Contemplative Psychology: History, Key Assumptions, and Future Directions.

Contemplative psychology is defined as the psychological study of contemplative processes and practices including meditation, mindfulness, yoga, introspection, reflection, metacognition, self-regulation, self-awareness, and self-consciousness. The discipline shares borders with other psychological and nonpsychological fields but is distinguished by its underlying assumptions, areas of empirical focus, conceptual nuances, and challenges. The field has been somewhat disparate in investigating its core techniques and principles, creating a need for greater intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary awareness. This article adopts a whole-discipline perspective to explicate contemplative psychology's history, breadth, key assumptions, challenges, and future directions.

Study at a glance

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.