Who am I? Differential effects of three contemplative mental trainings on emotional word use in self-descriptions

verfasst von

Anna Lena Lumma, Anne Böckler, Pascal Vrticka, Tania Singer

Abstract

In a large-scale longitudinal mental training study, we examined whether learning different contemplative practices can change the emotional content of people’s self-concept as assessed through emotional word use in the Twenty Statement Test. During three 3-month training modules, participants learned distinct practices targeting attentional, socio-affective, or socio-cognitive capacities, or were re-tested. Emotional word use specifically increased after socio-cognitive training including perspective-taking on self and others, compared to attentional and socio-affective compassion-based trainings, and retest-controls. Overall, our findings demonstrate training-induced behavioral plasticity of the emotional self-concept content in healthy adults and could indicate greater emotional granularity. These findings can inform future interventions in mental health, given that alterations in self-referential processing are a common contributing factor in psychopathology.

Externe Organisation(en)

Max-Planck-Institut für Kognitions- und Neurowissenschaften
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg

Typ

Artikel

Journal

Self and identity

Band

16

Seiten

607-628

Anzahl der Seiten

22

ISSN

1529-8868

Publikationsdatum

03.09.2017

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Allgemeine Psychologie

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 3 – Gute Gesundheit und Wohlergehen

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2017.1294107 (Zugang: Offen)