Effects of animated pedagogical agent-guided loving-kindness meditation on flight attendants' spirituality, mindfulness, subjective wellbeing, and social presence.
Chao Liu, Hao Chen, Fang Zhou, Chao-Hung Chiang, Yi-Lang Chen, Kan Wu, Ding-Hau Huang, Chia-Yih Liu, Wen-Ko Chiou
Frontiers in Psychology January 1, 2022 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.894220 (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractAn 8-week loving-kindness meditation (LKM) training, guided either by an animated pedagogical agent (APA) or by audio alone, improved spirituality and subjective wellbeing among 82 flight attendants. APA-guided meditation also significantly enhanced social presence, whereas audio-guided meditation did not affect social presence. The findings suggest that APA-guided LKM offers a simple, accessible method for boosting mental health, particularly in contexts where in-person guidance is unavailable.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 82 |
| Population | Flight attendants |
| Intervention | Loving-kindness meditation |
| Duration | 8-week intervention |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Animation guidance Loving-kindness meditation Spirituality Subjective wellbeing |
| Key finding | APA-guided loving-kindness meditation significantly improved spirituality, subjective wellbeing, and social presence compared to audio-guided meditation, which had no effect on social presence. |
Abstract
Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) was first practiced by Buddhists and then developed by clinical psychologist. Previous studies on LKM have mainly focused on the impact of real person-guided meditation on depression, anxiety, and other negative psychology. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this study explored the effect and mechanism of media-guided LKM on the improvement of social presence, mindfulness, spirituality, and subjective wellbeing (SWB). From the viewpoint of positive psychology, this study compared the different media effects of animated pedagogical agent (APA)-guided LKM and audio-guided LKM. A total of 82 flight attendants were recruited from airlines; then, they were randomly assigned to two groups: APA group (41 participants) and audio group (41 participants), which both underwent an 8-week LKM training intervention. The aforementioned four main variables were measured pre and post the meditation experiment. The results indicated that both APA-guided meditation and audio-guided meditation significantly improved subjects' spirituality and SWB. Compared with audio-guided meditation, APA-guided meditation significantly improved the subjects' spirituality, SWB, and social presence. Audio-guided meditation has no significant effect on social presence. This study highlights APA-guided meditation has a positive effect on spirituality, SWB, and social presence, which may provide individuals with a simple and easy method to improve their mental health.