Participant characteristics and the effects of two types of meditation vs. quiet sitting

Abstract

Randomly assigned 61 undergraduate volunteers to Clinically Standardized Meditation (CSM), quiet sitting (SIT), or wait list' and 19 others to Open Focus (OF) or wait list2. Ss were tested before training and again 8 weeks later. All groups but wait list2 decreased significantly on Spielberger's trait anxiety. All groups became nonsignificantly more internal on Rotter's locus of control. On the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, meditation volunteers were more introverted than extraverted, intuitive than sensing, feeling than thinking, and perceiving than judging. All groups became more intuitive, approaching signicance for CSM only. OF became significantly more extraverted than both CSM and SIT, and CSM significantly more so than wait list'. Practice time correlated with anxiety reduction for the combined treatment groups. More evidence was found for correlations of practice time and outcome with growth motivation than with either new experience motivation or expectancy of benefit.