According to Personality Systems Interaction theory, there are two types of people: action-oriented types who are good at self-regulating affect, and state-oriented types who tend to get stuck in their moods. State-oriented types make up about 50% of the general population and have trouble staying aligned with their needs and goals when affectively disturbed.

Recent research suggests that mindfulness practice may not help state-oriented types. For example, mindfulness practice tends to make state-oriented types more inconsistent in how they evaluate their own preferences. However, social support may buffer this self-alienation, as state-oriented types often rely on others to regulate their mood. 

Thakur and Baumann [Motivation and Emotion] conducted two studies: the first aimed to replicate the prior finding that mindfulness induction increases self-alienation in state-oriented types, and the second testing whether invoking social support could buffer mindfulness-induced self-alienation.

In the first study, the researchers recruited 238 German adults (average age=32 years; 66% female) who were asked to rate the attractiveness of 12 Chinese characters. They then completed questionnaires assessing action versus state orientation. The orientation scale contained items such as “When I have lost something that is very valuable to me and I can’t find it anywhere, (A) I have a hard time concentrating on something else or (B) I put it out of my mind after a little while.” Choosing option A indicates a state-oriented tendency, while option B indicates an action-oriented style. Next, participants were asked to re-rate the same 12 Chinese characters and rate a new set of 12 characters. 

Participants were then randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a mindfulness group, a social mindfulness group, or a control group. The mindfulness group listened to a 5-minute guided recording focused on mindful attention to the breath and being in the present moment. The social mindfulness group listened to the same meditation but were instructed to imagine they were meditating alongside a friend or loved one. The control group listened to a neutral audio on the topic of attention from a psychology textbook. Participants then reported state mindfulness again and re-evaluated the second set of Chinese characters. 

The researchers calculated 1) the consistency between the ratings and re-ratings of the first set of Chinese characters and 2) the consistency between ratings and re-ratings of the second set of characters. The first set of ratings and re-ratings occurred before the interventions, and the second set of ratings and re-ratings were separated by the mindfulness, social mindfulness, or control intervention. The change in the consistency across the two rating tasks served as an indirect measure of self-alienation.

The results showed the control group had no rating inconsistency among action-oriented or state-oriented participants. In the mindfulness group, action-oriented types maintained consistent rating, but state-oriented types significantly decreased in rating consistency. In the social mindfulness group, both types maintained rating consistency.

Furthermore, state-oriented participants in the mindfulness condition showed significantly lower consistency than their counterparts in the control and social mindfulness conditions. No significant differences were found between state-oriented participants in the control and social mindfulness groups.

Study 2 replicated the first study with a larger sample of 300 participants (mean age=27 years; 83% female), a different method of prompting social support. In this second study, the social mindfulness group included instructions to write about personal similarities to a close friend before imagining themselves meditating with them.

The results mirrored those of the first study: mindfulness practice was associated with reduced consistency only among state-oriented types. Action-oriented types and the control and social mindfulness groups maintained consistency in their ratings. Once again, state-oriented participants in the mindfulness condition were significantly less consistent than state-oriented participants in the other two groups or any of the action-oriented participants.

These studies suggest that brief mindfulness practice can make state-oriented individuals more inconsistent in self-assessments, indicating increased self-alienation. This effect appears to be reduced when a social contact is invoked during practice.

The authors argue that mindfulness may have unintended effects for state-oriented individuals, especially when practiced alone. However, this conclusion rests on the assumption that inconsistency in rating visual stimuli reflects deeper disruptions in self-alignment and is limited by reliance on a single measure.

Reference:

Thakur, N., & Baumann, N. (2025). You make it work for me: Priming social support reduces alienating effects of short mindfulness meditation among poor self-regulators. Motivation and Emotion. 

Link to study