Wolf, D. and Abell, N. (2003). Examining the Effects of Meditation

17 Pages·2002·0.18 MB·English

Research on Social Work Practice
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Examining the Effects of Meditation Techniques on Psychosocial Functioning
David B. Wolf and Neil Abell
Research on Social Work Practice 2003 13: 27
DOI: 10.1177/104973102237471

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1R0E.1S1E7A7R/1C0H49 O73N1 0S2O2C37IA47L1 WORK PRACTICE Wolf, Abell / EFFECTS OF MEDITATION TECHNIQUES
Examining the Effects of Meditation Techniques
on Psychosocial Functioning
David B. Wolf
State of Florida Department of Health
Neil Abell
Florida State University
Objective:Anexperimentwasconductedtodeterminetheeffectsofchantingthemahamantra
onstress,depression,andthethreegunas—sattva(enlightenment),rajas(passion),andtamas
(inertia)—describedintheVedasasthebasisofhumanpsychology.Primaryhypothesesofthe
studywerethatthemahamantragroupwouldincreasesattvaanddecreasestress,depression,
rajas,andtamassignificantlymorethantheothergroups.Method:Participantsweretestedat
pretest,posttest,andfollow-up,withtestingtimesseparatedby4weeks.Participantswereran-
domlyassignedtoamahamantragroup,analternatemantra(placebo)group,andacontrol
group.Results:MANOVAresultssupportedthesehypothesesfrompretesttoposttestatp<.05
foralldependentvariablesexceptrajas.Conclusions:Theauthorssuggestthatthemahaman-
trahaspotentialinaddressingproblemsrelatedtostressanddepressionandthatitbeconsid-
ered as one possible component of a spiritual approach to social work practice.
Recentliteraturehascalledattentiontotheimportanceforsocialworkersto
consider the spiritual needs of clients (Canda, 1988; Keefe, 1996). Canda
assertsthatspiritualityisabasicaspectofhumanexperienceandthatitthere-
fore should be explored through social work practice and research. After
overviewing Christian, Jewish, shamanist, and Zen perspectives on social
work,heconcludesthatprofessionalhelpingmaybesignificantlyenhanced
by the introduction of meditative techniques.
Keefe(1996)presentsEastern-stylemeditativetechniquesaspotentially
importantinsocialworkpracticeandtreatment,describingspecificapplica-
tionsintreatingdepression,substanceabuse,excessiveanxiety,anddevelop-
mentofsocialworkskillsinprofessionaltraining.Heassertsthatthepoten-
tial of meditation in social work treatment and psychotherapy has already
beenrecognizedbysomeresearchersandpractitionersandthatmeditative
methodsarenaturaladjunctstosocialworkinterventions.Heconcludesthat
Authors’Note:CorrespondencemaybeaddressedtoDavidB.Wolf,17303N.W.112thBoule-
vard, Alachua, FL 32615; e-mail: [email protected].
Research on Social Work Practice, Vol. 13 No. 1, January 2003 27-42
DOI:10.1177/104973102237471
© 2003 Sage Publications
27
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28 RESEARCH ON SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
meditation“hasthepotentialtobevaluableinworkwithclientsfromdiverse
cultures” (p. 451).
Many meditative techniques have been researched, including Buddhist
approaches(Sweet&Johnson,1990),mindfulnessmeditation(Miller,Fletcher,
& Kabat-Zinn, 1995), and mantra meditation (e.g., Janowiak & Hackman,
1994;Kaye,1985),withencouragingresultsonoutcomevariablessuchas
stress(e.g.,Janowiak&Hackman,1994;Keefe,1996),anxiety(Delmonte&
Kenny,1985),andempathydevelopment(Sweet&Johnson,1990).Because
this study involves mantra meditation, a brief summary of the research on
mantras is provided below. Janowiak and Hackman (1994) conducted a
three-grouppretesttoposttestexperimentaldesignwithrandomassignment,
includingamantrachantinggroup,ayogarelaxationgroup,andacontrol
group.Thenullhypothesiswasthattherewouldbenocorrelationbetween
mantra chanting or yoga relaxation, and stress level. The mantra group
showedasignificant(p<.01)reductioninstress.JanowiakandHackman
obtainedaneffectsizeof2.38,whichindicatesthemagnitudeofdifference
between pretest and posttest mean scores for the mantra chanting group,
dividedbythepreteststandarddeviation.Thiseffectsizeislargerthanthe
effectsizesforbothoftheothergroupsonthestressvariable.Furthermore,r2
for the correlation between stress reduction and chanting compliance was
.42.Theseeffectsizesforthechantinggroupcouldbecharacterizedasvery
large(Rosenthal,1997).ThearticlebyJanowiakandHackmandoesnotspe-
cificallydescribethemantrathatwastested,andthereportalsofailstopro-
vide a theoretical foundation.
