Mindfulness & Temptation
20th March 2015
Written by Donovan Barrett (Third Year Psychology Student at Solent University and Work Placement Volunteer at Psychology Chartered)
In the reminiscence of the Christmas period and the relaxed attitude adopted by a number of us to consume a variety of food and drink; yet before those frequent chocolate indulgences brought about by Easter – some individuals (religious or not) decide to give something up for lent in the middle of these two Western holidays.
More than 8 days in and I’m sure for some of those people who are going without a certain item, temptations are at a high. Personally I’ve never taken part in lent but with social media generating an impressive 249,285 tweets in relation to what the user was surrendering in the week of March 2nd during last year’s lent, it’s interesting to look at the factors that play a role in helping individuals beat their craving (in case you’re wondering, school was listed as the top sacrifice! (The full list can be found here openbible.info/labs/lent-tracker/2014).
Mistakable for my own priorities, food related tweets were the most frequent with a mere 62,453 mentions, resulting in methods to relieve this desire to be of keen interest for numerous psychologists. In 2013 researchers Kim Jenkins and Katy Tapper looked at different Mindfulness-based therapies as strategies to help individuals resist temptation to chocolate, the two strategies investigated were cognitive defusion and acceptance. Mindfulness is a concept which has deep origins in Buddhism but has recently been incorporated in to some cognitive behavioural therapies; it focuses on self-awareness of the body in both physical and mental processes, such as paying attention to the present moment, and being aware of your breathing for example. More specifically cognitive defusion encourages individuals to notice thoughts instead of being caught up in them and acceptance is a strategy which promotes an individual to adopt greater awareness and openness towards all experiences.
The study concluded that the participants who were taught cognitive defusion ate significantly less chocolate compared to the group who underwent acceptance training, highlighting interest thought mechanisms which allow that persuasive bar of Dairy Milk to have the edge over our willpower. Jenkins and Tapper’s work explains that these cravings are created by automatic links between specific thoughts, similar to how even after a gorgeous meal you could do with something sweet to polish it off. By defusing these types of thoughts, it stopped some participants acting upon their temptations. Whereas those in the acceptance condition who were told being in touch with your thoughts can help you manage your feelings better, in reality, having to visualise their favourite chocolate as part of the treatment may have been the trigger and for their impulses in the first instances.
Whether you’re taking part in lent resulting some defusing to do of your own, or just sitting back and watching the Facebook posts unfold, for me this study has wider social and cognitive implications. For example, other studies have reported higher levels of cravings after acceptance training but in Jenkins and Tapper’s findings this was not reflected since there was no significant increase in chocolate consumption relative to the control group, which I think speaks volumes for our capacity to exercise self-control towards a number of temptations we might have when they are put right in front of us; be it having just one cigarette since the day has been particularly stressful, or finishing that campaign on Call of Duty when you know you should be working.