Contemplative Psychology: History, Key Assumptions, and Future Directions.
William van Gordon, Supakyada Sapthiang, Edo Shonin
Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science 2022 DOI: 10.1177/1745691620984479 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Buddhist meditation Contemplation Contemplative psychology Emptiness Introspection Nonattachment Qigong Reflection Self-awareness Tai chi Transcendental meditation Yoga |
| Key points | Argues that contemplative psychology's disparate approach to investigating its core techniques and principles calls for a whole-discipline perspective to integrate its history, assumptions, and future directions. |
Abstract
Contemplative psychology is concerned with the psychological study of contemplative processes and practices, such as meditation, mindfulness, yoga, introspection, reflection, metacognition, self-regulation, self-awareness, and self-consciousness. Although contemplative psychology borders with other psychological and nonpsychological disciplines, some of its underlying assumptions distinguish it from other remits of psychological and scholarly inquiry, as do its component areas of empirical focus, conceptual nuances, and challenges. Furthermore, the discipline has tended to be somewhat disparate in its approach to investigating the core techniques and principles of which it is composed, resulting in a need for greater intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary awareness of the commonalities and differences of core contemplative psychology attributes. As a remedy to these issues, in this article, we adopt a whole-discipline perspective and aim to explicate contemplative psychology's history, breadth, key assumptions, challenges, and future directions.