Kaye (1985) included chanting of the mantra “Om” in an intervention
package with a group of elderly clients. In this qualitative study, Kaye
reportedthatresponsetothechantingwasveryenthusiasticandthatthecli-
ents were enlivened by and looked forward to the chanting sessions.
Delmonte (1983) conducted a literature review on meditative and mantra
interventions.Heconcludedthatthesupposed“mantra-personfit”advocated
bysomeproponentsofmantrameditationisnotsupportedbyempiricalevi-
dence.Thatis,theliteraturesuggestedthatanysortofmentaldevice,ormock
mantra,wasaseffectiveastheso-calledgenuinemantras.Outcomemeasures
inhisliteraturereviewincludedphysiologicalindicatorssuchasheartrate
and blood pressure, as well as measures of anxiety.
Canda(1988)statedthattherearemanypotentiallyeffectivemeditative
practicesthathavenotbeenappliedinsocialwork.IntheVedicliteratures
(Prabhupada,1976)fromancientIndia,whicharethesourceofmanymedi-
tativetechniquesforenhancementofmentalhealth,themahamantraispos-
tulated to be an especially effective technique of mantra meditation. No
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Wolf, Abell / EFFECTS OF MEDITATION TECHNIQUES 29
formalresearchhasyetbeenconductedonthemahamantra,althoughsome
practitioners,includingtheleadauthor,haveuseditinprofessionalpractice.
This article describes a group study on the effects of the maha mantra,
which is described in many of the Vedas, including the Kali santarana
Upanisada,theNaradaPancaratna,andtheAgniPurana(Prabhupada,1975).
Thehypothesesofthisstudywerethatchantingthemahamantra,whichis
theindependentvariable,wouldreducethedependentvariablesofstressand
depression. Other dependent variables in this study were the Vedic-based
constructsofsattva,orenlightenment,rajas,orpassion,andtamas,orinertia.
Allfacetsofmaterialnature,includingtypesoffood,worldviews,work,
knowledge,charity,andfaith,areclassifiedaccordingtothesethreegunas,
which are extensively described in books such as the Bhagavad-gita
(Prabhupada,1972)andSrimad-Bhagavatam(Prabhupada,1976).Material
nature is made up of the three modes, and the Vedic sciences of physical
(AyurVeda)andpsychologicalhealtharebasedonananalysisofthegunas
(Dasa,1994).AccordingtoVedicpsychology,thesethreequalities,ormodes
ofnature,formthepsychologicalmakeupofindividuals.Sattvaischaracter-
izedbyqualitiessuchascleanliness,truthfulness,anddiscipline.Attributes
ofrajasincludeintenseactivity,dissatisfactionwithone’sposition,andenvy
ofothers.Qualitiesassociatedwithtamasincludeanger,depression,anda
feelingofhelplessness(Dasgupta,1961).Sattva,rajas,andtamasweremea-
sured in this experiment by the Vedic Personality Inventory (VPI; Wolf,
1999).Hypothesesrelatedtothesemodesofnature,andderivedfromVedic
theory (Prabhupada, 1976), were that chanting the maha mantra would
increasesattvaanddecreaserajasandtamas.Themahamantra,whichispos-
tulatedbytheVedastobeinsattvaguna,washypothesizedtoincreasethe
mind’ssattvicqualitiesanddecreaseitsrajasicandtamasicqualities.Adif-
ferent combination of sounds, such as that which constituted the alternate
mantrainthisexperimentaldesign,wouldnot,accordingtotheVedas,bein
sattva guna, and thus the effects on the dependent variables would not be
expected to be the same as the effects of the maha mantra.
