Personality Correlates of EEG Change during Meditation
| Autor: | John S. Vidiloff, Randy S. Roth, Thomas K. Akers, Don M. Tucker |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1977 |
| Předmět: |
Male
media_common.quotation_subject Relaxation Therapy Electroencephalography Rorschach test Developmental psychology Psychasthenia 0504 sociology Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory MMPI medicine Humans Personality Meditation General Psychology media_common Extraversion and introversion medicine.diagnostic_test 05 social sciences 050401 social sciences methods 050301 education medicine.disease Schizophrenia Psychology 0503 education |
| Zdroj: | Psychological Reports. 40:439-442 |
| ISSN: | 1558-691X 0033-2941 |
| DOI: | 10.2466/pr0.1977.40.2.439 |
| Popis: | Summary.-15 seminary students who regularly practiced a form of Christian meditation were given the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) . Electroencephalographic (EEG) signals were recorded and analyzed for percent time alpha during performance of a series of mental arithmetic tasks and also during a period of meditation. Higher scores on the Hypochondriasis scale of the MMPI were associated with increase in alpha as the subject proceeded from the mental arithmetic tasks to the meditation period. This result is discussed in terms of previous research, the pre-meditation level of alpha, and the implications for the use of meditation as a therapeutic procedure. Several recent studies have demonstrated beneficial effects from the practice of meditacion of Eastern tradition. Most of this research has focused on Transcendencal Meditation, although some researchers have also investigated 2kn meditative techniques. Effects in the physiological domain include changes in metabolic, autonomic, and EEG systems (cf. Wallace & Benson, 1972). Studies of psychological effects have generally shown that meditators reported they are more at ease than non-meditators. Two abstracts of studies using the MMPI, for example, reported Transcendencal Meditators scored lower on some MMPI scales (Hypochondriasis, Psychasthenia, Schizophrenia, Social Introversion) and on the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Test than control groups of nonmeditators (Orme-Johnson, Author, Franklin, O'Connell, & Zold, 1973; OrmeJohnson, Kiehlbauch, Moore, & Bristol, 1973). Smith (1975) reviewed the literature on the beneficial psychological effects of meditation and suggested that comparisons of meditators and controls on psychological variables may be complicated by a self-selection tendency, since persons choosing to undertake a self-improvement program may differ from those who do not. Pretreatment personality variables have been examined directly by Maupin ( 1965), not as a methodological control, but rather in terms of which individuals are likely to respond best to a meditative training procedure. Maupin found that individuals having greater capacity for regression and tolerance for unrealistic experience (as measured by Rorschach responses) responded more favorably to a Zen meditacion exercise. The present data, collected in 1964 by the first author, were re-examined in light of the current interest in meditation, with a particular focus on the personality variables which influence an individual's response to meditation. The specific response examined was the change in the alpha rhythm of the EEG during meditation. The |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|