Evaluating the impact of a meditation curriculum on anger, hostility, and egoism with incarcerated adults.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

An evaluation of a meditation based curriculum developed to reduce anger, hostility, and egoism was be performed using incarcerated adults as participants. In a previous study, S. D. Vannoy and W. T. Hoyt (2004), pilot tested a new intervention delivered to incarcerated adult males. In addition to predicting reductions in participant anger, they proposed a mediation role for egoism, predicting that reductions in anger would, in part, be related to reductions in egoism. Results of that study supported the hypotheses, although the analyses were hampered by several limitations, including low sample size, (n = 31). In the current study, the goal was three fold: (a) to replicate the previous findings of S. D. Vannoy and W. T. Hoyt (2004), while improving the experimental conditions; (b) expand the focus of the evaluation to investigate the impact of the intervention on the anti-social construct of hostility and the pro-social construct of social-connectedness; and (c) evaluate the impact of the intervention on female participants. Results of this study indicate the intervention was effective at reducing anger in female participants, ( d = -.83, p < .05). Changes on all other dependent variables failed to reach statistical significance. Unlike treatment-as-usual for anger, meditation is an activity that many people in the general public incorporate into their daily lives, seeking psychological benefits. A specific hypothesis in this study was that meditation participants would voluntarily continue to participate in meditation opportunities, while participants in treatment as usual would not opt to voluntarily meet to discuss/practice the course material. Male participants in MBESH participated in after-care at a high rate (89%), and female participants in MBESH participated at a moderate rate (45%). The participation rate in after-care for both male and female treatment-as-usual participants was 0%.