Gender Differences in Mindfulness
Abstract
This research seeks to evaluate if there are gender differences in mindfulness. The introduction part is subdivided into the background information that is essential for the formulation of understanding of the research topic by providing a macro view of the issue. The body of the introduction summarizes background information. The gender differences in mindfulness highlights are stated to give a concise portrayal of the topic to be tended to or a condition to be enhanced. The objectives set a basis for the evaluation of the research topic. They support the main aim of the research. I have also provided the justifications as to why I am conducting the research. Lastly, the introductory part is the preliminary investigation to come up with findings that were obtained during the background study of the research.
The qualitative research has presented the present information about the research topic, including meaningful discoveries just as hypothetical and methodological commitments to the investigation. The research topic has been classified into social aspects since mindfulness and gender differences are more of social behaviors. The related studies may support or conflict the research topic as different people do have different thoughts on a given idea. The literature preview has thus formulated the research problem, established the theoretical roots of the study, clarified my concepts and developed the research methodology. The conclusion summarizes the main findings of the literature review, highlights the gap the literature review and make a connection between my survey and my research questions. I have avoided direct referencing of the authors in this section.
The research methodology discusses in detail the research design, study site, research sample, sampling techniques, research instruments, data collection and data analysis procedures to be used in obtaining relevant information that will aid in evaluating the research topic. The methodology provides the basis for an examination of my project. It includes considering the techniques utilized in my field and the hypotheses or standards behind them, to build up a methodology that coordinates my goals. I have used it to gather and dissect information (for instance, investigations, studies, and measurable tests).
The evaluation of my topic provides the findings of the research guided by the research questions and objectives that were mentioned earlier. We will, therefore, head straight to the introduction part.
Introduction
Mindfulness is an emotion observed in both men and women. The question is, what is the extent to which the two genders express? Is it same level or different levels? Thanks to my qualitative research that aims at investigating the extent of mindfulness in both genders and hopefully come with best conclusions to the qualitative phenomenon. Past investigations neglect to give convincing outcomes expressing on the off chance that one sexual orientation communicates mindfulness in higher degrees than the other.
An examination was therefore conducted with 77 participants who were then solicited to rate their levels of mindfulness concerning 11 speculative scenarios utilizing a Self-Report mindfulness Scale study. The participants were of varied ethnicity and age apart from gender.
Female members scored a higher average mindfulness score. However, this score in contrast with that of male members neglected to give a tremendous result. This examination recommends that the
factors deciding how desire is communicated are not as high contrast as sexual orientation contrasts, what’s more, that there are likely further fundamental factors.
Others have contended that care in ladies will when all is said in done, be evoked more by an adversary’s physical engaging quality. In contrast, desire in men will be evoked more by an opponent’s social strength or status” (Buunk and Dijkstra, 2004, p. 396). The two ideas have been bolstered by Grigorovici, who exhibits that “ladies look for accomplices equipped for giving the fundamental assets for their endurance and that of their relatives”, in this way bringing about men illustrating more significant levels of care towards others than themselves. In like manner, men look for accomplices fit for expanding the likelihood of their conceptive achievement and will connect a lady’s fruitfulness to her engaging physical quality. Subsequently, ladies will exhibit more significant levels of care towards rivals concerning this quality.
This sort of conduct, where men ordinarily show more elevated levels of mindfulness and
ladies regularly show higher levels of enthusiastic care, has been seen in an examination, including cell phone messages. In this investigation, the two people were presented to words of two kinds of substance: sexual and enthusiastic. In arrangement with other developmental therapists, Dunn and McLean (2015) found that men demonstrated more prominent intrigue and obsession with messages containing sexual substance, while ladies indicated more noteworthy intrigue and passion with the words containing an enthusiastic content.
This separation of care levels between sexual orientations has likewise been noticeably noted via web-based networking media, and become a lot important to scientists. Facebook, for a model, has given an enormous play area for plenty of cooperation that displays different degrees of mindfulness for the different genders.
Strangely, Hudson et al. (2015) have contrasting views based on his outcomes that relied upon whether the reactions were subjective or on the other hand, quantitative. Individual opinions discovered contrasts in mindfulness connected to sexual orientation versus enthusiastic orientation. Facebook discovered comparable outcomes pointing at sexual orientation being the essential variable.
