Deck 10: Mindfulness, Flow, and Spirituality: in Search of Optimal Experiences

Question 1

Mindfulness is often compared to what age old process?

A) The Zen technique of contemplation
B) Cultivating awareness in Buddhist traditions
C) Cultivating health and well-being in the Jewish tradition
D) The Taoist technique of meditation

Answer 1

Cultivating awareness in Buddhist traditions

Question 2

Automaticity of behavior relies on what assumption?

A) Awareness of all that is happening in the present creates more uncertainty.
B) Mindfulness will occur when we become less automatic in our daily behavior.
C) Events do not come with evaluations, we impose them on our experiences.
D) Quick, well-rehearsed behavior is the easiest behavior in which to engage.

Answer 2

Quick, well-rehearsed behavior is the easiest behavior in which to engage.

Question 3

When your authors refer to "analysis paralysis," they are referring to

A) the activation of the autonomic nervous system.
B) the tendency of trying to make decisions about which things deserve attention.
C) the distracting effect of having other people around.
D) becoming incapacitated as a result of mindfulness.

Answer 3

the tendency of trying to make decisions about which things deserve attention.

Question 4

According to Daniel Kahneman a great deal is happening to us at any one moment. Which of the following could be contained in a given moment?

A) A goal and a physical state
B) A time and a place
C) A behavior and a consequence
D) An opportunity and an idea

Question 5

With regard to moment - to - moment searches, mindfulness, flow, and spirituality correspond to which items, respectively?

A) novelty, consistency, and attention to the sacred
B) conscientiousness, flow, and attention to the sacred
C) absorption, novelty, attention to the sacred
D) novelty, absorption, attention to the sacred

Question 6

The psychology of deeper living is concerned with the depths of enjoyment, contentment, and meaningfulness. It can be achieved

A) through engagement with everyday life.
B) by recognizing "peak experiences" when they occur.
C) by most people, but not everyone.
D) through successful resolution of life's conflicts.

Question 7

What was the surprising result of Langer's follow-up with the residential facility eighteen months later?

A) Individuals who received the package of personal hygiene products were much more active than they had been prior to the intervention.
B) Half as many people in the group who returned the mail-in survey, versus the group who did not, reported decreased satisfaction with the facility.
C) Half as many people in the group encouraged to make choices, versus the group encouraged to take advantage of the support staff, had died.
D) None of the individuals who received a pass for an outing with one of the staff took advantage of the opportunity to take a break from the residential facility.

Question 8

How does the mindless pursuit of less than meaningful or unchallenging goals leave people feeling?

A) Happy and Fulfilled
B) Bored but Fulfilled
C) Bored and Empty
D) Empty but Happy

Question 9

From a positive psychology perspective, a day presents twenty thousand opportunities for what?

A) Engagement, overcoming the negative, and pursuing the positive.
B) Love, understanding, and building relationships with others.
C) Hope, overcoming the negative, and moving forward.
D) Optimism, building strong ties, and looking toward the future.

Question 10

According to Langer, a flexible state of mind and openness to novelty are characteristic of what positive psychological construct?

A) Optimism
B) Hope
C) Resilience
D) Mindfulness

Question 11

In their study of mindfulness among cleaning hospital workers, Wrzesniewski and colleagues found that mindfulness on the part of the hospital cleaning teams was associated with

A) lower rates of employee turnover.
B) reduced sick days.
C) improvement of the hospital environment.
D) All of the above were results.

Question 12

What do intentional moment-to-moment searches for optimal experiences provide people?

A) Frustration and Emptiness
B) Peace and Joy
C) Hope and Fulfillment
D) Joy and Fulfillment

Question 13

Amy Wrzesniewski found that a third of the hospital cleaners in a metropolitan medical center considered their work as a "calling" and therefore were quite vigilant in their attempts to keep the hospital sanitary. This behavior is an example of which positive psychological construct?

