An authoritative handbook, this volume offers both a comprehensive review of the current science of mindfulness and a guide to its ongoing evolution. Leading scholars explore mindfulness in the context of contemporary psychological theories of attention, perceptual processing, motivation, and behavior, as well as within a rich cross-disciplinary dialogue with the contemplative traditions. After surveying basic research from neurobiological, cognitive, emotional/affective, and interpersonal perspectives, the book delves into applications of mindfulness practice in healthy and clinical populations, reviewing a growing evidence base. Examined are interventions for behavioral and emotion dysregulation disorders, depression, anxiety, and addictions, and for physical health conditions.

Kirk Warren Brown, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. He studies the role of attention to and awareness of internal states and behavior, with a particular interest in mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions. He has received fellowships from several foundations and from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Dr. Brown lectures widely across the United States and Europe and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Paris.

J. David Creswell, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, where he conducts research on stress and coping, with a focus on pathways linking mindfulness meditation training with stress reduction and stress-related disease outcomes. He serves as an academic editor for the journal PLoS ONE. Dr. Creswell is a recipient of the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology.

Richard M. Ryan, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and Senior Research Professor at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at Australian Catholic University, with a secondary appointment at the University of Rochester. He is a codeveloper of self-determination theory, an internationally researched theory of human motivation and personality development. An honorary member of the German Psychological Society and the recipient of distinguished career awards from several societies, Dr. Ryan has been a Visiting Professor at the Max Planck Institute, the University of Bath, and Nanyang Technical University.
 

1. Introduction: The Evolution of Mindfulness Science, Kirk Warren Brown, J. David Creswell, & Richard M. Ryan

I. Historical and Conceptual Overview of Mindfulness
2. Buddhist Conceptualizations of Mindfulness, Rupert Gethin
3. Developing Attention and Decreasing Affective Bias: Toward a Cross-Cultural Cognitive Science of Mindfulness, Jake H. Davis & Evan Thompson
4. Reconceptualizing Mindfulness: The Psychological Principles of Attending in Mindfulness Practice and Their Role in Well-Being, James Carmody

II. Mindfulness in the Context of Contemporary Psychological Theory
5. Mindfulness in the Context of the Attention System, Yi Yuan Tang & Michael I. Posner
6. Mindfulness in the Context of Processing Mode Theory, Edward R. Watkins
7. Being Aware and Functioning Fully: Mindfulness and Interest-Taking within Self-Determination Theory, Edward L. Deci, Richard M. Ryan, Patricia P. Schultz, & Christopher P. Niemiec
8. Mindfulness in Contextual Cognitive-Behavioral Models, Thomas G. Szabo, Douglas M. Long, Matthieu Villatte & Steven C. Hayes

III. Basic Science of Mindfulness
9. From Conceptualization to Operationalization of Mindfulness, Jordan T. Quaglia, Kirk Warren Brown, Emily K. Lindsay, J. David Creswell, & Robert J. Goodman
10. The Neurobiology of Mindfulness Meditation, Fadel Zeidan
11. Cognitive Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation, Marieke K. van Vugt
12. Emotional Benefits of Mindfulness, Joanna J. Arch & Lauren N. Landy
13. The Science of Presence: A Central Mediator of the Interpersonal Benefits of Mindfulness, Suzanne C. Parker, Benjamin W. Nelson, Elissa S. Epel, Daniel J. Siegel
14. Did the Buddha Have a Self?: No-Self, Self, and Mindfulness in Buddhist Thought and Western Psychologies, Richard M. Ryan & C. Scott Rigby

IV. Mindfulness Interventions for Healthy Populations
15. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Healthy Stressed Adults, Shauna L. Shapiro & Hooria Jazaieri
16. Mindfulness Training for Children and Adolescents: A State-of-the-Science Review, David S. Black
17. Mindfulness Training to Enhance Positive Functioning, Kirk Warren Brown

V.  Mindfulness Interventions for Clinical Populations
18. Mindfulness Interventions for Emotional Dysregulation Disorders: From Self-Control to Self-Regulation, Thomas R. Lynch, Sophie A. Lazarus, & Jennifer S. Cheavens
19. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Chronic Depression, Julie Anne Irving, Norman A. S. Farb, & Zindel V. Segal
20. Mindfulness in the Treatment of Anxiety, Sarah A. Hayes-Skelton & Lauren P. Wadsworth
21. A Mindfulness-Based Approach to Addiction, Sarah Bowen, Cassandra Vieten, Katie Witkiewitz, & Haley Douglas
22. Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Physical Conditions: A Selective Review, Linda E. Carlson
23. Biological Pathways Linking Mindfulness with Health, J. David Creswell