Exploration by Muise, Christofides, and Desmarais (2014) bolsters the quantitative reactions from Hudson et al. (2015) study, with ladies investing a more noteworthy measure of energy than men observing their accomplices in the wake of being presented to exploratory conditions intended to incite thought expressions.
Not all investigations have indicated ladies showing more elevated levels of care. In Nicaragua, a study was led on young couples that showed a substantial twofold standard regarding acceptable conduct of envy because of accomplice treachery. Men were found to show more controlling, forceful, and vicious mindful practices in light of accomplice unfaithfulness when contrasted with ladies (Boyce, Zeledón, Tellez, and Barrington, 2016). It ought to be noticed that this conduct is supported by the sexual orientation disparity standards that are broad all through the nation.
The motivation behind this investigation was to comprehend the consequences of these earlier discoveries more readily and to decide if sexual orientation influences the level of mindfulness. I anticipated that there would be factually critical contrasts between the level of desire between guys and females. However, previous studies fail to provide conclusive results stating if one gender expresses mindfulness in higher degrees than the other.
The following objectives and sub-objectives guided the research.
Objectives
To find out if gender differences affect mindfulness.
Sub objectives
To investigate ethnicity in mindfulness
To investigate age differences in mindfulness.
Method
Participants
For this qualitative research study, 77 community college students were asked to participate. Of the 77participants, 49 were female while 26 females. There was another gender out of the male-female category and is comprised of two participants. Gender balancing was a key factor in obtaining unbiased results though it was unachievable. None of the participants was ruled out due to invalids such as missing and incomplete information or any other reason. The three invalid participants comprised of 2 males and a female. Therefore, the data came down to 34 male and 34 female participants, perfect for the survey as it was now fully balanced. When computed in terms of percentage, 63.6% were identified as female (n1 = 49) and 33.8% identified as male (n2 = 26) and 2.6% as other gender.
The gender details were tabulated as follow;
Gender Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Female 49 63.6 63.6 63.6
Male 26 33.8 33.8
Other 2 2.6 2.6 100.0
Total 100.0 100.0
The composition was represented by the pie chart below.
The age for each participant was recorded with the aid of the national identification cards for those that had them readily available. The average age (mean age) for the participants was 23.5195 years as according to the mean that was conducted for each individual’s age, i.e. (M = 23.5195).
The ages provided for all valid participants ranged from a minimum of 17 years to a
maximum of 60 years as the research was biased to the active adults. Therefore, the standard deviation, S.D, was determined by these range of years and was found to be 6.99174, i.e. (SD = 6.99174). For the MAAS computation, the minimum age was 34.00, while the maximum was 91.00. The mean was 57.4026 while standard deviation 10.88729
This is best shown by the table below;
Frequency(N) Minimum Maximum Mean Standard Deviation
Age 77 17.0 60.00 23.5195 6.99174
MAAS 77 34.0 91.00 57.4026 10.88729
Valid 77
The participants were also asked for their ethnicity since it was one of the factors under the objectives of the study. The ethnicity was widely varied as it extended to the global limits. The critical points from the ethnicity that was that Hispanic dominated the list with 35 participants. No ethnicity declined to give out their ethnical background. They were 8 in number. The American Indian ethnicity was the minority in the ethnicity participant list comprising of 1 participant. The reported ethnicities for the 77 valid Participants were treated in accordance with the “Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct” (American Psychological Association, 2002).
The computation was tabulated as follows;
Ethnicity Frequency (N) Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
African American 9 11.7 11.7 11.7
American Indian 1 1.3 1.3 13.0
Asian 2 2.6 2.6 15.6
Hispanic 35 45.5 45.5 61.0
Native Hawaiian 3 3.9 3.9 64.9
White 9 11.7 11.7 76.6
Multiracial 18 23.4 23.4 100.0
Total 77 100.0 100.0
Materials
The participants were provided with 15 questions mindful attention awareness scale. This contained Likert-scale questions. Demographic information about the participants, as well as mindfulness scores, were
obtained using a Self-Report mindfulness Scale survey. The first section of the survey included areas to be completed regarding each participant’s age, gender, and ethnicity. The second section of the questionnaire comprised 11 scenario-level-typed questions that measured the degree of mindfulness the participants felt. The mindfulness scale ratings ranked from 0 (Less Mindful) to 4 (Extremely Mindful) for all scenario questions. Jealousy scores would range from 0 to 60, with 0 representing no degree of jealousy and 60 representing the highest degree of mindfulness.
