From the Heart Multi-Centre Study: Comparing the Effects of Spiritual and Secular Meditation on Psychophysiology, Cognition, Mental Health, and Social Functioning in Healthy Adults
试验速览
- 阶段
- 不适用
- 状态
- 招募中
- 入组人数
- 288
- 试验地点
- 4
- 主要终点
- Interpersonal functioning: Change in Prosociality (3)
研究概览
简要总结
The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare the effects of Christian and Islamic heart-centred spiritual meditation to mindfulness meditation and waitlist control conditions, respectively, in healthy adults. The potential effects will be studied at multiple levels, with a focus on psychophysiology, cognition, mental health, and social functioning.
详细描述
Background
Secular forms of meditation have been widely accepted as an effective tool to promote well-being and as therapeutic strategies. The popularity of such practices, most notably mindfulness meditation, can be attributed to the substantial body of research on their beneficial effects in the past few decades. While these practices are loosely based on Eastern traditions, and actively reduce emotional reactivity, some Western spiritual meditations have retained their God-centred focus and aim to elicit strong emotions. The current study aims to examine the effects of heart-centred contemplation based on Christian and Islamic traditions on mental, physical, cognitive, and social well-being, compare the outcomes of these exercises to mindfulness meditation, and investigate the external correlates of the outcomes.
Aims
The present study aims to recruit healthy adults to investigate and compare the effects of Christian and Islamic heart-centred spiritual meditation to mindfulness meditation (Mindfulness-based stress reduction; MBSR) and waitlist control, respectively. The potential effects will be examined using measures from multiple domains, with a focus on psychophysiology, cognition, mental health, and social functioning. Additionally, the study aims to examine the possible external correlates of the outcomes by testing perspective-taking, affect, religiosity, spiritual experiences, closeness to God, closeness to the offender, and credibility/expectancies about the spiritual meditation program. The study seeks to understand the impact of different types of meditation practices on the well-being of individuals.
Participants
研究设计
- 研究类型
- Interventional
- 分配方式
- Randomized
- 干预模型
- Parallel
- 主要目的
- Basic Science
- 盲法
- Single (Outcomes Assessor)
盲法说明
Blinded data analysis. The researcher who analyzes the data will be kept unaware of the information about the groups.
入排标准
- 年龄范围
- 18 Years 至 60 Years（Adult）
- 性别
- All
- 接受健康志愿者
- 是
入选标准
- •18 to 60 years old
- •able to read, speak and understand English
- •willing to be randomly assigned to all the conditions, with religious affiliation restricting allocation to either the Christian or Islamic type of spiritual meditation conditions
- •consider oneself to be a Christian or Muslim and pray at least weekly
排除标准
- •currently suffer from any mental health conditions or use medication to manage mental health conditions
- •long-term serious physical medical problems, such as liver, brain, kidney, or other life-threatening chronic diseases
- •a history of a heart condition, high blood pressure, Raynaud syndrome, diabetes, or musculoskeletal condition
- •the current use of anxiolytics/mood stabilizers.
结局指标
主要结局
Interpersonal functioning: Change in Prosociality (3)
时间窗: Post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention)
The percentage of compensation fees that participants are willing to donate to a charity
Interpersonal functioning: Change in Prosociality (1)
时间窗: Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention)
The number of game points (0-10) that a participant is willing to allocate to another individual as measured by the Dictator Game
Interpersonal functioning: Change in Perspective Taking
时间窗: Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), post-intervention (collected up to 2 weeks after the intervention), and at 3-month follow-up (collected up to 2 weeks following 3 months after the end of the intervention)
Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) - Perspective Taking scale. The 7-item Perspective Taking scale from IRI measures one's tendency to take the point of view of others. Participants are asked to rate how closely the statements describe them on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from A (Does not describe me well) to E (Describes me very well). The total scores range from 0 - 28. Higher scores indicate greater perspective-taking
Interpersonal functioning: Changes in self-reported Empathy
时间窗: Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention)
A self-reported empathy scale assessed within a forgiveness task, ranging from 0 (Not at all) to 20 (Completely). High scores reflect a higher level of empathy, while lower scores indicate a lower level of empathy.
Interpersonal functioning: Change in Prosociality (2)
时间窗: Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention)
Social value orientation scores as measured by the social value orientation slider measure. The higher scores represent greater prosocial preferences while lower scores represent greater self-interest preferences
Interpersonal functioning: Changes in self-reported Forgiveness
时间窗: Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention)
A self-reported forgiveness scale assessed within a forgiveness task, ranging from 0 (Not at all) to 20 (Completely). High scores reflect a higher level of forgiveness, while lower scores indicate a lower level of forgiveness
次要结局
- Physiology: Change in Pain Tolerance(Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention))
- Physiology: Change in Stress Reactivity (1)(Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention))
- Physiology: Change in psychophysiological reactivity associated with forgiveness (1)(Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention))
- Mental health: Change in self-reported Anxiety(Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), post-intervention (collected up to 2 weeks after the 8-week intervention), and at 3-month follow-up (collected up to 2 weeks following 3 months after the end of the intervention))
- Physiology: Change in Pain Intensity(Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention))
- Attention: Change in Alerting Attention network(Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention))
- Physiology: Change in psychophysiological reactivity associated with forgiveness (2)(Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention))
- Mental health: Change in self-reported Depression(Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), post-intervention (collected up to 2 weeks after the 8-week intervention), and at 3-month follow-up (collected up to 2 weeks following 3 months after the end of the intervention))
- Physiology: Change in Stress Reactivity (2)(Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention))
- Mental health: Change in self-report Positive and Negative Affect (1)(Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), post-intervention (collected up to 2 weeks after the 8-week intervention), and at 3-month follow-up (collected up to 2 weeks following 3 months after the end of the intervention))
- Attention: Change in Executive Attention network(Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention))
- Mental health: Change in self-reported Stress(Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), post-intervention (collected up to 2 weeks after the 8-week intervention), and at 3-month follow-up (collected up to 2 weeks following 3 months after the end of the intervention))
- Attention: Change in Orienting Attention network(Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention))
- Mental health: Change in self-report Positive and Negative Affect (2)(Throughout the 8 weeks intervention)
- Mental health: Change in Subjective Wellbeing(Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), post-intervention (collected up to 2 weeks after the 8-week intervention), and at 3-month follow-up (collected up to 2 weeks following 3 months after the end of the intervention))
研究者
Miguel Farias
Associate Professor
Coventry University