AccordingtoVedicphilosophy,theselfisanonmaterialentitythatexists
withinagrossmaterialbody,aswellaswithinasubtlematerialbody.The
subtlematerialbodyismadeupofmind,intelligence,andego.Thenonmate-
rial entity, or spiritual particle, is inherently situated completely in sattva
guna,althoughinitspresentstateofencasementwithinasubtleandgross
materialbody,bothofwhichareaffectedbytamasandrajas,theconscious-
nessofthespiritualselfisinfluencedbytamasandrajas.Puresattvaguna,or
enlightenment,isthenaturalconditionoftheself(Prabhupada,1972).This
briefdescriptionformsthebasisofthespiritualontologyunderpinningthis
study.
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30 RESEARCH ON SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
Anarticleonsocialworkandspirituality(O’Neill,1999)emphasizedthe
needforsocialworkerstobecomemoreconversantwithspiritualinterven-
tions. Rosen, Proctor, and Staudt (1999) stressed the importance of social
workresearchcontributingtoabodyofknowledgeoninterventioneffective-
ness,specificallythroughtheexaminationofmeasurableoutcomesassoci-
atedwithreplicableinterventions.Thisinvestigationofthemahamantra,an
outcome study on a spiritual intervention, thus responds to two important
callsfromtheprofessionandisamongthefirstofitstypeusingarandomized
experimentaltrialtotestthebenefitsofatraditionalEasternapproachtothe
management of psychological distress.
METHOD
Pilot Study
Before conducting a group study, a single-system design on the maha
mantrawithfiveparticipantswasperformed.ThiswasanA-B-Awithdrawal
design,withbaselineandfollow-upperiodseach1weeklongandtheinter-
ventionperiodlasting4weeks.Participantscompletedsurveypackageson
Day1,andatweeklyintervalsthereafter,foratotalofsevendatapointsdur-
inga6-weekperiod.Thesecondsurveypackagewascompletedatthebegin-
ning of Week 2, just before the participant was instructed in the chanting
intervention. Dependent variables in this single-case design, which were
measuredwithstandardizedinstruments,includedstress,depression,verbal
aggressiveness,lifesatisfaction,spirituality,sattva,rajas,andtamas.Forthe
fiveparticipantscombined,80%ofoutcomemeasuresfrombaselinetointer-
ventionchangedaccordingtopredictionsofVedictheory.Specifically,Vedic
theory predicted that chanting the maha mantra would decrease stress,
depression,verbalaggressiveness,rajas,andtamasandwouldincreaselife
satisfaction,spirituality,andsattva.Formostofthesevariables,allfivepar-
ticipantschangedaccordingtoVedicpredictions,andforallofthevariables,
at least three of five participants changed as predicted by the hypotheses.
Althoughthedesignofthisexperimenthadmanyshortcomings,suchaslack
ofacontrolgroupandsmallsamplesize,theresultsweresufficientlyencour-
aging to warrant a more rigorous study of the maha mantra.
Design
Thegroupstudyincorporatedanexperimentaldesign,usinganinterven-
tion, control, and placebo group. Each group was pretested and posttested
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Wolf, Abell / EFFECTS OF MEDITATION TECHNIQUES 31
withapackageofsurveys,includingascaleondepression(GCS)(Hudson&
Proctor, 1977), personal stress (ICS) (Abell, 1991), and sattva, rajas, and
tamas (VPI) (Wolf, 1999). Random assignment was used to place partici-
pantsingroups.Therewasalsofollow-uptestingforallgroups28daysafter
the last day of the chanting intervention.
Sampling
Participants were purposively sampled through newspaper advertise-
mentsinauniversitytownintheSoutheasternUnitedStates.Theseadsread,
“Wanted: Participants in a study examining the effects of an Eastern-style
interventiononstressanddepression.$40reimbursement.Ifinterested,con-
tact....”Respondentswereinitiallyscreenedbytheresearcherviaphone
interviewsforthepurposesof(a)rulingoutthosewithdebilitatingmental
disorders,definedasthosewhoreportedthattheyhadreceivedadiagnosis
fromamentalhealthprofessionalthatwasdeterminedbytheresearchertobe
aformalDSMdiagnosis,and(b)determiningavailabilitytoparticipatefor
theentiredurationofthestudyandwillingnesstodevoteapproximatelyhalf
anhourperdayfor4weeks.Allparticipantswereatleast18yearsofage,
signedaformofvoluntaryconsentbeforeparticipating,andreceivedafinan-
cialincentiveof$40,withhalfpaidatpretestandhalfpaidafterfollow-up
testing. To control for its potential impact on responsiveness to or benefit
fromtheplannedintervention,participants’priorexperiencewithyoga,bio-
feedback, meditation, and chanting was used to create two blocks, “past
experience”and“nopastexperience,”priortorandomassignmenttogroups.
