Stop the Spin: The Role of Mindfulness Practices in Reducing Affect Spin

DOI

Affect spin refers to shifts in emotional states over time; it captures people’s reactivity to affective events. Recent evidence suggests that affect spin has costs for both organizations and for employees, yet little is known about the antecedents of affect spin and possibilities to reduce it. The present study builds on existing research by examining mindfulness as an antecedent of affect spin in employees. Specifically, we hypothesized that mindfulness practice reduces affect spin over time. We also expected that levels of affect spin are positively related to emotional exhaustion and negatively to job satisfaction, both at the between- and the within-person level of analysis. Finally, we hypothesized that decreases in affect spin due to mindfulness practice are associated with lower levels of emotional exhaustion and higher levels of job satisfaction. To examine trajectories of affect spin over time, we tested our hypotheses in a randomized controlled mindfulness intervention study (with a wait-list control group; total N = 173 individuals) using experience sampling methods over the course of a month. Results revealed that mindfulness practice led to gradual decreases in affect spin over the course of the study. As expected, between-person differences in affect spin were positively related to emotional exhaustion and negatively to job satisfaction. However, affect spin was not related to well-being outcomes at the within-person level and decreases in affect spin over time were also not associated with levels of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.34894/0DQ5TU
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000332
Metadata Access https://dataverse.nl/oai?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_datacite&identifier=doi:10.34894/0DQ5TU
Provenance
Creator Hülsheger, Ute R. ORCID logo; Tao, Yang; Bono, Joyce E. ORCID logo; Goh, Zen ORCID logo; Ilies, Remus (ORCID: 0000-0001-9453-895X)
Publisher DataverseNL
Contributor faculty data manager FPN; Hülsheger, Ute R.
Publication Year 2022
Rights info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess
OpenAccess false
Contact faculty data manager FPN (Maastricht University); Hülsheger, Ute R. (Maastricht University)
Representation
Resource Type Dataset
Format application/zip
Size 2627384
Version 1.0
Discipline Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Aquaculture; Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Aquaculture and Veterinary Medicine; Life Sciences; Social Sciences; Social and Behavioural Sciences; Soil Sciences