A) Mindfulness
B) Hope
C) Resilience
D) Optimism

Question 14

What form of currency does Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist who won the 2002 Nobel Prize for economics, value?

A) Coins
B) Time
C) Euros
D) Paper

Question 15

Which of the following is an example of mindfulness?

A) Steadily focusing on an object or idea
B) Passively zoning out to everyday life
C) Actively searching for novelty
D) Readily accepting new people and ideas

Question 16

Ellen Langer, a social psychologist at Harvard, and her colleague Judith Rodin examined the effects of perceived control on older adults in a residential care facility. What intervention did the experimental group receive?

A) A talk focused on daily self care and a package of personal hygiene products
B) A "pep talk" about making their own decisions and a houseplant they could tend
C) A letter from the staff at the facility and a mail-in survey
D) A talk focused on how the staff would help them with daily activities and a pass for an outing

Question 17

Which two famous individual's defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?"

A) Albert Einstein and George Washington
B) Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin
C) George Washington and Bill Clinton
D) Bill Clinton and George Bush

Question 18

Which statement about mindfulness is correct?

A) In Buddhist teachings, mindfulness focuses more on external awareness than on introspection.
B) In Buddhist teaching mindfulness is only one component on the road to true enlightenment.
C) In Westernized ideas of mindfulness, the construct cannot be studied independently of other constructs.
D) In Western society, mindfulness is a natural outcome of industriousness.

Question 19

Drawing novel distinctions requires us to do which of the following?

A) Engage in automatic, repetitious behavior
B) Overcome the desire to reduce uncertainty in daily life
C) Attempt to reduce uncertainty by controlling our surroundings
D) Engage in frequent evaluation of self, others, and situations

Question 20

The more a child attempts to hold a spirited pet still the more it tries to wriggle away. This analogy is a good example of what point?

A) Our desire to reduce uncertainty often leads to more uncertainty.
B) Our desire to hold on to the past often leads to increased anxiety.
C) Our desire to connect with others is often unsuccessful.
D) Our desire to find the good in others is often met with resistance.

Question 21

Acceptance and empathy are qualities that characterize which positive psychological construct?

A) Mindfulness
B) Optimism
C) Hope
D) Flow

Question 22

What form does the deliberative practice of mindfulness often take?

A) Mindfulness journaling
B) Mindfulness meditation
C) Mindfulness education
D) Mindfulness exploration

Question 23

Which of the following describes the concept of mindfulness meditation?

A) Engaging in Eastern style meditation practices to reach a higher spiritual plane
B) Combining meditation with intense focus
C) Making the mind more receptive to one's current situation and internal states
D) Integrating meditation into a physical exercise paradigm

Question 24

Improving mindfulness is related to better spatial abilities, increased ability for awareness, and increased neural plasticity in the brain for

A) men.
B) women.
C) both sexes.
D) Any person ranking high in masculinity, regardless of gender.

Question 25

When will mindfulness occur?

A) When we develop a routine in our daily behavior
B) When we become less discerning in our daily behavior
C) When we promote scholarship in our daily behavior
D) When we become less automatic in our daily behavior

Question 26

Which of the following has NOT been shown to be a benefit of Mindfulness - Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in the treatment of psychiatric disturbances?

A) Reducing the frequency of relapse in depression
B) Decreasing depressive symptoms in bipolar individuals
C) Decreasing symptoms of social phobia
D) All of the above have been shown to be benefits of MBCT

Question 27

Who would describe mindfulness as attending non-judgmentally to all stimuli in the internal and external environments?

A) Researchers
B) Practitioners
C) Teachers
D) Graduate students

Question 28

Events do not come with evaluations; instead we impose them on our experiences. How does mindfulness battle our evaluative nature?

A) It leads us to make fewer unnecessary judgments, particularly negative ones.
B) It encourages us to make quick necessary judgments, particularly positive ones.
C) It encourages us to make quick necessary judgments, particularly negative ones.
D) It leads us to make fewer unnecessary judgments, even positive ones.

