Psychologists to focus on mindfulness
A transatlantic team of psychologists has been given the green light to start work on a project that will investigate strategies to improve judgements and decision making.
The project, which is being funded by The Leverhulme Trust, will involve Dr Ulrich Weger and Dr Tim Hopthrow from the School of Psychology at the University of Kent, and Dr Brian Meier from the Department of Psychology at Gettysburg College, USA. Dr Weger and Dr Hopthrow are members of the School's recently launched Centre for Research on Social Climate, which will co-ordinate the project.
Titled 'Practising mindfulness as a strategy to prevent premature judgements', the project will investigate whether people can learn to train themselves to adopt a state of mindfulness and use their newly acquired skill in emotional situations, thereby reducing the risk of premature judgements. Mindfulness can be defined as a state of moment-to-moment awareness in which people experience their environment without evaluation, defence, or preconceived notions.
Dr Weger, the principal investigator on the project, explained: 'People often make judgements about a situation or person before they have a chance to collect enough information; be it a physician who interrupts her patient before the latter had a chance to articulate a problem; a teacher who brushes away a pupil's comment because he already "knows" that the student gives wrong answers; or a female who decides against pursuing a career in engineering because she "knows" that females are bad at maths. In all cases, accurate judgements are sacrificed because people use mental shortcuts when making decisions. These judgement errors can lead to quite problematic consequences in various settings. It would thus be helpful to find ways to decrease the tendency to use such preconceived ideas and expectations. The project will use mindfulness training to achieve this goal.'
Dr Hopthrow added: 'This is an excellent opportunity to address an important issue that has direct implications for our behaviour in various situations. This is something that can make a real difference.'
Dr Meier commented: 'Changing one's perceptions or judgements may look like a minor thing; in reality, however, it is the world of our perceptions and judgements where our actions are born - and rather than "cleaning up the mud" after an incorrect social judgment, we seek to develop ways that can avoid incorrect judgements in the first place.'
Dr Weger believes that, in a period of 'breathlessness and universal pressures', the use of mindfulness as a strategy to take control of one's own decision-making capacities is a timely approach. 'We consider this project important because we hope to identify skills that people can learn and that allow them to act more independently when having to make judgements under pressure,' he said.
Contact: mediaoffice@kent.ac.uk
Story published at 11:09am 14 December 2009
