The Benefits of Being Present

Mindfulness and Its Role in Psychological Well-Being

Brown, Kirk Warren
Ryan, Richard M.

¹Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester.

²Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kirk Warren Brown, Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, Meliora Hall, Rochester, New York 14627-0266. E-mail: [email protected].

This research was supported in part by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, by grants from the Russell Sage Foundation and the Society of the Psychological Study of Social Issues to Kirk Warren Brown, and by National Institute of Mental Health Grant 59594 to Richard M. Ryan. We are grateful to Linda Carlson, Ed Deci, Jennifer LaGuardia, Martin Lynch, and Todd Thrash for their helpful comments on previous versions of this article. We also thank D. S. Moskowitz, Joseph Schwartz, Joshua Smyth, and Harry Reis for statistical programming help; Chris Stevens and Bodhin Kjolhede for participant recruitment assistance; and Linda Carlson for collecting the data presented in Study 5.

Received Date: May 20, 2002; Revised Date: August 19, 2002; Accepted Date: September 24, 2002

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84(4):p 822-848, April 2003.

Mindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. This research provides a theoretical and empirical examination of the role of mindfulness in psychological well-being. The development and psychometric properties of the dispositional Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) are described. Correlational, quasi-experimental, and laboratory studies then show that the MAAS measures a unique quality of consciousness that is related to a variety of well-being constructs, that differentiates mindfulness practitioners from others, and that is associated with enhanced self-awareness. An experience-sampling study shows that both dispositional and state mindfulness predict self-regulated behavior and positive emotional states. Finally, a clinical intervention study with cancer patients demonstrates that increases in mindfulness over time relate to declines in mood disturbance and stress.