正念训练对共情能力和社会善念的影响

The Effect of Mindfulness Training on Empathy and Social Mindfulness

摘要: 社会善念是指在一个相互依存的情景中，以一种高觉知的状态关注社会交际环境。即体察他人的潜在需求，善意地保护他人选择的需要和权利的行为。这种亲社会行为时常发生在现实的人际互动中，和一般的亲社会行为相比更不易被觉察。正念强调对当下感受的注意与觉知，非批判性地接纳各种情绪和想法，正念训练能提升个体对内外信息的感知，改善对外部环境的消极评价，从而提升个体共情能力，促进亲社会行为的产生。但是，以往关于正念对亲社会影响的研究大多集中于高成本高冲突的亲社会行为，缺少正念对低成本亲社会的影响研究。同时，关于正念对共情能力的提升也存在一些不足。因此，本研究旨在探索正念训练是否可以提高个体的状态共情和社会善念水平，并测量训练前后被试在完成社会善念范式和情感共情范式的行为数据。采用2 (组别：正念组，控制组) × 2 (测量时间：前测，后测)的混合实验设计来探讨为期五天的短期正念训练对社会善念和共情的影响。研究结果表明，经过干预训练后，(1) 训练组在完成情感共情时的反应时显著低于前测；(2) 社会善念后测得分显著高于前测和控制组。以上结果表明，状态层面上，正念训练提高了社会善念和共情行为层面的水平。

Abstract: Social mindfulness refers to paying attention to the social environment in a state of heightened awareness in an interdependent situation, that is, the act of recognizing the potential needs of others and protecting the needs and rights of others to choose in good faith. This kind of prosocial behavior often occurs in real interpersonal interactions and is less detectable than ordinary prosocial behavior. Mindfulness emphasizes attention and awareness of current feelings and non-critical acceptance of various emotions and thoughts. Mindfulness training can improve individuals’ perception of internal and external information, improve their negative evaluation of the external environment, and thus enhance individuals’ empathic ability and promote the generation of prosocial behaviors. However, most of the previous studies on the prosocial effects of mindfulness focused on high-cost and high-conflict prosocial behaviors, but few studies on the effects of mindfulness on low-cost prosocial behaviors. At the same time, there are some shortcomings in the ability of mindfulness to improve empathy. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore whether mindfulness training can improve the level of state empathy and social mindfulness, and to measure the behavioral data of the subjects before and after the training when they complete the social mindfulness paradigm and the affective empathy paradigm. A mixed experimental design of 2 (group: mindfulness group, control group) × 2 (measurement time: pre-test, post-test) was used to investigate the effects of a five-day short-term mindfulness training on social mindfulness and empathy. The results showed that after the intervention training, (1) the response of the training group to complete emotional empathy was significantly lower than that of the pre-test; (2) The score of social mindfulness in post-test was significantly higher than that in pre-test and control group. The above results indicate that mindfulness training improves the level of social mindfulness and empathic behavior at the state level.