An investigation of the effectiveness of a brief meditation intervention on positive and negative affect in college students

Past research on meditation and stress reduction has found that meditation may have a positive influence on perceived stress and mood. The present study examined whether participants who heard a short, guided meditation would have higher positive affect and lower negative affect as compared to those who listened to a filler video. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups, one of which was a guided meditation and the other was listening to a recipe tutorial for zucchini bread. Pre-manipulation stress and affect were measured through the Perceived Stress Scale and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Affect was assessed again after the manipulation. The hypothesis was only partially supported by the data. Although positive affect scores went down for everyone, those in the meditation had a smaller decrease in negative mood, as compared to those in the control group. Both groups had increases in negative mood, but were not significantly different from each other. The main limitation of this study was that the Perceived Stress Scale was not conducted post-manipulation, therefore, I was only able to assess pre- and post-manipulation affect. Future research might consider using the Perceived Stress Scale pre- and post-intervention, and utilize a longitudinal design to investigate the effects of meditation over a longer period of time.