Mindfulness and personality in the general population

This is a three-arm randomised controlled trial of a single mindfulness practice versus control. Arm 1: 20 minute mindfulness practice and 5 minute audiobook excerpt Arm 2: 5 minute mindfulness practice and 20 minute audiobook excerpt Arm 3: active control: 25 minute audiobook excerpt The single mindfulness practices (in arms 1 and 2) are mindfulness of the breath meditation practices recorded by a qualified MCBT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy) teacher, Dr Fergal Jones, which have previously been proven feasible in published research (Strohmaier et al. (2021): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-020-01512-5) Participants will start with the audiobook excerpt, immediately after which the mindfulness practice takes place (this has previously been tested and has proven successful in another study, see Strohmaier et al. (2021). The mode of delivery is individual and online, which has previously been tested and proven successful in another study, see Strohmaier et al. (2022): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-021-01780-9 The intervention takes place fully online via the survey software Qualtrics, as has previouly proven feasible (see Strohmaier et al. (2022) above link). The Qualtrics survey will be built by the researcher who has previous experience in this. The location of the intervention is online, and participants are asked to make sure that they are not disturbed during the time of the intervention, which should take no longer than 40 minutes to complete (for the whole intervention in total). To monitor adherence, participants will be unable to click through to the next page on Qualtrics for 25 minutes during the duration of the study, since the "next" button will not appear until after 25 minutes have taken place, as has proven feasible in previous research (see Strohmaier et al. (2022)). However, participants have the right to withdraw from the study at any time without giving a reason, as will be communicated to them prior to commencement of the study as part of the study information. Participants in all three arms will be asked to indicate from 1 to 10 how well they were able to pay attention to the recording, and participants in arms 1 and 2 will also be asked how much they were able to follow the guidance during the practice, again to indicate from 1 to 10 (as has proven feasible in previous research, Strohmaier et al. 2022). This study seeks to determine whether some individuals (based on personality) find different lengths of a mindfulness practice more helpful than others. In this study, the impact on affect of two different lengths of mindfulness practice (and a no-practice control group) are compared across personality types. Data will be collected online from an adult general population sample, building on an approach that has proven feasible in the Principal Investigator’s previously published research. The current study should help future mindfulness-based programs to better personalize the mindfulness practices they offer, resulting in better outcomes for their participants.