Examining mindfulness and psychological inflexibility within the framework of Big Five personality

5HTT is associated with the phenotype psychological flexibility: results from a randomized clinical trial

Adaption to changing environments is evolutionarily advantageous. Studies that link genetic and phenotypic expression of flexible adjustment to one's context are largely lacking. In this study, we tested the importance of psychological flexibility, or goal-related context sensitivity, in an interaction between psychotherapy outcome for panic disorder with agoraphobia (PD/AG) and a genetic polymorphism. Given the established role of the 5HTT-LPR polymorphism in behavioral flexibility, we tested whether this polymorphism (short group vs. long group) impacted therapy response as a function of various endophenotypes (i.e., psychological flexibility, panic, agoraphobic avoidance, and anxiety sensitivity). Patients with PD/AG were recruited from a large multicenter randomized controlled clinical trial on cognitive-behavioral therapy. Pre- to post-treatment changes by 5HTT polymorphism were analyzed. 5HTT polymorphism status differentiated pre- to post-treatment changes in the endophenotype psychological flexibility (effect size difference d = 0.4, p < 0.05), but none of the specific symptom-related endophenotypes consistently for both the intent-to-treat sample (n = 228) and the treatment completers (n = 194). Based on the consistency of these findings with existing theory on behavioral flexibility, the specificity of the results across phenotypes, and the consistency of results across analyses (i.e., completer and intent to treat), we conclude that 5HTT polymorphism and the endophenotype psychological flexibility are important variables for the treatment of PD/AG. The endophenotype psychological flexibility may help bridge genetic and psychological literatures. Despite the limitation of the post hoc nature of these analyses, further study is clearly warranted.

Body image flexibility moderates the association between disordered eating cognition and disordered eating behavior in a non-clinical sample of women: a cross-sectional investigation

Body image flexibility, a regulation process of openly and freely experiencing disordered eating thoughts and body dissatisfaction, has been found to be a buffering factor against disordered eating symptomatology. The present cross-sectional study investigates whether body image flexibility accounts for disordered eating behavior above and beyond disordered eating cognition, mindfulness, and psychological inflexibility in a sample of nonclinical women, and whether body image flexibility moderates the associations between these correlates and disordered eating behavior. Participants were 421 women, age 21±5.3 years old on average, who completed a web-based survey that included the self-report measures of interest. Results demonstrate the incremental effects of body image flexibility on disordered eating behavior above and beyond disordered eating cognition, mindfulness, and psychological inflexibility. Women with greater body image flexibility endorse disordered eating behavior less so than those with lower body image flexibility. Body image flexibility moderates the association between disordered eating cognition and disordered eating behavior; for women with greater body image flexibility, disordered eating cognition is not positively associated with disordered eating behavior.

Comparing Japanese College Students’ and U.S. College Students’ Disordered Eating, Distress, and Psychological Inflexibility

The present study investigated whether psychological inflexibility is related to disordered eating in Japanese undergraduate students and compared the strength and pattern of the associations with effects in a sample of undergraduate students from the United States. Data from 200 Japanese ( nfemale = 100) and 481 U.S. ( nfemale = 380) college students were used. Contrary to prediction, female gender and higher body mass index (BMI), but not psychological inflexibility, were uniquely related to higher levels of disordered eating while controlling for age and psychological distress in the Japanese group. In the U.S. group, greater psychological inflexibility was the only variable that was uniquely related to higher levels of disordered eating after controlling for other study variables. Our findings suggest that psychological inflexibility may not be a useful concept for understanding disordered eating within Japanese college students.