Doctorate in Clinical Psychology: Main Research Portfolio

: 1) Literature Review: A systematic review of self-caught methodologies for measuring mind wandering with meta-awareness; 2) Service Related Project: Feasibility and acceptability of group compassion focused therapy for psychosis in a secondary care community mental health setting: a service related study; 3) Main Research Project: Validity of the Breath Counting Task as a behavioural measure of present moment awareness and meta-awareness.

Abstract

Objectives The criterion, convergent and incremental validity of the Breath Counting Task (BCT) as measures of present moment awareness and metaawareness were examined. Method A retrospective analysis was conducted on data collected from a sample of 100 schoolteachers who attended a mindfulness training programme. Breath counting accuracy and meta-awareness, measured with the BCT, along with self-reported mindfulness, psychological distress and rumination were assessed before and after the mindfulness-based intervention (MBI). Metaawareness level was determined by the frequency of self-caught errors in relation to unaware errors on the BCT. Results Consistent with the previous validation studies, breath counting accuracy was positively correlated with self-reported mindfulness. Breath counting accuracy was also negatively associated with psychological distress and rumination. Meta-awareness was positively associated with breath counting accuracy and self-reported mindfulness, and negatively associated with psychological distress and rumination. Meta-awareness but not breath counting accuracy was shown to have incremental validity over self-reported mindfulness in predicting psychological distress following MBI. Conclusions This study provides additional evidence for the criterion and convergent validity of BCT as a measure of present moment awareness. This study also provides preliminary evidence for the convergent validity and incremental convergent validity of the BCT as a measure of meta-awareness.  

Date of Award	15 Sep 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Paul Chadwick (Supervisor), Jo Daniels (Supervisor), Elizabeth Marks (Supervisor) & Helena Blowers (Supervisor)