By Jill Anderson
For many, the word "mindfulness" - awareness
of what's happening in a present moment - connotes a new age ideology often
dismissed as having no real bearing on a person's abilities. Doctoral candidate
Metta McGarvey's research into the practice of mindfulness, however, aims to
change that common perception and lays a foundation for exploring the question of
whether people are able to develop their emotional capacities in adulthood.
Although a great deal of research into
the social and emotional development of children has been conducted to date,
very little has been undertaken with adults, says McGarvey, who recently earned
a prestigious fellowship from the American Association of University Women. The research that has been done on adult emotional development has resulted in conflicting opinions. On one side, theories of personality indicate that
our emotional reactions are based in temperamental differences that are shaped
by life experiences to form stable enduring traits by age 30. On the other, emotional
intelligence theorists believe that emotional traits can be changed for the
better throughout adult life. For her dissertation, "The Potential Effects of
Mindfulness on the Emotional Development of Leaders," McGarvey looks at 138
current and former leaders, leadership development coaches, and consultants to
study adult development and how mindfulness may affect personality and
emotional intelligence.
A former student of Buddhist
Studies with a master's from Harvard
Divinity School,
McGarvey came to the Ed School interested in how spiritual practices can
influence people's lives for the better, and how they work consciously and
rationally with deep emotional reactions that often overwhelm. "Leaders are
under significant social and emotional stresses," McGarvey says. "People are
working on emotional intelligence, hiring coaches, and realizing they need to
understand their effectiveness in creating teams to solve problems across all
differences. This depends, in some part, on their ability to bring people
together, hold conflicting points of view, and not break down. Leaders are
interested in those issues and being more effective."
Many leaders are turning to the
practice of mindfulness to help with the stresses of their work. In particular,
mindfulness can be used as a technique for working constructively with intense
emotions such as fear and anger that often lead to misunderstandings and conflicts.
"Mindfulness is about single-tasking in whatever you are doing in the moment,"
she says, noting that the brain is actually designed to do the opposite - multitask.
The practice of mindfulness can be
deployed through meditation or simply by stepping away from a crisis and
reflecting on what's happening. The underlying goal of McGarvey's research is
to explore the potential of mindfulness practice to enhance interpersonal
understanding and effectiveness by catalyzing social and emotional development.
"It helps you see more clearly in the present...because emotions are strong
primitive forces in our brain system, it's very hard to keep your thought
processes interacting with your emotional processes in a conscious way,"
McGarvey says.
In order to gain a better
understanding into the role of mindfulness for leaders, McGarvey's study assessed
three areas: emotional intelligence, personality, and mindfulness. She devised
the study purposely to lay a foundation for future longitudinal study examining
the overarching question of whether humans are capable of developing new
emotional skills after 30. "I don't doubt that people differ in social and emotional
ability, but the big question is whether adults can develop those emotional skills,"
she says. "There's a big debate on whether emotional ability is innate."
So far, McGarvey's findings
indicate that people who are more mindful score higher on emotional
intelligence and score lower on neuroticism. "This documents that there is an
association between being more mindful and more emotionally intelligent as
assessed in the study," she says, noting that these findings encourage further
research into mindfulness and meditation. "Now, the question is do these
abilities change more over time."
McGarvey intends to find out.
Following her graduation from HGSE in the spring, she plans to parlay her
dissertation work into a longitudinal study. McGarvey credits her
methodological training - both quantitative and qualitative -- and the help of Professors
Bob Kegan, Jerry Murphy, and Kurt Fischer, as well as former Ed School faculty
members Mike Nakkula and Annie Rogers, in her work. "They've been tremendous
sources of support and confidence for me to work in a field that's not yet
established."
I am very impressed by your study. As an individual, I believe that I have matured emotionally and I am well over 30.
Please keep me informed on future findings.
Your research is really interesting and made me reflect on myself as I have been struggling with this question too: is emotional intelligence expandable? Because personality traits aren't easily changeable, but when people go through some hardship, it is observable that they may go through a transformative experience (or maybe not, again, it depends on the person, it's a person-variable). There is also an interesting site www.maum.org. which is a meditation group and explores issues of how to throw out the unnecessary emotions which lies on a very interesting theory of what I may call 'mindlessness'. Good luck with your research and I would be really interested in finding out the results of your study!:)
This is really a very good article, it is a very inspiring for person like me who is really dealing with some tough situations in life. After reading it, I became more stronger emotionally with intelligence.Thank you so much for writing so beautifully about mindfulness.
