Tracking Regret and Guilt: The Context of Harm and Trait Mindfulness
Cleoputri Yusainy, Muhammad Haikal Azaim Barlaman, Jeremy Alexander Timothy, Salsabila Salsabila, Wahyu Wicaksono
Gadjah Mada Journal of Psychology November 1, 2023 DOI: 10.22146/gamajop.77329 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experiment Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 215 |
| Population | Undergraduates (63.36% female; mean age 21.86 years, SD 2.56) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Harm context Regret Guilt Trait mindfulness |
| Key findings | Interpersonal harm produced more guilt than intrapersonal harm, but regret did not differ between contexts. Mindfulness negatively correlated with alexithymia, rumination, regret, and guilt, and alexithymia and rumination mediated the relationship between mindfulness and both regret and guilt after controlling for harm type. |
Abstract
Being exceedingly social creatures, each and every decision that an individual human makes carries with it consequences and risks that may endanger not only themselves (intrapersonal harm), but also others (interpersonal harm). This experiment (N = 215 undergraduates; 63.36% female; Mage = 21.86, SD = 2.56) compared the impact of contextual harm on emotions of regret and guilt, and examined whether the role of a trait-relevant predictor in the form of mindfulness on regret/guilt could be explained by tendency of being under-engaged (trait alexithymia) and over-engaged (trait rumination) of affective experiences. In line with our predictions, (i) interpersonal harm aroused more guilt than intrapersonal harm, but the levels of regret between the two contexts were not unalike; (ii) mindfulness negatively correlated with alexithymia, rumination, regret, and guilt; and (iii) after controlling for type of harm, the relation between mindfulness and regret/guilt was mediated by alexithymia and rumination. Although guilt depends heavily on interpersonal context while regret is induced more globally, mindfulness inversely predicts the levels of both emotions through alexithymia and rumination
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cites 5
- The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Clarifying the construct of mindfulness in the context of emotion regulation and the process of change in therapy. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 2004
- Six-year positive effects of a mindfulness-based intervention on mindfulness, coping and well-being in medical and psychology students; Results from a randomized controlled trial PLoS One April 24, 2018
- The relationship between trait mindfulness and resilience: A meta-analysis. Personality and mental health March 23, 2023
- Neural correlates of mindful emotion regulation in high and low ruminators. Scientific Reports September 24, 2020