Question 29

What is the hallmark of Langer's conceptualization of mindfulness?

A) Increasing our ability to actively search for novelty
B) Increasing our tendency to make evaluations of internal events
C) Reducing our tendency to make evaluations of external events
D) Reducing our ability to make necessary judgments

Question 30

In Bishop's two - component system, current self - regulated attention is to ___________________ as emotional openness is to_________________.

A) current personal experience; the acceptance and appreciation of internal experiences.
B) internal locus of control; external locus of control.
C) the acceptance and appreciation of internal experiences; current personal experience.
D) problem focused coping; emotion focused coping.

Question 31

Langer, Blank, and Chanowitz explored the automaticity of behavior by sending an interdepartmental memorandum to university offices. How did the researchers test for the effects of novelty on behavior?

A) Half of the memos were blank, while the other half were formatted in the usual form for interoffice memos.
B) They formatted half the memos in the usual form, whereas the other half were formatted in a distinctly different manner.
C) They asked that half the memos be returned to the usual place, while the other half were instructed to return their memos to Dr. Langer's office.
D) Half of the memos read "Please call Dr. Langer at ext. 247", whereas the other half demanded that the memo be returned to Dr. Langer in person.

Question 32

In the Langer et al. study, what percentage of memos that were different from the typical office memo were returned?

A) 60%
B) 15%
C) 32%
D) 90%

Question 33

Which of the following is one benefit of mindfulness meditation?

A) Increased spiritual experience
B) Enhanced self-esteem
C) Greater work satisfaction
D) Increased understanding

Question 34

Shapiro, Schwartz, and Bonner tested the effects of mindfulness meditation on 78 premedical/medical students. Which group of students experienced increased levels of empathy and decreased levels of anxiety and depression?

A) The wait-list control group
B) The treatment as usual group
C) The psychoeducational group
D) The meditation group

Question 35

Under what circumstances might it be counterproductive to incorporate some aspects of mindfulness into one's daily life?

A) For persons suffering from mental illness
B) For persons suffering from physical illnesses
C) For persons who are in threatening environments
D) Mindfulness can add value in all of these situations

Question 36

Kabat-Zinn and Skillings examined the effects of an 8-week mindfulness based stress reduction program on stress hardiness and sense of coherence in hospital patients. What were the results of their study?

A) Neither hardiness nor coherence improved over the course of the intervention.
B) Both hardiness and coherence improved over the course of the intervention.
C) Hardiness improved but coherence remained unchanged.
D) Hardiness was unchanged by the intervention but coherence improved.

Question 37

Which of the following statements about mindfulness is true?

A) Mindful adults are not preferred by children.
B) Some components of mindfulness might not be functional in some situations.
C) Being mindful in one's daily life might increase the ability to multitask.
D) Therapists have not yet integrated the concept of mindfulness into their practices.

Question 38

In which of the following ways does mindful meditation contribute to learning?

A) By increasing concentration
B) By learning to be less judgmental
C) By integrating cognition with relaxation
D) By focusing only on positive emotions

Question 39

When cognitive appraisal of the situation occurs in order to modulate the emotional impact of the stimulus,

A) a top - down approach tends to be used by both new users and longer-term users of mindfulness strategies.
B) a bottom - down approach tends to be used by both new users and longer - term users of mindfulness strategies.
C) newer users of mindfulness tend to use a bottom-up approach, while longer-term users tend to use a top-down approach.
D) newer users of mindfulness tend to use a top-down approach, while longer-term users tend to use a bottom - up approach.

Question 40

In the Bishop et. al two-component system of mindfulness, what does emotional openness facilitate?

A) Acceptance and appreciation of all external experiences
B) A reduction in our tendency to make evaluations of external events
C) Acceptance and appreciation of all internal experiences
D) A reduction in our tendency to make evaluations of internal events

Question 41

Which of the following work environments has been studied with regard to increasing the chances of producing flow?

