the psychological benefits of participating in a metta meditation retreat. beatrice alba
TRANSCRIPT
The psychological benefits of participating in a metta
meditation retreat.
Beatrice Alba
Metta (loving-kindness) meditation
• Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga provides systematic instructions for metta mediation, upon which many modern forms are based.
• The practice:• “May I be happy.”• “May *loved person* be happy.”• “May *neutral person* be happy.”• “May *disliked person* be happy.”• “May all beings be happy.”
Previous research on LKM
• Reduced back pain, anger and psychological distress (Carson et al., 2005)
• Increased quality of life in people with AIDS (Williams et al., 2005)
• Reduced negative symptoms of schizophrenia (Johnson et al., 2009, 2011)
• EEG studies (Barnhofer, Chittka, Nightingale, Visser, & Crane, 2010)
• Studies of cognitive abilities (May et al., 2011)
Previous research on LKM
• Increased feelings of social connectedness (Hutcherson, Seppala and Gross, 2008)
• Increased positive emotions (Cohn & Fredrickson, 2010; Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek, & Finkel, 2008)
• Protects from social stress (Law, 2011)• Increased pro-social behaviour (Leiberg,
Klimecki, & Singer, 2011; Reb, Narayanan, & Su, 2010)
Previous research on LKM
• Associated with longer telomeres, suggesting increased longevity (Hoge et al. 2013)
• LKM training impacted the tendency to learn to associate positivity with neutral stimuli (Hunsinger et al., 2013)
• Neuroimaging studies (Garrison, Scheinost, Todd Constable, & Brewer, 2014)
• LKM in trainee therapists (Boellinghaus, Jones, & Hutton, 2013)
Previous research on LKM
• Reduced self-criticism, increased self-compassion, and improved depressive symptoms among self-critical individuals (Shahar et al., 2014)
• Decreased implicit bias against stigmatised outgroups (as measured by Implicit Association Test) (Kang et al., 2013)
The retreats
• Sample 1: – Four nights in New South Wales.– Approximately 30 people attended.
• Sample 2: – Ten nights in Western Australia. – Approximately 60 people attended.
The retreats
• Both retreats led by Bhante Sujato.• Nightly dhamma talks about metta with
instructions on metta meditation practice.• Guided metta meditation sessions in the
morning.• One-on-one voluntary interview sessions.
The retreats
• Free time during the day to practice meditation at participants’ own pace.
• Meals provided.• Noble silence.• No suggestion that participants should expect
benefits on any of the variables measured in the questionnaire.
Participants
• Sample 1: – 30 people at the retreat.– 23 participants at time one.– 20 participants at time two.– 12 participated in all three phases. – No demographic information.
Participants
• Sample 2: – 60 people at the retreat.– 39 participants at time one.– 31 participants at time two.– 15 participants in all three phases. – 28 women and 11 men, aged 24 to 72 years,
mean = 50.21 years (SD = 14.41 years). – 22 Australians, 5 Australians of dual nationality, 11
stated another nationality, and 1 did not state their nationality.
Procedure
• Time one: the morning everyone arrived, just before the retreat began.
• Time two: the end of retreat once noble silence was over.
• Time three: participants emailed link for the survey two weeks after the end of the retreat.
Measures
• The Fordyce Emotions Questionnaire (Fordyce, 1988)– In general, how happy or unhappy do you usually
feel? Circle the one statement below that best describes your average happiness:
• Extremely unhappy (utterly depressed, completely down) to Extremely happy (feeling ecstatic, joyous, fantastic) on an 11-point scale.
– The percent of time I feel happy ______% – The percent of time I feel unhappy ______% – The percent of time I feel neutral ______%
Measures
• The Compassionate Love Scale (Sprecher & Fehr, 2005) – e.g. “I feel considerable compassionate love for
people from everywhere.”
• Transgression Motivation questionnaire (McCullough et al., 1998)– Revenge: e.g. “I wish that something bad would
happen to him/her.”– Avoidance: e.g. “I am avoiding him/her.”
Measures
• Gratitude Questionnaire–6 (McCullough, Emmons & Tsang, 2002) (Sample 2 only)– e.g. “I have so much in life to be thankful for.”
• Short version of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) (Antony, Bieling, Cox, Enns & Swinson, 1998)– Depression: e.g. “I felt down-hearted and blue.”– Anxiety: e.g. “I felt I was close to panic.”– Stress: e.g. “I found it difficult to relax.”
Results – Sample 1, T1 vs T2
M (SD) Time 1
M (SD) Time 2
T-test
%Happy 44.00 (18.25)
49.75 (21.37)
t(19) = 3.29, p = .004, d = .29
Avoidance 25.40 (6.63)
21.70 (7.71)
t(19) = -2.79, p = .01, d = -.52
Revenge 9.85 (5.11)
7.93 (3.67)
t(19) = -2.36, p = .03, d = -.44
Depression 5.94 (8.10)
3.68 (5.18)
t(18) = -2.43, p = .03, d = -.34
Anxiety 4.99 (5.45)
2.77 (4.05)
t(18) = -2.55, p = .02, d = -.47
Stress 12.32 (8.20)
6.95 (6.61)
t(18) = -3.85, p = .001, d = -.73
Results – Sample 2, T1 vs T2
M (SD) Time 1
M (SD) Time 2
T-test
% Happy 44.77 (21.13)
55.87 (24.51)
t(30) = 3.79, p = .001, d = .49
% Unhappy 20.87 (16.46)
14.74 (14.54)
t(30) = -2.50, p = .02, d = -.40
Compassion 5.06 (0.92)
5.33 (0.94)
t(30) = 2.97, p = .01, d = .29
Avoidance 20.71 (7.90)
17.43 (6.80)
t(30) = -2.59, p = .02, d = -.45
Stress 11.74 (9.00)
7.66 (6.73)
t(30) = -3.27, p = .003, d = -.52
Results – T1 vs T3 both retreats
M (SD) Time 1 M (SD) Time 3 Pairwise comparison
Stress Sample 1
12.33 (9.68) 7.67 (8.35) p = .03
% Happy Sample 2
45.33 (19.59) 66.00 (12.98) p = .001
Stress Sample 2
13.20 (10.11) 6.27 (7.32) p = .001
Results
• Non-significant findings:– Fordyce happiness question– Compassionate Love in Sample 1– Revenge in Sample 2– Gratitude (only used in Sample 2)– Depression in Sample 2– Anxiety in Sample 2
Conclusions
• The biggest effect was a decrease in stress.• Lack of significant effects might be due to the
sample size, and extreme scores on some variables.
