Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
JAMA Psychiatry. 2017 Feb 1;74(2):126-134. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.3360.
Loneliness is a risk factor for depression and other illnesses and may be caused and reinforced by maladaptive social cognition. Secularized classical meditation training programs address social cognition, but practice typically occurs alone. Little is known about the effectiveness of contemplative practice performed in dyads.
To introduce and assess the effectiveness of contemplative dyadic practices relative to classical-solitary meditation with regard to engagement and perceived social connectedness.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The ReSource Project was a 9-month open-label efficacy trial of three, 3-month secularized mental training modules. Replacement randomization was used to assign 362 healthy participants in Leipzig and Berlin, Germany. Eligible participants were recruited between November 11, 2012, and February 13, 2013, and between November 13, 2013, and April 30, 2014. Intention-to-treat analyses were conducted.
Breathing meditation and body scan (the presence module), loving-kindness meditation and affect dyad (the affect module), and observing-thoughts meditation and perspective dyad (the perspective module).
Primary outcomes were self-disclosure and social closeness. Engagement measures included compliance (ie, the mean [95% margin of error] number of meditation sessions that a participant engaged in per week), liking, and motivation to practice.
Thirty participants dropped out after assignment to 3 experimental groups; 90 participants were assigned to a retest control that did not complete the main outcome measures; 16 participants provided no state-change data for the affect and perspective modules (226 remaining participants; mean age of 41.15 years; 59.3% female). Results are aggregated across training cohorts. Compliance was similar across the modules: loving-kindness meditation (3.78 [0.18] sessions), affect dyad (3.59 [0.14] sessions), observing-thoughts meditation (3.63 [0.20] sessions), and perspective dyad (3.24 [0.18] sessions). Motivation was higher for meditation (11.20 [0.40] sessions) than the dyads (9.26 [0.43] sessions) and was higher for the affect dyad (10.11 [0.46] sessions) than the perspective dyad (8.41 [0.46] sessions). Social closeness increased during a session for the affect dyad (1.49 [0.12] sessions) and the perspective dyad (1.06 [0.12] sessions) and increased over time for the affect dyad (slope of 0.016 [0.003]) and the perspective dyad (slope of 0.012 [0.003]). Self-disclosure increased over time for the affect dyad (slope of 0.023 [0.004]) and the perspective dyad (slope of 0.006 [0.005]), increasing more steeply for the affect dyad (P < .001).
Contemplative dyads elicited engagement similar to classical contemplative practices and increased perceived social connectedness. Contemplative dyads represent a new type of intervention targeting social connectedness and intersubjective capacities deficient in participants who experience loneliness and in many psychopathologies.
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01833104.
孤独是抑郁和其他疾病的一个风险因素，可能是由适应不良的社会认知引起和加强的。世俗化的经典冥想训练项目解决了社会认知问题，但实践通常是单独进行的。关于在二人组中进行冥想练习的效果知之甚少。
介绍并评估相对于经典单人冥想，沉思双人练习在参与度和感知社交联系方面的有效性。
设计、地点和参与者：资源项目是一项为期 9 个月的、开放标签的、三种世俗化心理训练模块的有效性试验。采用替换随机化将 362 名健康参与者分配到德国莱比锡和柏林。符合条件的参与者于 2012 年 11 月 11 日至 2013 年 2 月 13 日和 2013 年 11 月 13 日至 2014 年 4 月 30 日之间招募。进行意向治疗分析。
呼吸冥想和身体扫描（存在模块）、仁爱冥想和情感对偶（情感模块）以及观察思想冥想和视角对偶（视角模块）。
主要结果是自我披露和社会亲密感。参与度衡量标准包括依从性（即参与者每周参与的冥想课程的平均[95%边际误差]次数）、喜欢程度和练习动机。
30 名参与者在分配到 3 个实验组后退出；90 名参与者被分配到未完成主要结果测量的复测对照组；16 名参与者未提供影响和视角模块的状态变化数据（226 名剩余参与者；平均年龄 41.15 岁；59.3%为女性）。结果在培训队列中汇总。各模块的依从性相似：仁爱冥想（3.78[0.18]次）、情感对偶（3.59[0.14]次）、观察思想冥想（3.63[0.20]次）和视角对偶（3.24[0.18]次）。冥想的动机更高（11.20[0.40]次），而对偶的动机较低（9.26[0.43]次），情感对偶的动机更高（10.11[0.46]次），视角对偶的动机较低（8.41[0.46]次）。情感对偶（1.49[0.12]次）和视角对偶（1.06[0.12]次）在一次会话中社交亲密感增加，情感对偶（斜率为 0.016[0.003]）和视角对偶（斜率为 0.012[0.003]）在一段时间内社交亲密感增加。自我披露随着时间的推移而增加，情感对偶（斜率为 0.023[0.004]）和视角对偶（斜率为 0.006[0.005]），情感对偶增加得更陡峭（P < .001）。
沉思对偶与经典沉思练习一样能引起参与度，并增加感知的社交联系。沉思对偶代表了一种新的干预类型，针对孤独感和许多精神病理学中存在的社交联系和主体间能力缺陷。
clinicaltrials.gov 标识符：NCT01833104。