Ofthe108personsrespondingtotheads,93wereretainedafterscreening.
Thirty-one participants were assigned to each condition.
Measures
TheinstrumentsusedinthisstudyweretheVedicPersonalityInventory
(VPI)(Wolf,1999),theGeneralizedContentmentScale(GCS)(Hudson&
Proctor, 1977), and the Index of Clinical Stress (ICS) (Abell, 1991).
TheVPI(Wolf,1999)measuresthethreegunas—sattva,rajas,andtamas—
and contains 56 items, each with seven Likert-type response choices. For
each guna, subscale items include statements with which someone who is
dominated by that mode would strongly agree. For example, sattva items
include“Iamsatisfiedwithmylife”and“Itakeguidancefromhigherethical
andmorallawsbeforeIact.”Rajasitemsinclude“Forme,sexlifeisamajor
source of happiness” and “I greatly admire materially successful people.”
Tamas items include “I often feel depressed” and “I often feel helpless.”
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32 RESEARCH ON SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
Sattvascoreshaveapossiblerangeof15to105,rajasscoreshaveapossible
rangeof19to133,andtamasscoreshaveapossiblerangeof22to154,with
higherscoresindicatingagreaterpredominanceoftheguna.Noclinicalcut-
tingscoresortest-retestdatahavebeenobtainedfortheVPI.Onasampleof
619persons,madeupmostlyofuniversitystudentsandmedicalprofession-
als,internalconsistencyalphaforthethreegunasubscalesrangedfrom.93to
.94.Evidenceforconstructvalidityfortheinstrumentwasobtainedwithrela-
tiontomeasuresonverbalaggressiveness(Infante&Wigley,1986),which
correlatedpositivelywithrajasandnegativelywithsattva,hoursofsleepper
day, which correlated positively with tamas, and life satisfaction (Diener,
Emmons,Larsen,&Griffin,1985),whichcorrelatedpositivelywithsattva
andnegativelywithtamas.Withregardtofactoranalysis,allitemscorrelated
positivelyandsignificantlywiththeirintendedsubscale.Also,eachitemof
the VPI has a corrected item-total correlation greater than .50, indicating
strongconstructvalidityattheitemlevelofanalysis(Faul&Hudson,1997).
The GCS (Hudson & Proctor, 1977) measures the magnitude of
nonpsychoticdepressionandconsistsof25items,withthepossiblerangeof
scores being from 0 to 100 and a clinical cutting score of 30, with higher
scoresrepresentingincreaseddepression.Test-retestandsplit-halfreliability
scores for the GCS ranged from .89 to .96, with a mean of .93. Also, the
instrumentshowedgoodabilitytodifferentiatebetweengroupsdescribing
themselvesasdepressedornotdepressed.ConstructvalidityfortheGCShas
also been established. According to Hudson (1982), the GCS possesses
strongreliabilityandvalidityandisalsosuitedforrepeatedmeasureswith
thesameclient.Specifically,theGCSisshort,easytocompleteandscore,
and does not suffer from response decay when used repeatedly over time.
The ICS (Abell, 1991) was designed to assess the subjective aspect of
stressinageneralized,unidimensionalform.Its25itemsweredesignedto
reflecttherangeofperceptionsinvolvedwithsubjectivestress.Thepossible
range of scores is 0 to 100 with a clinical cutting score of 30, with higher
scoresrepresentingincreasedstress.Psychometricsoftheinstrumentwere
assessedusingasampleof265persons.Cronbach’salphaforthesamplewas
.96.TheICShasalsoshownstrongfactorialvalidity,convergentconstruct
validity, and discriminant construct validity.
