Does Locus of Control Influence the Effectiveness of Guided vs. Self-Guided Meditation?

Locus of control (LOC) refers to the extent to which individuals believe they are in control of their actions. Individuals with internal LOC believe they are in control of their actions, and those with external LOC believe that environmental factors are more responsible. Research has found that individuals with different LOC have different responses to stress. The aim of this study was to determine if LOC affected participants’ stress levels after guided or self-directed meditation. Participants were 46 undergraduate students, categorized as having internal/external LOC using Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale. Stress was induced through the Sing-a-Song Stress task, and stress was measured via both heart rate and self-report. Following the stressor, participants received five minutes of guided or self-directed meditation. A mixed-design ANOVA indicated main effects for both heart rate change and condition but no LOC x Condition interaction. IMPACT OF LOCUS OF CONTROL ON MEDITATION STYLES 3 Stress is commonly defined as the response that arises when an individual perceives that they cannot cope with the demands made on them or with the threats to their well-being (Lazarus, 1966). Stress can be a good thing when it motivates people, however chronic stress or stress without coping strategies can be problematic (Crum et al., 2010). Additionally, people differ in their response to stress due to many factors such as socioeconomic status, social support, mental health, and personality factors (Gadalla, 2009). The fact that all people experience stress and that there are numerous known coping techniques makes it important to determine which technique is most effective for an individual. Personality factors are often targeted by clinicians when trying to find effective coping strategies due to the accessibility of reliable personality measures. In the search for new ways of coping, research has explored the connections between relaxation techniques of meditation and yoga with various personality factors. Many ways to cope with stress have been researched, with many different target populations in mind. Research has found a wide variety of techniques for coping with stress for both clinical populations and the general public. In Miedziun and Czabala’s (2015) study, they administered a questionnaire to 100 people, asking about what stressful experiences they have and what strategies they use to cope. The findings provided information about which stress coping techniques were most common among the sample. They categorized coping techniques into seven different categories. Techniques used most often include solving problems (72.5%), replacement gratification (57.8%) and distancing (53.8%). They did not find which techniques were most effective at coping with certain types of stressful events but inferred from their findings that those techniques involving directly addressing the stressor are the most effective. IMPACT OF LOCUS OF CONTROL ON MEDITATION STYLES 4 They also found that those who are the most stressed use more techniques involving replacement gratification (listening to music, stepping away from the problem, reading) and lack of activity. Meditation Studies have explored the effectiveness of combined coping strategies to reduce stress, but many researchers have also explored the effectiveness of meditation alone due to its long history of use. Meditation is an ancient practice which originated from Asian cultures and was primarily used for religious purposes. There are many varieties of meditation, and the differences largely stem from what type of attention they try to cultivate and the relationship to cognitive processes (Sedlmeier et al, 2012). Cultivating attention refers to what the meditator is focusing on, such as focusing on body processes, breathing, thoughts, or mantras. Meditation often employs concentrative and mindfulness techniques. Concentrative techniques involve using an object to focus attention and originates from Hinduism. Mindfulness meditation is connected to Buddhism and emphasizes staying present, being alert, and in an aware state, without judging oneself. The goals of mindfulness meditation are typically about not letting the mind wander to thoughts of the past or future and to bring deep awareness to thought patterns. Mindfulness meditation is also becoming increasingly common as a tool in clinical treatment settings (Pagnini et al., 2016; Sedlmeier et al., 2012). As meditation is becoming more frequently used in clinical settings, researchers are finding that the long-term benefits can begin to make mental health improvements in individuals eight weeks into an intervention. Research by Tacon, McComb, Caldera, & Randolph (2003) found this when they examined the impact of mindfulness meditation on anxiety reduction in patients with heart disease. They had a group of twenty female participants, all patients with heart disease. The participants engaged in a mindfulness-based stress