A) police work
B) construction and trades
C) the creative arts
D) restaurants and food industry

Question 42

According to the flow model, experiencing absorption provides intrinsic rewards that encourage which of the following behaviors?

A) Persistence
B) Self-Actualization
C) Mindfulness
D) Engagement

Question 43

In fostering and encouraging mindfulness, some Native Americans traditions have engaged in the practice of ayeli. This refers to

A) a centering technique.
B) a channeling technique.
C) a divergent thinking technique.
D) a conversation thinking technique.

Question 44

How is the quality of an individual's flow state determined?

A) By the amount of work produced during flow
B) By the quality of work produced during flow
C) By the amount of time spent absorbed
D) By the time of day flow is experienced

Question 45

What increases as the challenges and skills required by a task move beyond a person's average levels?

A) Apathy
B) Frustration
C) Intensity
D) Boredom

Question 46

Perceived challenges or opportunities for action that stretch existing personal skills are conditions of what positive psychological construct?

A) Mindfulness
B) Flow
C) Love
D) Engagement

Question 47

Greason and cash well found that higher degrees of mindfulness in counseling psychology trainees predicted higher levels of _________________ in trainees.

A) congruence and empathy
B) self-regulation and self-efficacy
C) self-efficacy and empathy
D) self-efficacy and confidence

Question 48

Heine (1996) studied students skilled in mathematics and found that those who experienced flow in the first part of a math course performed better in the second half. What do the results of this study suggest?

A) Commitment, persistence, and achievement in school are not associated with flow.
B) Commitment, persistence, and achievement are associated with previous experiences of flow.
C) Commitment, persistence, and achievement in math are consistent over time.
D) Regardless of commitment, persistence, or achievement, the experience of flow is consistent over time.

Question 49

John feels like the challenges and opportunities at his new job are "too easy" relative to his skills. According to Csikszentmihalyi, what subjective state is John likely to experience?

A) Flow
B) Boredom
C) Anxiety
D) Frustration

Question 50

What are the characteristics of someone who has an autotelic personality?

A) Someone who does things in order to achieve some later external goal.
B) Someone is intrinsically motivated in high challenge, high skill situations.
C) Someone who is motivated by environmental and cultural considerations.
D) Someone is high in self-efficacy and self-esteem.

Question 51

Which of the following is characteristic of flow?

A) Intense concentration on the future
B) Heightened awareness of those around you
C) Inability to move or speak
D) Distortion of temporal experience

Question 52

According to flow researchers, which of the following is one of the paths to becoming more engaged with daily life?

A) Reducing our tendency to make evaluations of external events that hinder flow.
B) Finding and shaping activities and environments that are more conducive to flow.
C) Increasing our ability to actively search for novel experiences that contribute to flow.
D) Accepting and appreciating all internal experiences that make flow more likely.

Question 53

Which of the following traits are characteristic of people who have an autotelic personality?

A) They have a preference for high action opportunity.
B) They have a preference for high skills situations.
C) They appear to exhibit the stress when in the flow quadrant.
D) All of these are characteristics of the autotelic personality.

Question 54

Regarding the relationship between flow and development, Csikszentmihalyi found that

A) there was a relationship between commitment to talent at adolescence and at age 17.
B) there was a relationship between commitment to talent in childhood and at adolescence.
C) there was a relationship between commitment to talent at age 17 and a career path in the mid-20s.
D) there was no relationship between commitment to talent at adolescence and talent as adults.

Question 55

How would Csikszentmihalyi refer to someone who enjoys life and "generally does things for their own sake?"

A) As an "actualized personality"
B) As an "independent personality"
C) As a "free spirit"
D) As an "autotelic personality"

Question 56

Which research method equips research assistants with programmable watches, phones, or hand-held computers that signal them, at pre-programmed times throughout the day, to complete a measure describing the moment at which they were paged?

A) The Experience Sampling Method
B) The Rochester Interaction Method
C) The Texas Instrument Tracking Method
D) The Daily Observation Method

Question 57

Which of the statements about flow and ethnicity is true?