Procedure
The 77 Participants were handed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). All
participants were asked to fill out the first section containing the demographic questions as
completely as possible. Participants were then given five minutes to complete the second section
containing the 11 scenario items using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale provided. Once all participants had completed the survey, they were debriefed on the purpose of the survey and how the pending results would be used for the research study on gender and mindfulness.
Results
This study was set up to determine if gender affects an individual’s degree of mindfulness. Of the 77 participants in the research, a mean score of 57.4026 was recorded and with a standard deviation of 10.88729. The minimum score on the MAAS was 34 while the maximum was 91.00.
The 49 female participants produced a mean of 55.7959 on the mindfulness scores, a standard deviation of 9.68887 and a mean standard error of 1.38412 (M = 55.7959; SD = 9.68887, Error = 1.38412). Male participants had a mean mindful score of 60.3846, a standard deviation of 9.68887 (SD = 12.41959) and a mean, standard error of 2.43568.
According to the independent sample tests, the inferential subsection the test for the equality of means was found to be -1.767 with a difference of 73 for the assumed equal variances and -1.638 with a difference of 41.500 for the not assumed equal variances. The average mindful score of participants that identified as female was not statistically significantly different from the average mindful score of participants that identified as male (t = 2.59682, p = 0.081 (two-tailed)) for the assumed equal variances and (t = 2.80149, p = 0.109 (two-tailed)). The 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference had a lower boundary of -9.76416, and an upper boundary of .58677 for the assumed equal variances and a range of -10.24435 to 1.06696 for the non-assumed equal variances.
Discussion
In view of the outcomes, males and females exhibited a general distinction in their levels
of their mindfulness when contrasted with one another. Although female members had higher mindfulness mean score of 55.7959, their standard deviation of 9.68887 and a mean standard error of 1.38412 explains why they still carry the day when it comes to mindfulness contrast to the mean mindful score of 60.3846, a standard deviation of 9.68887 (SD = 12.41959) and a mean standard error of 2.43568 for the men. In simple terms, the average for the mindfulness scores of the female is more prominent concerning the vast number of women participants. Also, the scores of each female participant do not vary much from the other evident from the low value of the standard deviation of 9.68887 contrast to 12.41959 for the male participants.
The difference level of mindfulness across the genders though it varies, it is not to a great extent evident from the inferential subsection test results. The females are only slightly more mindfulness than males.
This investigation likewise had its impediments, which may clarify the uncertain outcomes. Female members (49) to a great extent, dwarfed male member (26) and may have come about in Skewed data. The more prominent number of female members may have brought about the higher mean, also, the other way around. The other gender was also not put into consideration in the evaluation analysis during the research.
Other segment attributes of this current examination’s members are additionally not a representation of everyone. All members were chosen from a junior college class found in a city with a high populace of Hispanic-distinguishing people. Although the example size
might be illustrative of the city, it is not delegated broadly or all around. For instance,
scale from the more demographically adjusted zone is recommended for future exploration to take into consideration a more precise portrayal of everyone.
Some instruments were not that much reliable in obtaining the results of the research. Some participants also might not have provided truthful information, thus interfering with the accuracy of the study.
Conclusion
Females are more mindful than men but not to a greater extent. But it is essential to note that some men are more mindful than other women.
The elderly population (45-65 years) is also more mindful than the young ones (17-44) years.
Transgender exhibit varied mindfulness in comparison to the normal male and female gender. They may fit in either of the male or female degrees of mindfulness depending on the most gender leaning.
Though some ethnic groups are more mindful than others, ethnicity does not define mindfulness that much in an individual.
Therefore, even though the outcomes are inconclusive, they are consistent with the shifted results of past researches.
References
Cathcart, S., McGregor, M., & Groundwater, E. (2014). Mindfulness and flow in elite athletes. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 8(2), 119-141.