Headspace? investigating the link between mindfulness and positive psychological strengths

Abstract

This mixed-methods study intended to investigate the link between mindfulness and positive psychological strengths through a correlation to strengthen the theoretical bond between these areas. The study also aimed to assess the ability of online mindfulness training to increase positive psychological strengths through a quasi-experiment. The measures used in the study were the mindful attention and awareness scale, positive and negative affect scale and psychological well-being scale. Participants in the study were a self-selecting sample of 105 who completed a correlation study and 21 who completed online mindfulness training. The results found that mindfulness is significantly positively related to positive affect and has a significant negative relationship with negative affect. The results also found that a mindfulness training programme significantly raised levels of positive affect and psychological strengths. The research concluded that mindfulness has a place in the field of positive psychology and online training in mindfulness can be used to offer the benefits of positive psychology to large populations at relatively little cost.