New directions for research of emotion regulation and psychological treatments: Potential benefits of mindfulness construct

Abstract

Potential benefits of the construct of mindfulness for the research in two interactive fields (emotion regulation and psychological treatment) are discussed. Mindfulness has a two-fold meaning. A mindful state represents " paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally " (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p.4). In contrast, mindfulness meditation denotes specific intervention to actively control one's attention. Three directions for future investigation were suggested by these characteris-tics of mindfulness. (1) Detached coping as a common working ingredient of diverse psychological interventions, together with its attentional underpinning. (2) Potential benefit of focusing on one's body. (3) The importance of commitment to one's values in psychological well-being. Mindfulness intervention differs from existing psychotherapies in several respects. For example, it does not deliberately focus on distressing thoughts and does not mandate a standard interview format. In addition, it is easy to operationalize (to measure and to manualize). These unique features are expected to work as catalysts for generating new ideas in future investigations.