Network models of mindfulness : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Albany campus, New Zealand

Abstract

Contemporary mindfulness research at the level of self-report has often represented mindfulness as a latent (trait) variable. Recently, a novel psychometric methodology has been developed which allows mindfulness to be modelled as a complex system or network at the level of self-report. This 𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 is argued to provide a more plausible conceptualisation of mindfulness. A network perspective implies that a more densely connected network of practices may be indicative of a greater level of development of mindfulness. It also implies that certain practices may be more strongly interconnected or central than others. These highly central practices may be potentially useful targets for interventions. Mindfulness networks were estimated for practitioners and non-practitioners using the Friedberg Mindfulness Inventory (Study 1) and an adapted version of the Applied Mindfulness Process Scale (Study 2). A total of 371 regular mindfulness practitioners, 224 non-practitioners and 59 irregular practitioners were recruited online from the Amazon Mechanical Turk database. Across both measures, comparisons between practitioners and non-practitioners’ networks indicated that network density did not significantly differ, whereas evidence was found in support of a significant difference in network structure. Exploratory analyses revealed practitioners’ networks to be characterised by greater differentiation in their community structures relative to non-practitioners across both measures. In Study 1, 𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 was revealed to be much more central to the practitioners’ network relative to non-practitioners; and 𝘙𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 much more peripheral. The practice of 𝘈𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 and/or the negative path it shared with 𝘚𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 were identified as possible targets to facilitate mindfulness in non-practitioners. In Study 2, highly 𝘦𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤 practices were revealed to be more central to the practitioners’ network relative to non-practitioners, whilst more foundational 𝘥𝘦-𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 practices were more peripheral. These studies provide support for the plausibility of investigating mindfulness as a complex network at the level of self-report. However, the lack of difference in network density indicates that future research is needed to examine network dynamics in the context of regular mindfulness practice. Future research is also required to establish whether the networks estimated are behavioural or semantic.