reduction program, two IMPACT OF LOCUS OF CONTROL ON MEDITATION STYLES 5 hours a week for eight weeks. They participated in three mindfulness related practices with the body scan, sitting meditation, and Hatha yoga. They measured state anxiety, emotional control, coping styles, and health locus of control. State anxiety refers to their anxiety in the given moment, in comparison to trait anxiety which refers to long-term anxiety. Emotional control involves how much control the individual believes they have over their emotional response to a situation. Coping styles was defined as the method someone employs when experiencing something stressful. They split coping strategies into three scales based on the Problem-Focused Styles of Coping measure, where participants would rate on reflective or thoughtful style, reactive or impulsive style, and suppressive or controlled style. Their results showed that participants in the meditation group experienced a significant reduction in stress, where the before meditation mean score was 37.88 (SD=10.91) and after meditation was 29.11 (SD=7.37). They also experienced an improvement in emotional control where the participants had a mean score of 62.11 (SD=4.85) and after, a mean of 57.44 (SD=4.46). For coping, women who scored as having a reactive and impulsive coping strategy were found to have a decrease in reactivity by the end of the program, with their mean score before of 15.33 (SD=2.34) and after, a mean of 13.77 (SD=1.78). There was no significant main effect for health locus of control. This study found that mindfulness-based stress reduction programs (MBSR) are effective strategies for reducing stress in individuals with heart disease. Another study explored how effective a combined yoga-meditation program could be in treating stress. Waelde, Thompson, and Gallagher-Thompson (2004) looked at stress reduction in a sample of 12 females who acted as caretakers for a family member with dementia. The women participated in a program of six weekly sessions, where they did meditation, Hatha yoga, breathing techniques, guided imagery, and mantra repetition. A series of tests were administered IMPACT OF LOCUS OF CONTROL ON MEDITATION STYLES 6 to the participants before they began the intervention. After each session, the participants would learn how to incorporate those practices into their lives as caregivers. Then they were asked to practice those techniques 30 minutes a day, six days a week with practice manuals. One month after treatment and after practicing on their own, their results showed that there was a significant effect of the intervention. Results indicated that according to the Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depression Scale, there was a significant decrease in depressive symptoms with the mean score of 23.5 (SD=17.05) before the intervention, and a mean of 18.58 (SD=17.05) after the intervention. There was also a significant decrease in state anxiety according to the StateTrait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) with a pre-intervention mean of 24.75 (SD=7.16) and a postintervention mean of 21.08 (SD=7.39). There was also a significant increase in self-efficacy scores where the mean grew from 61.38 (SD=22.35) to a mean of 74.29 (SD=10.68). These interventions were found to decrease anxiety and depression and increase self-efficacy. In addition to stress reduction, meditation has also been used in clinical treatment for anxiety and mood disorders. Koszycki, Benger, Shlik, and Bradwejn (2007) wanted to see how well mindfulness meditation worked in comparison to a gold-standard treatment (CBT) for seasonal affective disorder. CBT is the abbreviation for the treatment cognitive-behavioral therapy, characterized by its focus on restructuring irrational thoughts and harmful thought patterns. Fifty-eight participants who were assessed to have high levels of SAD were randomly assigned to treatment via CBT or mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Those in the CBT treatment condition received treatment in accordance with a CBT manual which was delivered by an experienced CBT therapist. They had single 2 1⁄2 hour group sessions each week, for 12 weeks. The MBSR was administered via a manual and delivered by a MBSR instructor for the 2 1⁄2 hour group sessions for 8 weeks. The MBSR condition also received education about IMPACT OF LOCUS OF CONTROL ON MEDITATION STYLES 7 meditation and mindful yoga. Symptom scales were administered by psychiatrists involved in the study. The participants also took the Social Interaction Scale (SIAS) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS) (Mattick and Clarke, 1988), the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM) (Boyce and Parker, 1989), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) (Beck and Steer, 1996), the Liebowitz Self-Rated Disability Scale (LRDS) (Schneier et al. 1994), and the Quality of Life Inventory (QoLI) (Frisch, 1994). Although MBSR did not show to be more effective than CBT in the measures listed, participants improved significantly in both groups on