A) People in Western cultures preferred skill level to be higher than challenge level.
B) Chinese students in Hong Kong preferred skill level to be higher than challenge level.
C) Japanese college students were more similar to Chinese students then to Western college students in their experience of flow.
D) All of the above statements are true.

Question 58

The loss of _________ occurs as flow emerges.

A) self-efficacy
B) self-consciousness
C) self-control
D) self-centeredness

Question 59

What is flow or "full capacity" living thought to be directly linked to?

A) A problem free family life
B) Higher educational attainment
C) Optimal development and functioning
D) Enhanced self-esteem

Question 60

In which of the following situations would an individual most likely experience flow?

A) Playing chess with a typical six-year old
B) Doing yoga with an inexperienced instructor
C) Studying for a test while watching television
D) Playing basketball with someone who has more skill

Question 61

Spirituality and religiosity has been found to be beneficial in dealing with

A) chronic illness.
B) schizophrenia.
C) care-giving of elders.
D) all of the above.

Question 62

Spirituality has important implications for which aspect of human functioning?

A) Marital functioning
B) Adult development
C) Educational attainment
D) Self-esteem

Question 63

Regarding the connection between spirituality and other positive states, researchers found that

A) neutral emotions were predictive of spirituality and religiousness.
B) positive emotions were predictive of spirituality and religiousness.
C) spirituality and religiousness causes people to be happy.
D) spirituality and religiousness creates both mindfulness and flow.

Question 64

Discuss some of the cultural differences in the experience of flow.

Question 65

With regard to the benefits of spirituality, researchers have found that pathways to the sacred may lead to well-being

A) among Christians.
B) among Muslims.
C) among both Christians and Muslims.
D) among both Christians and Muslims who were moderates but not fundamentalists.

Question 66

Outline activities the produce a state of flow for you. How would you propose to measure your experience of flow?

Question 67

What percentage of Americans believe in God?

A) 95%
B) 20%
C) 50%
D) 75%

Question 68

How does the Key School in Indianapolis, Indiana foster flow?

A) By allowing students to actively choose activities related to their own interests
B) By directly teaching students about the principles of flow
C) By creating activities for the students that are easy and uncomplicated
D) By providing ample play time between classes

Question 69

According to your authors, spirituality the may be a particularly useful part of therapeutic treatment among

A) white Americans.
B) people with high socioeconomic status.
C) people with poor physical health.
D) African-Americans and Latinos.
Type: E

Question 70

What do some researchers believe are the true benefits of spirituality in our lives?

A) Purpose and Meaning
B) Joy and Fulfillment
C) Meaning and Intimacy
D) Love and Transcendence

Question 71

What do Peterson and Seligman assert about spirituality?

A) Spirituality is a universal strength of transcendence.
B) Spirituality is an important but nonessential part of human life.
C) Spirituality is a vital part of American society.
D) Spirituality is a cultural fact.

Question 72

Mindfulness is a flexible state of mind - an openness to novelty, a process of actively drawing novel distinctions. What form does the deliberative practice of mindfulness take in your life? Discuss how different cultures might strengthen or restrain the practice of mindfulness.

Question 73

Your book lists 12 characteristics of mindfulness. List and discuss any five of them.

Question 74

Discuss some of the ways of cultivating mindfulness, with particular attention to cultural differences.

Question 75

Discuss which characteristics tend to be associated with higher levels of spiritual commitment, including personality variables, health outcomes, and personal well-being.

Question 76

List some of the health benefits that have been found for individuals who were taught mindfulness techniques.

Question 77

Which of the following is a widely accepted description of spirituality?

A) The "search for the sacred"
B) The "search for the holy grail"
C) The "drive for knowledge and understanding"
D) The "force of life within"

Question 78

The loss of awareness of time well engaged in the Internet is best characterized as

A) an example of flow.
B) being like an addiction.
C) an experience of mindfulness.
D) having all of the above characteristics.