The effects of mindfulness meditation vs progressive relaxation training on stress egocentrism anger and impulsiveness among inmates

The effects of training in Mindfulness Meditation (MM) for the treatment of angry, aggressive inmates was evaluated by comparing MM to a treatment control group receiving training in Progressive Relaxation Training (PRT). The sample consisted of 31 male inmates ranging in age from 17 to 46. All of the subjects had a history of alcohol abuse and aggression. Both groups received six two hour treatment sessions over the course of approximately one month. A pre-post two groups design was used to evaluate inmates randomly assigned to the two treatment conditions.;Both groups were assessed prior to and following training with the following measures: Egocentrism measured by use of the Self-Focused Sentence Completion; anger measured by use of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory; and impulsivity measured by use of the Porteus Maze Test. A measure of stress reactivity was obtained post-test only by use of a device called the Salivette. Inmates were exposed to a mild stressor (mental arithmetic). Basal and post-stressor saliva samples were collected and assayed for the stress hormone cortisol.;Multiple analyses of variance revealed that small reductions in self-reported anger in the PRT and MM conditions were not significantly different from each other. No significant change in impulsivity was found for either group. By comparing paired scores at different time points, a significant within group post-stressor reduction in cortisol levels was found in the PRT group only (20 vs. 40 min, p =.026, w...