Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students.
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- All Subjects: Mindfulness
Description
The health of the planet and its people face considerable challenges; the climate faces threats of irreversible damage while chronic disease and obesity rates continue to rise. Both issues can be attributed in part to humanity’s poor treatment and attitude towards food. Humans throw away much of the nutritious food available, resulting in unhealthful diets and considerable amounts of food waste, leading to harmful greenhouse gas emissions. The current solutions for improving the separate matters of planetary and human health include tradeoffs between the two, despite their interrelatedness. Paradoxically, current research shows that increased fruit and vegetable intake is associated with increased food waste. Current literature has not emphasized a focus on interventions aimed to improve diet quality and food waste simultaneously.Recent research shows that mindfulness can have impacts on human health, such as in relation to chronic pain, mental wellbeing, and self-awareness. Mindful eating specifically has demonstrated improvements in disordered eating behaviors and relationship with food. Yet, no research has been conducted to explore mindful eating in relation to healthful and efficient relationships with food. Therefore, the present study explores mindfulness as a mechanism to improve diet quality and reduce food waste.
The protocol presented in the study, titled Mindful Waste Watchers (MWW), was a 4-week novel virtual program incorporating nutrition education, household food waste reduction education, and mindfulness/mindful eating exercises into each lesson. Entry, exit, and 4-week follow-up surveys, each identical, were distributed to participants to assess diet quality, household food waste habits, mindful eating, mindfulness, and food appreciation, primarily by utilization of validated scales.
The two primary outcomes evaluated in the present article were diet quality and household food waste behaviors. It was found that the intervention did not produce significant effects for either parameter, suggesting that the protocol was not feasible. However, a significant positive effect was found for food appreciation, a factor that may show promise in future research. While no significant effects were found for the primary outcomes, the findings of this study can be considered in future research targeted towards discovering effective interventions to improve diet quality and reduce household food waste.
ContributorsMoeller, Margaret Elizabeth (Author) / Wharton, Christopher (Thesis advisor) / DeWeese, Robin (Committee member) / Kniskern, Megan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024
Description
Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face heightened risk of co-occurring psychiatric conditions, especially depression and anxiety disorders, which contribute to seven-fold higher suicide rates than the general population. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an 8-week meditation intervention centered around training continuous redirection of attention toward present moment experience, and has been shown to improve mental health in autistic adults. However, the underlying therapeutic neural mechanisms and whether behavioral and brain changes are mindfulness-specific have yet to be elucidated. In this randomized clinical trial, I utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) to characterize fMRI functional activity (Study 1) and connectivity (Study 2) and EEG neurophysiological (Study 3) changes between MBSR and a social support/relaxation education (SE) active control group. Study 1 revealed an MBSR-specific increase in the midcingulate cortex fMRI blood oxygen level dependent signal which was associated with reduced depression. Study 2 identified nonspecific intervention improvements in depression, anxiety, and autistic, and MBSR-specific improvements in the mindfulness trait ‘nonjudgment toward experience’ and in the executive functioning domain of working memory. MBSR-specific decreases in insula-thalamus and frontal pole-posterior cingulate functional connectivity was associated with improvements in anxiety, mindfulness traits, and working memory abilities. Both MBSR and SE groups showed decreased amygdala-sensorimotor and frontal pole-insula connectivity which correlated with reduced depression. Study 3 consisted of an EEG spectral power analysis at high-frequency brainwaves associated with default mode network (DMN) activity. Results showed MBSR-specific and nonspecific decreases in beta- and gamma-band power, with effects being generally more robust in the MBSR group; additionally, MBSR-specific decreases in posterior gamma correlated with anxiolytic effects. Collectively, these studies suggest: 1) social support is sufficient for improvements in depression, anxiety, and autistic traits; 2) MBSR provides additional benefits related to mindfulness traits and working memory; and 3) distinct and shared neural mechanisms of mindfulness training in adults with ASD, implicating the salience and default mode networks and high-frequency neurophysiology. Findings bear relevance to the development of personalized medicine approaches for psychiatric co-morbidity in ASD, provide putative targets for neurostimulation research, and warrant replication and extension using advanced multimodal imaging approaches.
ContributorsPagni, Broc (Author) / Braden, B. Blair (Thesis advisor) / Newbern, Jason (Thesis advisor) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Research on self-regulatory variables like mindfulness and effortful control proposes strong links with physical and mental health outcomes across the lifespan, from childhood and adolescence to adulthood and old age. One pathway by which self-regulation may confer health benefits is through individual differences in reports of and emotional responses to daily negative and positive events. Mindfulness is broadly defined as non-reactivity to inner experiences, while effortful control is broadly defined as attentional and behavioral regulation. Mindfulness and effortful control have both been conceptualized to exert their beneficial effects on development through their influence on exposure/engagement and emotional reactivity/responsiveness to both negative and positive events, yet few empirical studies have tested this claim using daily-diary designs, a research methodology that permits for examining this process. With a sample of community-dwelling adults (n=191), this thesis examined whether dispositional mindfulness (i.e., non-reactivity of inner experience) and effortful control (i.e., attention and behavioral regulation) modulate reports of and affective reactivity/responsiveness to daily negative and positive events across 30 days. Results showed that mindfulness and effortful control were each associated with reduced exposure to daily stressors but not positive events. They also showed that mindfulness and effortful control, respectively, predicted smaller decreases in negative affect and smaller increases in positive affect on days that positive events occurred. Overall, these findings offer insight into how these self-regulatory factors operate in the context of middle-aged adults’ everyday life.
ContributorsCastro, Saul (Author) / Infurna, Frank (Thesis advisor) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018