Mind the Gap in Mindfulness Research: A Comparative Account of the Leading Schools of Thought

Abstract

The literature on mindfulness has been dominated by the two leading schools of thought: one advanced by Langer and her colleagues; the other developed by Kabat-Zinn and his associates. Curiously, the two strands of research have been running in parallel lines for more than 30 years, scarcely addressing each others’ work, and with almost no attempt to clarify the relationship between them. In view of this gap, this article sought to systematically compare and contrast the two lines of research. The comparison between the two schools of thought suggests that although there are some similarities in their definitions of mindfulness, they differ in several core aspects: their philosophies, the components of their constructs, their goals, their theoretical scope, their measurement tools, their conceptual focus, their target audiences, the interventions they employ, the mechanisms underlying these interventions, and the outcomes of their interventions. However, the analysis also revealed that self-regulation is a core mechanism in both perspectives, which seems to mediate the impact of their interventions. In view of the differences between the two strands of research, we propose that they be given different titles that capture their prime features. We suggest “creative mindfulness” for Langer and her colleagues’ scholarship, and “meditative mindfulness” for Kabat-Zinn and his associates’ scholarly work.