How mindfulness training promotes positive emotions: Dismantling acceptance skills training in two randomized controlled trials.

Mindfulness meditation interventions-which train skills in monitoring present-moment experiences with a lens of acceptance-have shown promise for increasing positive emotions. Using a theory-based approach, we hypothesized that learning acceptance skills in mindfulness interventions helps people notice more positive experiences in daily life, and tested whether removing acceptance training from mindfulness interventions would eliminate intervention-related boosts in positive affect. In 2 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of stressed community adults, mindfulness skills were dismantled into 2 structurally equivalent interventions: (a) training in both monitoring and acceptance (Monitor + Accept) and (b) training in monitoring only (Monitor Only) without acceptance training. Study 1 tested 8-week group-based Monitor + Accept and Monitor Only interventions compared with a no treatment control group. Study 2 tested 2-week smartphone-based Monitor + Accept and Monitor Only interventions compared with an active control training. In both studies, end-of-day and momentary positive affect and negative affect were measured in daily life for 3 days pre- and post-intervention using ambulatory assessments. As predicted, across 2 RCTs, Monitor + Accept training increased positive affect compared with both Monitor Only and control groups. In Study 1, this effect was observed in end-of-day positive affect. In Study 2, this effect was found in both end-of-day and momentary positive affect outcomes. In contrast, all active interventions in Studies 1 and 2 decreased negative affect. These studies provide the first experimental evidence that developing an orientation of acceptance toward present-moment experiences is a central mechanism of mindfulness interventions for boosting positive emotions in daily life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Brief mindfulness meditation training reduces mind wandering: The critical role of acceptance.

Mindfulness meditation programs, which train individuals to monitor their present-moment experience in an open or accepting way, have been shown to reduce mind wandering on standardized tasks in several studies. Here we test 2 competing accounts for how mindfulness training reduces mind wandering, evaluating whether the attention-monitoring component of mindfulness training alone reduces mind wandering or whether the acceptance training component is necessary for reducing mind wandering. Healthy young adults (N = 147) were randomized to either a 3-day brief mindfulness training condition incorporating instruction in both attention monitoring and acceptance, a mindfulness training condition incorporating attention monitoring instruction only, a relaxation training condition, or an active reading-control condition. Participants completed measures of dispositional mindfulness and treatment expectancies before the training session on Day 1 and then completed a 6-min Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) measuring mind wandering after the training session on Day 3. Acceptance training was important for reducing mind wandering, such that the attention-monitoring plus acceptance mindfulness training condition had the lowest mind wandering relative to the other conditions, including significantly lower mind wandering than the attention-monitoring only mindfulness training condition. In one of the first experimental mindfulness training dismantling studies to-date, we show that training in acceptance is a critical driver of mindfulness-training reductions in mind wandering. This effect suggests that acceptance skills may facilitate emotion regulation on boring and frustrating sustained attention tasks that foster mind wandering, such as the SART. (PsycINFO Database Record

Psychological distress and cancer survival: a follow-up 10 years after diagnosis.

OBJECTIVE: This study tested the predictive role of psychological distress in cancer survival, while attempting to overcome several important methodological and statistical limitations that have clouded the issue. METHODS: Measures collected on a range of emotional and cognitive factors in the early postdiagnostic period and at 4-month intervals up to 15 months after diagnosis were used to predict survival time up to 10 years among 205 cancer patients heterogeneous in disease site, status, and progression. RESULTS: With the use of both baseline and repeated measures, depressive symptomology was the most consistent psychological predictor of shortened survival time, after controlling for several known demographic and medical risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Given the importance of depressive symptoms to cancer survival, discussion focuses on the possible mechanisms mediating this relationship, the importance of psychological screening of cancer patients, and need for further research.

The effect of various environmental and design parameters on methane oxidation in a model biofilter.

Methane from landfills built with RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) covers is frequently vented directly to the atmosphere. Alternatively, landfill gasses could be vented through a layer of soil that could serve as a biofilter to oxidize CH4 to carbon dioxide and water. Properly designed soil biofilters may reduce atmospheric CH4 emissions from landfills and help reduce the accumulation of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. This study was conducted to investigate the performance of a lab-scale model biofilter system using soil as the filterbed medium in packed columns to measure the effect of a variety of environmental and design factors on the CH4 oxidation capacity of a soil biofilter. Biofilter performance was tested under a variety of environmental and design conditions. The optimum soil moisture content for CH4 oxidation in a loamy sand was 13% by weight. Addition of NO3-N did not affect the CH4 oxidation rate. Soil depths of 30 cm and 60 cm were equally efficient in CH4 oxidation. When the CH4 loading rate was decreased, the percentage of CH4 oxidized increased. The maximum CH4 oxidation rate was 27.2 mol m(-2) d(-1) under optimum conditions.