Mindfulness, Nonattachment, and the Feeling-Action Relationship

Objectives The present research had two objectives. It sought to examine whether traits related to mindful awareness and nonattachment could be distinguished. It also sought to compare both sets of traits with respect to their ability to dissociate relations between feelings and actions. Methods To examine processes of this type in a fine-grained manner, two studies (total N = 296; 69.93% female; 87.16% Caucasian; M age = 19.13) developed procedures capable of differentiating affective reactions and their intensity from the behaviors that could result from such feelings. In these situation judgment paradigms, participants were first asked to imagine themselves in a series of evocative situations (e.g., a romantic partner cheating on them). For each situation, individuals then rated how intensely they would experience the targeted feeling (e.g., anger) and how likely they would be to engage in a corresponding action (e.g., an aggressive one). Results Multilevel analyses of these responses revealed that both mindfulness (Study 1 p = .005; Study 2 p = .045) and nonattachment (Study 1 p < .001; Study 2 p < .001) moderated the feeling-action relationship such that it was less coupled among participants possessing the relevant traits, but this modulatory influence was more robust for nonattachment. Conclusions The methods, which build on emotional simulations and multilevel modeling, provide a paradigm for studying reactions to situations as well as feeling-action relationships. Additionally, the results provide insights into both mindfulness and nonattachment and the manner in which they are likely to function within emotional contexts.