Examining the Relationships between Mindfulness, Anxiety, and the Startle Response

Anxiety has been shown to have adverse effects on psychological and physical health (Needham et al., 2015; Tramonti et al., 2016). The practice of mindfulness has been shown to decrease anxiety (Zeidan, Martucci, Kraft, McHaffie, & Coghill, 2014). Anxiety has been frequently measured via the startle response, an automatic reflex that serves defensive functions (Benke, Blumenthal, Modeß, Hamm, & Pané-Farré, 2015; Blumenthal, 2015). The literature is inconclusive in regards to the relationship between mindfulness and the startle response. The current study attempted to further explore this relationship. We also examined the relationships between the individual difference variables of trait mindfulness, trait anxiety, and attentional control, as well as the relationships between these trait variables and baseline measures of state anxiety and state mindfulness. Additionally, this study examined the associations between individual differences in these trait variables and changes in state anxiety after an anxiety induction. Lastly, we investigated whether trait mindfulness and state mindfulness were significant predictors of startle response magnitude, and if attentional control mediated these relationships. All three trait variables were significantly associated with each other, baseline self-reported state anxiety was associated with all of the trait variables, trait anxiety was associated with baseline skin conductance level and systolic blood pressure, and changes in systolic blood pressure were significantly associated with trait anxiety. Lastly, only state mindfulness was a significant predictor of startle response magnitude, and attentional control did not significantly mediate this association. These results suggest that state mindfulness may be more likely to influence startle response magnitude than dispositional mindfulness, and that attentional control is not a mediator of that influence.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Brown, Leah Ashton

• anxiety

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/89874

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/89874