When two mindfulnesses meet.

Abstract

The study of mindfulness proceeds from a number of perspectives. Two of the best-known academic conceptualizations of mindfulness are those identified with Kabat-Zinn and Langer. These conceptions, meditative and socio-cognitive, have been built from different foundations and have been argued to be quite distinct. However, Hart, Ivtzan and Hart 1 suggested that self-regulation of attention is a mediator between the two. To put this hypothesis to a test, a convenience sample of participants (n = 208) were asked to complete the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Langer Mindfulness Scale (LMS), and the Self-Regulation Scale (SRS), a measure of the self-regulation of attention. These three dispositional measures were shown to be correlated. Self-regulation passes a statistical test for partial mediation of the relationship between the two measures of mindfulness. This suggests that reliance on the capacity to regulate attention in pursuit of a goal is shared by these two approaches to mindfulness. However, there is no clear conceptual basis for mediation in either particular direction. Further, the correlation between the LMS and FFMQ is highest for those with the highest SRS scores; we discuss the implications for conceptual distinctions within mindfulness.