Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback. 2020 Sep;45(3):221-228. doi: 10.1007/s10484-020-09467-y.
Mindfulness is typically understood as non-judgmental, focused attention on the present moment, although it may be conceptualized as a state, a trait, and an outcome of intervention. There is a limited understanding of the physiological effects of state and trait mindfulness, and it has been a challenge to the research community to measure these effects. This study examined whether state and trait mindfulness are associated with reduced stress response activation in healthy young adults. Fifty-four undergraduate participants completed self-ratings of state and trait mindfulness, and continuous measures of psychophysiological reactivity (i.e., skin conductance response) before, during, and after an interview about a recurrent stressor. Results indicated that individuals with greater self-reported state mindfulness had lower sympathetic psychophysiological activation than those with lower state mindfulness. Moreover, those with greater self-reported state mindfulness experienced greater drops in psychophysiological activation following a stressful task. However, differences in psychophysiological activation were not evident when comparing those with higher and lower self-reported trait mindfulness. The findings suggest that state mindfulness, or "being in the moment", rather than trait mindfulness results in less engagement of metabolically costly psychophysiological activation in response to stress. Thus, intentional mindfulness during a stressful event may be important for decreasing sympathetic activation, resulting in lower bodily stress.
正念通常被理解为对当下时刻的非评判性、专注的注意力，尽管它可以被概念化为一种状态、一种特质和干预的结果。人们对状态和特质正念的生理效应的理解有限，研究界一直难以衡量这些效应。本研究考察了状态和特质正念是否与健康年轻成年人的应激反应激活减少有关。54 名本科参与者在关于复发性应激源的访谈之前、期间和之后完成了状态和特质正念的自我评估以及连续的心理生理反应（即皮肤电反应）测量。结果表明，自我报告的状态正念程度较高的个体比状态正念程度较低的个体具有较低的交感神经心理生理激活。此外，那些自我报告的状态正念程度较高的个体在完成一项有压力的任务后，其心理生理激活的下降幅度更大。然而，当比较自我报告的特质正念程度较高和较低的个体时，心理生理激活的差异并不明显。研究结果表明，状态正念，即“活在当下”，而不是特质正念，导致在应对压力时较少参与代谢成本高的心理生理激活。因此，在压力事件中进行有意的正念可能对减少交感神经激活、降低身体压力很重要。
