Date of Award

5-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Psychology & Gerontology

First Advisor

Christopher Merchant, Ph.D.

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between mindfulness and a constellation of prosocial features known as the Light Triad. The past twenty years of psychological research has seen many studies confirming the benefits of mindfulness regarding the psychological health of individuals, but little research has been done to suggest the potential social benefits imparted by mindful qualities of awareness. In this study, 80 Northeastern Illinois psychology students were recruited through NEIU’s SONA platform and were presented with five separate questionnaires designed to assess prosociality (humanism, faith in humanity, and Kantianism), mindfulness, self-compassion, self-care competency, and felt purpose in life. This study’s data analyses confirmed the authors’ primary hypotheses revealing a moderate positive linear correlation between mindfulness and prosocial traits. As hypothesized, mindfulness’ strongest relationship among the three prosocial dimensions measured was a moderate-strong positive correlation with Kantianism. Additionally, there were positive correlations found between prosociality and both self-care competency and felt purpose in life. The largest correlation in this study was found between self-care competency and felt purpose in life. Finally, a large negative correlation was found to exist between self-compassion and felt purpose in life. Mindfulness training is a practical and economically feasible intervention that could potentially work towards mitigating the recent social fragmentation we see throughout the Western world. This study contributes to the field of social psychology by establishing a relationship between mindfulness and prosociality.

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