Graduate Program

Clinical Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

2009

Thesis Director

Ronan Bernas

Thesis Committee Member

Marjorie Hanft-Martone

Thesis Committee Member

Russell Gruber

Abstract

Mindfulness is defined as a state of mind, a tendency and willingness to 'bring one's complete attention to the experiences occurring in the present moment in a nonjudgmental and accepting way' (Brown & Ryan, 2003). The concept originated from the Eastern spiritual traditions and has recently made its way to the West. Although mindfulness-based practices have met with success in alleviating a wide range of problematic conditions such as depression, anxiety, and addiction, it is still unclear as to which specific dimensions of mindfulness are responsible for the positive effects. Baer, Smith, Hopkins, Krietemeyer, and Toney (2006) extracted five facets of mindfulness from currently existing measures of mindfulness. They are: 'acting with awareness', 'nonreactivity to inner experience', 'non judging of inner experience', 'describing', and 'observing'. The purpose of this study was to determine which of these five facets best predict resistance to alcohol-related disorders. One hundred five Eastern Illinois University college students responded to the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire as well as the Index of Alcohol Involvement and the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test which measured the extent to which one is involved in alcohol abuse and dependency. Given the two measures of alcohol abuse/dependence, two multiple regression analyses were conducted with the five facets of mindfulness as potential predictors. Only three of the five facets were statistically significant, that of 'observing', 'acting with awareness', and 'nonreactivity to inner experience', but not 'nonjudging of inner experience' and 'describing.' However, 'nonreactivity to inner experience' did not account for the most variance as anticipated; rather, 'acting with awareness' proved to be the most consistent predictor by appearing in both multiple regression models. Implications of these findings on theory and the treatment of alcohol abuse/dependence were discussed.

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