudice generally, although this relationship may depend on one's acceptance levels and their endorsed ideologies. These findings also suggest that meditations that enhance attention may be promoting awareness of one's presently held values.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42247

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