Mindfulness Meditation Can Help You Make Smarter Decisions by Christopher Bergland

In reviewing this article, this writer was able critique the study and the suitability that it can possess if applied to actual practice. An important factor on whether a study can be considered valuable is if it is transferable in other situation, that is, a study's results should also be reflective if duplicated on other samples (Polit & Beck, 2006). Thus, the statistical power, internal and external validity are important to observe and note (Polit & Beck). If this writer were to carry out this study, it would have to be reflective of how the researcher performed it originality.

This paper is about my experience with mindfulness based meditation and scientific inquiry of these experiences. Mindfulness based meditation is describes as technique used to cultivate nonreactive, non-judgmental and stable awareness of the present moment (Garland and Gaylord, 2009). The end goal is to sustain this meta-cognitive state for a long period of time. I practiced non-denominational form of mindfulness based meditation for the first time in my psychology class, which was devoted towards intellectual and experiential examination of meditation. The practice was conducted in a group it was instructed by our own professor and it begun at the end of class. There was one sessions per week and each session was structured meaning it was

Methodological Issues Article Review. Read the following articles, which can be accessed through the ProQuest database in the Ashford University Library:

The article’s researchers believed that it is necessary to research the efficacy of these claimed evidence based interventions.

While the methodology of the research seemed solid, there were factors which were out of the control of the researchers which made the process more difficult to verify. Because the researchers chose a public web forum, they were unable to verify the legitimacy

In order to know whether the evidence of research studies are accurate, one must be able to have a fundamental understanding in statistical analyses to determine if such descriptions and findings within manuscripts and articles are presented correctly and explicitly (Sullivan, 2012). Proper use of statistics begins with the understanding of both descriptive and inferential statistics. Correct organization and description of data characteristics from the population sample being studied leads the researcher to identify a hypothesis and formulate inferences about such characteristics. It is with inferential statistics that researchers conduct appropriate tests of significance and determine whether to accept or reject the identified null

Now, it is time to give an overview of some of the design threats to construct validity. If the researcher did not define the construct efficiently than it can lead to the inadequate preoperational explication of constructs threat (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). Next, is the mono-operation bias, which is the use of the study program only one time and one place (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). Third, the mono-method bias is the use of any one measure or observation (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). Finally, the confounding constructs and the levels of constructs threat (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). Overall, this threat to construct validity is a labeling issue like some of the other threats to construct validity (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). However, there are more design threats than listed in this paper to construct

A large body of research on meditation suggests how mindfulness meditation practices have helped mental health issues. Nevertheless, we also have to look at the fact that previous research outcomes may have also had flaws. For example, they lacked a control group. Meanwhile, other research projects may have fallen victim to what's known as an "expectancy bias." Psychiatry Research took all these elements into account. To solve the bias, researchers told their subjects how the study involved stress reduction, but they didn't mention meditation.

Meditation means to concentrate and connect with ones’ own mind, to explore identity and emotions in order to be aware of conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious thoughts. Meditation originates and has been has been practiced in Asia for thousands of years for different reasons such as increasing concentration abilities, religious purposes and also to train the mind. This essay will focus on how meditation affects brain plasticity (ability to change), emotionally and intellectually, leading to better performance and coping abilities in stressful situations. Things like attention span, memory functions and complexity of emotions will be further explored and may interest the reader since meditation can answer many questions on improving mental health that affects almost everyone. I will make the claim that meditation practice needs to be introduced early into educational institutions such as schools. Because evidence suggests that that meditation increases the volume of the cortex in the brain, leading to a higher and more powerful emotional intellect and cognition that improves things like memory, attention and emotional control. It is logical to assume that in order to alter thickness of cortex, mental thought functions and emotional strength, meditation should be introduced to children early in school for greater performance.

In the article “Mindfulness meditation may ease anxiety, mental stress” discusses that mediation can be beneficial in everyone’s life. Article explains how her mother had performed mediation many decades ago before it became practiced. Similarly, mindful mediation practice involves “sitting comfortably, focusing on your breathing, and then bringing your mind’s attention to the present without drifting into concerns about the past or future”. However, back then there was not enough evidence to prove that this can be beneficial, because many studies did not have quality control to compare with mindful meditation. In contrast, many volunteers could already show an interest in this experiment so the results could show a positive success.

Mindfulness meditation consists of skills and methods to unplug from the busy world around you and from the busy 'monkey brain ' so often experienced in today 's life and particularly in ADHD, anxiety and depression. According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness meditation trains and reinforces the ability to pay attention to the present moment, on purpose which helps to increase concentration, decrease anxiety, improve sleep, improve mood, decrease the stress response, and improve physical and emotional health. The studies are compelling about the health benefits of mindfulness meditation. In fact, studies show that mindfulness meditation actually changes the brain in positive ways. The cortex of the brain is thicker in certain areas of the brain in those who practice mindfulness meditation. And brainwave patterns are changed in healthy ways as well.

Ferguson (2004) cited that internal validity is central to any research design and therefore should be the focus and a priority in the study’s

This research tries to discover whether mindfulness training improves working memory capacity and GRE performance while reducing mind wandering. The main independent variable is the mindfulness-training course that the participants took while the dependent variables included the presence or lack of decreased mind-wanderings and/or the presence or lack of improved cognitive performance. The relationship expected was that mindfulness training helps academic performance and decreases distractions during performance. The research methodology used was experimental. Researchers were able to observe the changes in cognitive capacities of the participants and improvements in task focus and performance. The conclusion states, “Cultivating mindfulness

1a. There are multiple methodological problems with this study. The first mistake is the experimenters explain their hypothesis to the group. This is an issue because it can lead to subject expectancy effects. The researchers explained that they believe that meditating will improve test results, so now the group now knows the expected outcome. Since they know this, they may now intentionally or unintentionally behave in the way the researchers want them to. For example, those who meditate could now believe they are supposed to do better and simply feel more relaxed because they believe they are supposed to . The next issue is that the experimenters do not randomly assign subjects to the experimental or control group. This is an issue for many reasons. First, all the volunteers were from the group that know the hypothesis, those who have used mediation techniques before could already believe the researcher’s expected outcome and would volunteer to be in the meditation group. Some could not believe in the positive effects of meditation and volunteer to join the meditation group with skepticism and not put in full effort to learning meditation because of previous personal bias. Or they could opt not to be in the meditation group and remain relaxed during the test anyway. The next error is the experimenters told only the control group to think about how important it is to do well on the exam. That is a problem because it creates another difference between the

Before taking the class, and before really understanding the benefits of mindfulness, I must admit, I did not really take mindfulness exercises seriously. I tried a few exercises, led by a phone application, but I constantly wondered what these exercises were supposed to achieve. I always thought to myself, “I know what happens around me, being mindful is great, but specific exercises for this seemed exaggerated.”