Abstract

From what the human mind can perceive and articulate with language, consciousness appears to consist of awareness and attention, with awareness being a continual background moni-toring process and attention being a function of focusing awareness on a limited range of experience to heighten sen-sitivity to that experience (Westen, 1999). All humans, except those with certain types of brain damage, have an inherent capacity to attend to and be aware of ongoing experience. However, there is substantial variability in these faculties of consciousness both within and between individuals. Because some degree of consciousness is carried with us wherever we go, it is a process that has often been taken for granted and understudied in Western science. However, consciousness and its relationship to the human condition have recently blossomed as a new frontier in Western science. More spe-cifically, interest has developed regarding the human capacity for enhanced attention to and awareness of life’s experiences, which has been termed trait mindfulness. Trait mindfulness, also referred to in some literature as day-to-day mindfulness or dispositional mindfulness, is defined by Brown and Ryan (2003) as an inherent state of consciousness varying between and within humans that is characterized by the presence or absence of attention to or awareness of what is occurring in present experience. Using a series of psychometric development studies, Brown and Ryan (2003) operationalized trait mindfulness by the 15-item unidimensional Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). In the Brown study, the MAAS had good internal consistency (α ≥.82) and 4-week test–retest reliability (inter-class r =.81) and was positively correlated with number of years of meditation practice (r =.36, p <.05), which is a specific technique aiming to increase mindfulness. MAAS scores were also significantly higher among meditation prac-titioners relative to nonpractitioners (Cohen’s d =.50; Brown