Date of Award

2016

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

R. Brian Giesler

Abstract

Researchers have suggested a link between mindfulness meditation and increased creativity. Specifically, meditation seems to promote improved divergent thinking (Colzato et al., 2012). I sought to better understand mindfulness meditation and creativity by addressing the differential effects of brief meditation on divergent and convergent thinking, as well as investigating decreased anxiety and increased executive control as potential mechanistic mediators of this relationship. In a laboratory experiment 40 Butler University undergraduate students participated in either a sham or mindfulness meditation exercise, followed by several creativity assessments as well as measures of anxiety and executive control. The findings show that mindfulness meditation was significantly related to improved performance on a divergent thinking task, but the results regarding the proposed mechanisms were inconclusive, leaving open questions regarding what exactly is mediating this relationship.

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