Data Collection
Tworesearchassistantswereemployed,andeachwastrainedinthebasic
techniquesofscientificexperimentationandspecificallyinthemethodsof
this study. This included instruction in confidentiality, preserving the
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Wolf, Abell / EFFECTS OF MEDITATION TECHNIQUES 33
integrityofdata,maintainingneutrality,aswellasinthepaperworkandtime
frameforthisstudy,andthemethodforteachingparticipantshowtochant.
For pretest, posttest, and follow-up, there was a 5-day window for all
membersofallgroupstobetested.Ideally,tominimizehistoryeffects,all
participantsshouldhavebeentestedatpreciselythesametime.Asthiswas
not practically achievable, a 5-day window of testing was used, with each
participanttestedindividually,notinthesamelocationastheotherpartici-
pants.Thismethodwasusedtominimizediffusioneffects.Researcherssur-
veyedparticipantsindividually,notingroups,usuallyinthehomeofthepar-
ticipants, and sometimes at the researcher’s office.
Afterpretesting,membersofthecontrolgroupwereinformedthatthey
werethecontrolgroup,andtheywererequestedtoreturnin28daysforthe
posttest.Afterthepretest,membersofthetreatmentgroupweretaughtthe
mahamantraintervention,andmembersoftheplacebogroupweretaughtthe
placebo intervention. These two groups were instructed how to chant and
were directed to do so for the next 28 days. Within 3 days after pretest, a
memberoftheresearchteamphonedthechantertocheckiftherewereany
difficultieswithfollowingtheprocedures.Theresearchteammembermetin
personwitheachparticipant7or8daysaftertheyinitiallylearnedthechant-
ingtoensurethattheywereproperlyfollowingtheprocedures.Beadswere
collected from both of the chanting groups after posttest. After follow-up,
members of the control and alternate groups were introduced to the maha
mantraandwereinformedthatthepurposeofthestudywastoexaminethe
effects of the maha mantra.
Ofthe93peopleinitiallyrandomlyassignedtogroups,81completedthe
pretestsurveysand61completedtheentirestudy.Forthe61whocompleted
theexperiment,23wereinthemahamantragroup,19inthealternatemantra
group,and19inthecontrolgroup.Ofthese61persons,31werefemaleand
30weremale.Eachgroupbeganwith5participantswhohadpriorexperi-
encewithchantingmantras,yoga,meditation,orbiofeedback.Ofthepartici-
pantswhocompletedthestudy,3ineachgrouphadsuchpriorexperience.
Theaverageageofparticipantswas24.7years(SD=7.75),rangingfrom18
to 49.
Intervention
The intervention and placebo participants were all given strings of 109
beads(calledjapabeads),withonebeadmarkedlylargerthantheothers.The
researchteammemberhadhisorherownsetofjapabeadsanddemonstrated
thechantingmethodfortheparticipant.Withthethumbandmiddlefingerof
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34 RESEARCH ON SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
therighthand,thechanterheldthelargebeadoneitherside.Thenthepartici-
pant chanted the mantra. After the mantra was completed, the participant
movedonebeadthroughthefingerssothatheorshewasholdingthesecond
beadfromthelargebead.Againthechanterrepeatedthemahamantra.Inthis
way,theparticipantwouldchantonemantraforeachbead,until108mantras
hadbeenchanted.Thisconstitutedoneroundofjapameditation.Japacould
beperformedinanycircumstance.Forinstance,onemaybesittingorwalk-
ing.Theessentialinstructionwasthatoneattemptstobefullyattentivetothe
chanting.Thetreatmentgroupwastaughttochantthemahamantra(“hare
krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare/hare rama hare rama rama
ramaharehare”),andthealternatemantragroupwastaughttochantthealter-
natemantra(“sarvadasasarvadasadasadasasarvasarva/sarvajanasarva
janajanajanasarvasarva”).Thesarvadasapseudo-mantrawasatheoreti-
cally meaningless combination of Sanskrit syllables concocted by the
researcher.Thisalternate(orplacebo)mantrawasmadeupofthesamesyl-
labicpatternasthemahamantra.Thiswasintendedtocontrolfortheeffects
ofsyllabicpatternandtohelpisolatetheeffectsofthemantrasthemselves.
