1 / 39

Learning from Spiritual Models and Meditation: A Randomized Intervention Among College Undergraduates

Learning from Spiritual Models and Meditation: A Randomized Intervention Among College Undergraduates. Doug Oman, Ph.D. School of Public Health University of California, Berkeley Shauna L. Shapiro Carl E. Thoresen Tim Flinders Joseph D. Driskill Thomas G. Plante

Jimmy
Download Presentation

Learning from Spiritual Models and Meditation: A Randomized Intervention Among College Undergraduates

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Learning from Spiritual Models and Meditation: A Randomized Intervention Among College Undergraduates Doug Oman, Ph.D. School of Public Health University of California, Berkeley Shauna L. Shapiro Carl E. Thoresen Tim Flinders Joseph D. Driskill Thomas G. Plante Thanks also to Metanexus Institute, John Templeton Foundation, Santa Clara University, Academic Council of Learned Societies, Contemplative Mind in Society, Fetzer Institute Presented at 115th Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association San Francisco, CA -- August 18, 2007

  2. Further information on evidence/ideas presented here #1. Described/cited in Plante/Thoresen 2007 (ch. 6 by Flinders et al) #2. Published study Pastoral Psych 2007 54:473-93

  3. OUTLINE • Introduction • Background • Questions • Methods • Results • Discussion

  4. Design:Three-group Study:(same sample as previous speaker) 1. Control group (n=15) 2. MBSR Meditate on breath (n=15) 3. PM Meditate on passage (n=14) PREVIEW

  5. NIH Expert Panel “Persuasive” evidence exists that meditation is associated with better outcomes among patient groups American Psychologist (Seeman, Dubin & Seeman, 2003) BUT........

  6. Spirituality Ignored in Meditation Research! “The religiosity/spirituality component of these [meditation] interventions is not always a direct, explicit focus of the research...” (Seeman &c, 2003, p. 60)

  7. What do we mean by ‘Spirituality’? • Many possible answers... • Transcendence • The sacred • Is meditation intrinsically ‘spiritual’? • Maybe • Our Approach: • Spiritual Models (supports hearing a ‘still small voice’?)

  8. Examples of Revered Spiritual Models ● Jesus ● Mother Teresa ● Buddha ● Mahatma Gandhi ● Martin Luther King ● Dalai Lama

  9. Key Elements of R/S Traditions • Beliefs • Practices • Spiritual models • ...

  10. Spiritual Modeling Spiritual Modeling: Learning spiritually relevant skills or behaviors through observing other persons. (Oman & Thoresen, 2003)

  11. Spiritual models may be... • Everyday models from family or community • Revered models from tradition or other media

  12. Spiritual Models:Importance Recognized spiritual Value • RS traditions often see spirituality as “caught not taught” • Exposure to models important in major psychological theory (Bandura, 2003)

  13. Background: Spiritual Models Social Learning Theory How do we learn anything? • “Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling” (Bandura, 1986) • Relying only on trial/error would be excruciating!

  14. Observational Learning(Bandura, 1986) Four major underlying processes • Attention • Retention • Reproduction in Behavior • Motivation Observational spiritual learning uses same 4 processes (Bandura, 2003) Claim Religions historically foster all four, systematically (Oman & Thoresen, 2003)

  15. Documented power of Examples “One can get people to • behave altruistically, • volunteer their services, • delay or seek gratification, • show affection, • behave punitively, • prefer certain foods and apparel, • converse on particular topics, • be inquisitive or passive, • think innovatively or conventionally, and to engage in almost any course or action by having such conduct exemplified.” (Bandura, 1986)

  16. Combining Meditation + Spiritual Models Do meditation programs differ in levels of support forspiritual modeling processes? e.g., for  Attention  Retention  Reproduction  Motivation

  17. A Review of Previously Studied Programs (Oman & Beddoe, 2005) Level of support

  18. Passage Meditation (choose own passages from a spiritual wisdom figure or tradition) Memorize / Recite silently in mind for 30 mins

  19. Why is Passage Meditation “Very High”? • It steeps the mind in “modeling information” Attention Retention

  20. Passages + “Eight Point Program” (Easwaran, 1978/1991) “Inject” into sub- conscious  Attention Retention } Mindful- ness Integrate into day  Reproductionin behavior Support  Motivation

  21. PM thus supports all 4 modeling processes Attention to spiritual models in 1-meditation and 8-spiritual reading Retention through memorizing and repeating meditation passages Reproduction in behavior with 6-Putting others first, 4-focused attention, etc. Motivation from 1-meditating on positive experiences (“He restoreth my soul...”)