I am a kindergarten instructor in South Korea who hails from Long Island, New York. I am engaged in Buddhist Sangha on the weekends. Mindfulness first came to me through the reading of Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh many years ago. I now 'study' with Venerables Chong Go and Gyatso, two American monks in the Chogye order under Most Venerable Nun Dae Haeng, whose temples are cropping up all over the world. My Dharma name, Mando, was given me from this great master at my precept ceremony. It means roughly, 'many paths of change.' It is refreshing to see you bringing mindfulness into the field of educational research. I claim no expertise in this area as I studied art at college, but have been teaching at the institute level for thirteen years (non-degreed however)and have wondered often about the very nature of holistic teaching and how it could serve education. We use meditation in class to calm our children, and I am most intrigued by your work as I have been trying to transform my own life and habit energy as we call it (I am forty-two). I have seen this training transform the lives of others and it is not without challenges as people adept at it really learn to let go, a very non-Western concept in certain respects. I am sure you have thought of implications for our society with its military solutions, gun violence, road rage, school gangs, drug addiction, etc., etc. These things are virtually non-existent in Korea (though the problems here are suicide, self-loathing which leads to rampant cosmetic plastic surgery, prostitution, virtually institutionalized philandering, and corruption). I would love to hear from you. Peace, Love, and Joy to You,
Carl Mando Atteniese
For Carl and others interested in applications of mindfulness being studied in the context of education, you can visit the MiEN (Mindfulness in Education Network) website at: www.mindfuled.org. Their 2nd annual conference is being held in Philadelphia in early February. Two co-sponsors are The Garrison Institute (www.garrisoninstitute.org), which runs an initiative devoted to contemplation and education primarily in K-12 contexts, and The Center for Contemplative Mind and Society (www.contemplativemind.org) which focuses on higher education.
Of course any really sensible comment on my part would have to wait until I knew something of how McGarvey assessed mindfulness. Lacking that information I can only say that I believe that mindfulness, as I understand it, can be taught. In my understanding, mindfulness is a kind of discipline of "remembering to notice" one's reaction to some stimulus instead of simply acting out one's reaction. That noticing, that mindfulness, allows choice, and is the foundation of the statement that, "We can not control our reactions, but we can choose our responses." Second my experience is that someone who is practicing mindfulness and choosing how to respond to situations that formerly simply triggered some reaction is displaying what we could call "emotional intelligence."
This is an area of significant interest to me in my consulting work with leaders and groups in education and non-profits, as we progress into a post-bureaucratic era and a need for wiser and more sustainable organizations to serve more equitable and sustainable communities. Spiritual practices that aid in reflective practice, or critical praxis, are an essential ingredient of wise leadership, I believe. There is a very interesting group that is at this very moment conducting a discussion on its listserve about this topic, The Art of Hosting (http://www.artofhosting.org/home/), related to the Open Space folks and the World Cafe folks. I highly recommend checking out their work. There are also many mindfulness centers that follow the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, whose ideas are worth considering here.
Metta! So wonderful to see where your work has taken you. Can't wait to read your dissertation. What a terrific surprise to find you profiled on the website.
Metta, I'm so glad that this important research will be available to a broad scope of leaders and learners. It's encouraging and inspiring to find that simple, universally applicable mindfulness practices can enhance our capacities for deep and wise responsiveness to life. To say that this is timely research for our world is an understatement. Thank you for the courage to pursue meaningful research with broad heartful and ethical implications and applications.
I haven't been as excited about a research project since the subject of positive psychology was popularized. I am intrigued and will be anxious to hear the results. I believe in humans and feel that we're all on a journey to understand ourselves. At age 56, I teach early childhood to high school students and work with an adjacent preschool. Being fairly familar with all of these age categories, and being in contact with my parents who are in their 80's, I am certain that the continual discovery of how we navigate through our lives physically, intellectually, emotionally, and socially will pave the way for revelations that will allow us to forgive ourselves and others, allowing ourselves to grow old gracefully.
I am a grad of the Ed. School ('97), and now own and operate a Yoga and Wellness Studio in West Boxford, MA, where I teach Mindfulness Meditation, as well as bringing mindfulness into the body through the practice of yoga (with children and teens, as well as adults). I would love to read your entire paper! Students report noticing great differences in their lives because of this practice--including more presence, less emotional reactivity, and improved ability to focus. Wonderful that you've brought this to the attention of academe! Namaste, Chris Warner
www.santiyoga.org
Dear Ms. McGarvey,
I'm working in the Department of Cognitive and Education Sciences, Trento, Italy. I'm interested in your study and I would have your email address, if it is possible, because I will be in Harvard in May 2009 and I have some questions for you.
Thank you
I am intrigued by your work and hope your research will have an impact on how we educate students and help move us toward a more peaceful existence. I am a high school teacher and I know that mindfulness has helped me through some of my rougher years. I remember reading Thich Nhat Hanh's book, Being Peace, during one particularly difficult time and found it so helpful. I can say with certainty that I have continued to grow and mature emotionally well beyond the age of 30--in fact, I feel as though it was during my 30s that I was finally ready to mature emotionally. We need to be sharing the concept of mindfulness (and modeling it) with our students as part of their preparation for adulthood. Good luck with your continuing research.
Thanks to all of you who have left comments - it is wonderful to see all of your interest and related efforts. For more information on the study, please see the study website at: www.mindfulleadershipstudy.org. The dissertation will be available through ProQuest/UMI sometime late in 2009 or early 2010 at: www.umi.com/hp/Products/Dissertations.html. Specific questions can be sent to me at: 211 Longfellow Hall, Appian Way, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA 02138. Best Wishes & Happy Holidays.