Membersofbothgroupswereinstructedthatthiswasanexperimentonthe
efficacyofchantingtheparticularcombinationofwordsthattheylearnedto
chant. Participants were instructed to chant three rounds per day, which
requiresabout20to25minutesperday,andparticipantskeptalogofhow
many japa rounds they actually chanted each day.
RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS
EffectsofoutlierswereassessedandtreatedasdirectedinNunnallyand
Bernstein(1994)andCohenandCohen(1983).Bythisassessmentmethod,
whichconsiderspercentageofscoresthataremorethantwostandarddevia-
tionsfromthemean,withabout5%expectedtobeoutliersofthismagnitude,
andthesimilarityordifferenceofthesignsofoutlyingscores,alldatawere
retained for analysis.
Neither gender, tested by chi-square, or mean age, tested by one-way
ANOVA,differedsignificantlybetweengroupsatthe.05level.Also,chant-
ingfrequency,ascalculatedfromthechantinglogskeptbytheparticipants,
did not statistically differ by group, as evaluated byttests.
Cronbach’salphaforthefivedependentmeasures,calculatedfrompretest
scores,rangedfrom.82to.94.ThesattvasubscaleoftheVPIhadanalphaof
.86,alphafortherajassubscalewas.82,andalphaforthetamassubscalewas
.87.FortheICS,alphawas.94,andfortheGCS,alphawas.90.Foreachmea-
sure,theobservedalphawaslessthanthatreportedintheliterature.Still,all
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Wolf, Abell / EFFECTS OF MEDITATION TECHNIQUES 35
ofthescoreswereintheacceptablerange,asNunnallyandBernstein(1994)
explain that, for group comparisons, an alpha of .70 is satisfactory.
Themainhypothesesofthisexperimentwerethatchantingthemahaman-
trawoulddecreasestress,depression,rajas,andtamasandwouldincrease
sattva,frompretesttoposttest.Thesechangeswereadditionallypredictedto
be significantly greater, at the .05 level, than any similar changes in the
dependent variables occurring in the alternate mantra or control groups.
Changesinpretesttofollow-upscoreswereexpectedtobeinthesamedirec-
tionasforpretesttoposttestforeachvariable,althoughthechangesforpre-
test to follow-up were predicted to be smaller than the pretest to posttest
changes.
A repeated-measures MANOVA was performed to assess whether the
overalleffectsofthedifferenttreatments(groups)resultedinasignificant
effect for the three-way interaction of Time × Response × Group. The
repeatedmeasuresanalysisincludedmultivariatetestsfortimeandtreatment
maineffects,aswellastheirinteractions,acrossresponses.Effectsizeswere
calculatedusingR2.Pillai’sTrace(TypeIIIsumsofsquares,F=2.84,p<
.0003;df=20,100;proportionofvarianceexplained[PVE]=.226)allowed
thenullhypothesistoberejected.Contrastswithinthemultivariatemodel
wereperformedtoassesswhetherindividualoutcomemeasuresweresignifi-
cant at both the posttest and follow-up periods. Table 1 shows the mean
scoresateachtimeperiodforeachgroup.Ftestscoresarealsodisplayedin
Table 1, with significant differences indicated by an asterisk (*).
ICS (stress). Table 1 shows that the means for the maha mantra group
decreasedontheICSfrompretesttoposttest,andalsofrompretesttofollow-
up,althoughthefollow-upmeanwasgreaterthantheposttestmean,aspre-
dicted by the hypothesis. These changes for the maha mantra group were
greater than changes for the other two groups. The pretest to posttest F
score=6.79,p<.05,PVE=.081.Thepretesttofollow-upFscore=4.81,p<
.05, PVE = .077.
GCS(depression).Themeansfordepressionfrompretesttoposttestshow
that,ashypothesized,thegroupsdiffersignificantly,withthemahamantra
group experiencing the largest drop in depression scores compared to the
othertwogroups,adifferencethatwasnotobservedatthefollow-upperiod.
ThepretesttoposttestFscore=13.17,p<.01,PVE=.185.Thepretesttofol-
low-upFscore = 1.90, which is not a statistically significant result.
VPIsattva.Accordingtothestudy’shypothesis,sattvawaspredictedto
increase for the maha mantra group relative to the alternative mantra or
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