Limitations
• Lack of control group.• The sample characteristics: extreme scores
on some variables.• Different levels of meditation experience
within the groups.• Retreat participants might be invested in an
outcome.• Dropout rate: people who participate might be
those who get the best results.
Future Directions
• Future studies at retreats.• Qualitative studies.• Experimental research.• Clinical samples.• Who benefits most from metta meditation? • Compare metta to other forms of meditation.
Thank you.
Any questions?
Contact:
These results are published in:
Alba, B. (2013). Loving-kindness meditation: A field study. Contemporary Buddhism, 14, 187-203.
References• Alba, B. (2013). Loving-kindness meditation: A field study. Contemporary Buddhism, 14,
187-203.
• Barnhofer, T., Chittka, T., Nightingale, H., Visser, C., & Crane, C. (2010). State effects of two forms of meditation on prefrontal EEG asymmetry in previously depressed individuals. Mindfulness, 1(1), 21-27.
• Boellinghaus, I., Jones, F. W., & Hutton, J. (2013). Cultivating self-care and compassion in psychological therapists in training: The experience of practicing loving-kindness meditation. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 7(4), 267.
• Carson, J. W., Keefe, F. J., Lynch, T. R., Carson, K. M., Goli, V., Fras, A. M., & Thorp, S. R. (2005). Loving-kindness meditation for chronic low back pain. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 23(3), 287-304.
• Cohn, M. A., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2010). In search of durable positive psychology interventions: Predictors and consequences of long-term positive behavior change. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 5(5), 355-366.
• Fredrickson, B. L., Cohn, M. A., Coffey, K. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(5), 1045-1062.
References• Garrison, K. A., Scheinost, D., Todd Constable, R., & Brewer, J. A. (2014). BOLD signal
and functional connectivity associated with loving kindness meditation. Brain and Behavior.
• Hoge, E. A., Chen, M. M., Orr, E., Metcalf, C. A., Fischer, L. E., Pollack, M. H., . . . Simon, N. M. (2013). Loving-Kindness Meditation practice associated with longer telomeres in women. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 32, 159-163.
• Hunsinger, M., Livingston, R., & Isbell, L. (2013). The impact of loving-kindness meditation on affective learning and cognitive control. Mindfulness, 4(3), 275-280.
• Hutcherson, C. A., Seppala, E. M., & Gross, J. J. (2008). Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. Emotion, 8(5), 720-724.
• Johnson, D. P., Penn, D. L., Fredrickson, B. L., Kring, A. M., Meyer, P. S., Catalino, L. I., & Brantley, M. (2011). A pilot study of loving-kindness meditation for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 129(2-3), 137-140.
• Johnson, D. P., Penn, D. L., Fredrickson, B. L., Meyer, P. S., Kring, A. M., & Brantley, M. (2009). Loving-kindness meditation to enhance recovery from negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65(5), 499-509.
• Kang, Y., Gray, J. R., & Dovidio, J. F. (2013). The Nondiscriminating Heart: Lovingkindness Meditation Training Decreases Implicit Intergroup Bias.
References• Law, W. M. R. (2011). An Analogue Study of Loving-Kindness Meditation as a Buffer
against Social Stress. (Ph.D.), University of Arizona, Tucson. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10150/145398
• Leiberg, S., Klimecki, O., & Singer, T. (2011). Short-term compassion training increases prosocial behavior in a newly ceveloped prosocial game. PLoS ONE, 6(3), e17798.
• May, C., Burgard, M., Mena, M., Abbasi, I., Bernhardt, N., Clemens, S., . . . Williamson, R. (2011). Short-term training in loving-kindness meditation produces a state, but not a trait, alteration of attention. Mindfulness, 2(3), 143-153.
• Reb, J., Narayanan, J., & Su, J. (2010). Compassionate Dictators?: The Effects of Loving-kindness Meditation on Offers in a Dictator Game. Paper presented at the International Association for Conflict Management 23rd Anunual Conference, Boston.
• Shahar, B., Szsepsenwol, O., Zilcha‐Mano, S., Haim, N., Zamir, O., Levi‐Yeshuvi, S., & Levit‐Binnun, N. (2014). A Wait‐List Randomized Controlled Trial of Loving‐Kindness Meditation Programme for Self‐Criticism. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy.
• Williams, A. L., Selwyn, P. A., Liberti, L., Molde, S., Njike, V. Y., McCorkle, R., . . . Katz, D. L. (2005). A randomized controlled trial of meditation and massage effects on quality of life in people with late-stage disease: A pilot study. Journal of palliative medicine, 8(5), 939-952.