  22. MBSR and Spiritual Models Supports learning via • Poetry/etc shared in meetings • Group setting/fellowship Each other as • models • source of attitudes to famous models “Life has not forgotten you, it holds you in its hands and will not let you fall” -Rilke

  23. An Empirical Study published (2007) in Pastoral Psychology Goal: Clarify separate contributions... Spiritual Meditation Models  Outcomes

  24. Three-group Study:Meditation and Spiritual Models(randomized) 1. Control group (n=15) 2. MBSR Meditate on breath (n=15) 3. PM Meditate on passage (n=14)  “Injects” spiritual models Exams: Pretest, Post-test, 8-week FUp

  25. Participants (N=44) Students at a Roman Catholic University Mostly 18 years old 59% range 18-24 First-year 66% Female 80% White 73% Religion: Catholic 48% Other 11% None 41%

  26. Clues about Changes On each outcome, if PM and MBSR perform: Equivalently.......................suggests due to meditation PM larger changes..............suggests due to spiritual models

  27. 3 Exploratory Questions  Spiritual well-beingmeasures 3 A priori Hypotheses  Spiritual modelingmeasures

  28. Exploratory Questions no hypotheses about sources Outcomes ● God image loving / controlling ● Religious coping positive / negative ● Aspirations non-materialistic / materialistic (Benson & Spilka, 1973) 5+5 items (Fetzer/NIA, 1999) 2+3 items (Kasser & Ryan, 1996) 9+9 items

  29. A Priori Hypotheses Spiritual models hypoth. as a source Outcomes ● Perceived Influence of SMs (spiritual models) ● Availability of SMs ● Self-Efficacy for learning from SMs SMILE measure (newly developed) 1 item 5+ items in 5 domains (family, school, etc.) 10 items

  30. Large, statistically significant benefits in both variants: God viewed as Controlling (reduced 0.7 SD) Negative religious coping (reduced 0.7 to 0.9 SD) BUT...Positive measures showed no changes for either variant: God as Loving (unchanged) Positive religious coping (unchanged) Results: Exploratory Spiritual Well-Being PM* MBSR* MBSR* PM* (5 items) (3 items) *p<.05

  31. Results: Exploratory Spiritual Well-Being(continued) Non-Materialistic Aspirations “I will assist people who need it, asking nothing in return” “I will feel that there are people who really love me, and whom I love” (Kasser & Ryan, 1996, 9-item subscale) PM* MBSR SDs Change Materialistic Aspirations: No change either group *p<.05

  32. Results: Hypotheses Spiritual Models Spiritual Modeling Self-Efficacy PM* PM* * * * * * * MBSR MBSR As hypothesized Passage Meditation only showed large, sig. gains at 8-wk FUp: • Famous models before 1900 (gain 0.8 SDs)* • Self-efficacy/confidence (gain 0.9 SDs)* Influence of famous models (gain 0.8 SDs at Posttest)* *p<.05

  33. Summary / Implications Meditation practices and Spiritual models both appear important, but for different outcomes

  34. Modeling Influences?(over 8 weeks) Key=Meditation Outcomes: • Spiritual well-being ● Religious coping ● God image ● Non-materialistic aspirations • Spiritual model measures ● Influence of spiritual models ● Availability of spiritual models ● Self-efficacy to learn from spiritual models No Not over 8 weeks Yes Key=Spiritual models

  35. Health Implications Over 8-16 weeks... Both meditation programs appear to foster mental health physical health

  36. Unresolved Questions • Why effects on negativebut notpositivespiritual well-being? (i.e., God-images and coping) • Why few immediate (post-test) spiritual modeling changes?  Replicable? Do positive changes require more time?  Benefits may accumulate over time (‘teach someone to farm...’) Similar PM trends seen on other outcomes / studies

  37. Questions for further study • What is the long-term effect of extra spiritual models in meditation? • Will/do Breath meditators gain spiritual models through other pathways?

  38. What are theLong term effects? More Generally.... ?

  39. THANK YOU Further info see... #1. Described/cited in Plante/Thoresen 2007 (ch. 6 by Flinders et al) #2. Published study Pastoral Psych 2007 54:473-93

More Related