COMPARING THE EFFICACY OF SPIRITUAL MEDITATION, SECULAR MEDITATION, AND RELAXATION IN DEPRESSED COLLEGE STUDENTS Meryl Reist Gibbel A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2008 Committee: Kenneth Pargament, Advisor Annette Mahoney Michael Zickar ii ABSTRACT Kenneth I. Pargament, Advisor Working with a sample of 54 mildly depressed undergraduates, the present study compared the effects of spiritual meditation, secular meditation, and relaxation techniques on mood and spiritual well-being. Upon random assignment to the Spiritual Meditation group, the Secular Meditation group, or the Relaxation group, participants were taught how to practice a meditation or relaxation technique. They were instructed to practice their assigned technique 20 minutes per day for two consecutive weeks. Participants completed criterion measures for affect and spiritual well-being at three time points during the course of the study: prior to beginning the two-week meditation/relaxation intervention, directly following the two-week intervention, and one month following the completion of the intervention. Overall results suggest that the addition of an explicitly spiritual component to the practice of meditation does not appear to add to the effectiveness of this technique among depressed college students. Although spiritual meditation was shown to significantly improve positive mood, this finding should be interpreted with caution as this was the only significant time x treatment group interaction. However, results do indicate that all three treatment groups showed improvement in psychological and spiritual variables across time. In addition, spiritual intensity appeared to moderate the relationship between treatment group and daily spiritual experiences and several measures of mood. iii To Ethan and Pam, for all your support and inspiration. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Kenneth Pargament, for his invaluable guidance throughout the development of this project. Thank you for your commitment to seeing this project through to completion. I am particularly grateful for how quickly you returned draft after draft of my thesis. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Annette Mahoney and Dr. Michael Zickar, for their insight and valuable contributions to my project. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for providing unending encouragement throughout this process. I would particularly like to thank my husband, Ethan, my parents, Dave and Pam, and my sisters, Erin, Jennie, and Dana. Thank you for believing in me. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 Risk Factors and Costs of Depression .......................................................………… 5 Psychological Benefits of Religious and Spiritual Practices ..................................... 8 Two Types of Meditation........................................................................................... 9 Is Meditation Spiritual in Nature?.............................................................................. 12 Meditation and Psychological Well Being…………………………………………. 15 Meditation and Depression…………………………………………………………. 18 The Present Study...................................................................................................... 22 METHOD……………. ......................................................................................................... 23 Participants……......................................................................................................... 23 Screener……….......................................................................................................... 23 Psychological Measures............................................................................................. 24 Spirituality Measures................................................................................................. 25 Adherence…………………………………………………………………………... 28 Procedure…………………………………………………………………………… 29 RESULTS……………. ......................................................................................................... 32 Preliminary Analyses................................................................................................. 32 Psychological Measures................................................................................. 32 Spirituality Measures..................................................................................... 33 Daily Adherence Diary .............................................................................................. 35 Post Hoc Analyses ..................................................................................................... 35 vi Spirituality and Mood.................................................................................... 36 Spirituality and Daily Spiritual Experiences.................................................. 36 DISCUSSION………............................................................................................................ 38 Mood and Meditation/Relaxation .............................................................................. 38 Spirituality and Meditation/Relaxation...................................................................... 43 Spiritual Intensity as a Moderating Variable ............................................................. 45 Implications…............................................................................................................ 46 Limitations and Future Directions…………………………………………………. 49 Conclusions…............................................................................................................ 50 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 52 APPENDIX A. POTENTIAL PATHWAYS BETWEEN SPIRITUAL MEDITATION AND DECREASED DEPRESSION ......................................................................... 68 APPENDIX B. DEPRESSION SCREENING FORM ......................................................... 69 APPENDIX C. DAILY ADHERENCE DIARY…………........................................…….. 73 APPENDIX D. RELIGIOUS MEASURES QUESTIONNAIRE…………………………. 74 APPENDIX E. SPIRITUAL WELL BEING SCALE……………………………………... 76 APPENDIX F. DAILY SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES……………………………………. 78 APPENDIX G. MYSTICISM SCALE…………………………………………………….. 80 APPENDIX H. PROCEDURE…………………………………………………………….. 82 APPENDIX I. MEDITATION TRAINING SCRIPT……………………………………... 84 APPENDIX J. RELAXATION TRAINING SCRIPT…………………………………….. 86 vii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 Demographics by Group…………………………………………………………… 88 2 Cronbach’s Alphas for Pre-Intervention Measures………………………………… 89 3 Pre- and Post-Intervention Psychological and Spiritual Measures by Group……… 90 4 Pearson r Correlations for the Primary Psychological and Spiritual Variables in the Total Sample at Time 1……………………………………………… 91 5 Pre- and Post- Adherence Diary Mood Ratings…………………………………… 92 6 Main Effects and Interactions for 3x3 (time x group) Repeated Measures ANOVA…………………………………………………………………… 93 7 Main Effects and Interactions for 3x3 (time x group) Repeated Measures ANOVA…………………………………………………………………… 94 8 Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Treatment Group x Spiritual Intensity Predicting Positive Affect…………………………………………………. 95 9 Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Treatment Group x Spiritual Intensity Predicting Negative Affect……………………………………………….. 96 10 Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Treatment Group x Spiritual Intensity Predicting Spiritual Well Being…………………………………………... 97 11 Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Treatment Group x Spiritual Intensity Predicting Religious Well Being…………………………………………. 98 12 Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Treatment Group x Spiritual Intensity Predicting Existential Well Being………………………………………… 99 13 Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Treatment Group x Spiritual Intensity viii Predicting Daily Spiritual Experience…………………………………... 100 14 Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Treatment Group x Spiritual Intensity Predicting Mysticism………………………………………………......... 101 15 Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Treatment Group x Spiritual Intensity Predicting Extrovertive Mysticism…………………………………….... 102 16 Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Treatment Group x Spiritual Intensity Predicting Religious Interpretation……………………………………… 103 17 Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Treatment Group x Spiritual Intensity Predicting Introvertive Mysticism………………………………………. 104 18 Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Treatment Group x Spiritual Intensity Predicting Mood………………………………………………………… 105 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Positive Affect by Group and Time……………………………………………… 108 1 INTRODUCTION Effecting more than 19 million Americans each year (National Institute of Mental Health, 2006), depression is the most prevalent serious chronic mental illness and has been considered by some to be an “epidemic” in Western societies (Blazer, 2005). In addition to its pervasiveness, depression is a risk factor for other health problems. Research suggests that depression is linked to coexisting psychiatric disorders (Kessler, et al., 1994; Kessler, et al., 1996), including anxiety disorders (Sanderson, Beck, & Beck, 1990; Zimmerman, McDermut, & Mattia, 2000), eating disorders (Grubb, Sellers, & Waligroski, 1993; Hill & Robinson, 1991; Willcox &