Redefining Mindfulness

Abstract

This research aimed to challenge the current conceptualization of mindfulness as a personality trait or psychological state. Instead, we propose that mindfulness is better defined and measured as a skill. As a result, we evaluated a new mindfulness measure, Mindfulness Skill Scale (MSS). We recruited 281 working professionals from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) who were asked to complete the MSS, a series of other mindfulness measures and other mindfulness related correlates and outcomes (openness, neuroticism, stress, and happiness). We examined whether the MSS demonstrated a stronger relationship to the outcomes, such as stress. In addition, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis to identify a potential factor structure. The final version of the MSS demonstrated a sound measure of mindfulness but did not demonstrate significantly stronger relationships with the outcomes than the prominent mindfulness measures (KIMS and FFMQ).