concept

nonattachment

Also known as: non-attachment

Facts (13)

Sources

Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART) frontiersin.org Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 13 facts

claimThe S-ART framework suggests that decentering and non-attachment play a significant role in practice effects and the development of meta-awareness.

claimDispositional factors such as mindfulness, non-attachment, and compassion lead to increased diffuse attention to the periphery without improving iconic perceptual memory traces to the target focus of an 8-item array.

measurementA pilot study using an iconic memory task (displaying eight letters for 30 ms with a target identification window of 1000 ms) found that dispositional mindfulness, non-attachment, and compassion in advanced meditators were positively correlated with the ability to identify a letter adjacent to the correct target in the larger array, rather than accuracy of the target itself.

claimDecentering and non-attachment are psychological processes that support equanimity by decoupling the sensory and affective components of a stressor.

claimLaboratory studies have not yet identified biological correlates for the psychological constructs of decentering and non-attachment.

referenceThe paper 'A scale to measure nonattachment: a buddhist complement to western research on attachment and adaptive functioning' was published in the Journal of Personality Assessment in 2010 (Volume 92, pages 116–127).

claimThe psychological processes of decentering and non-attachment reduce sympathetic tone and suppress hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis-mediated mobilization.

claimThe S-ART framework identifies intention and motivation, attention regulation, emotion regulation, extinction and reconsolidation, prosociality, non-attachment, and decentering as supporting neuropsychological mechanisms.

referenceNon-attachment, or virāga in Sanskrit, is defined as the realization of the impermanence of all 'thing-like' objects, including the self, and is described as a release from mental fixations (Sahdra et al., 2010).

claimThe S-ART (Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence) framework proposes six neurocognitive component mechanisms—intention and motivation, attention and emotion regulation, extinction and reconsolidation, prosociality, non-attachment, and de-centering—that are integrated and strengthened through intentional mental strategies to modulate networks of self-processing and reduce bias.

referenceThe S-ART (Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence) framework identifies six component mechanisms underlying the practice and cultivation of mindfulness: intention and motivation, attention regulation, emotion regulation, memory extinction and reconsolidation, prosociality, and non-attachment and de-centering.

claimThe transition from novice to advanced meditation practitioner may be driven by the development of psychological processes such as non-attachment, de-centering, a non-conscious shift in affect-biased attention, and the development of meta-awareness.

claimMindfulness-based practices provide insight that thoughts are subjective and transient, which facilitates non-attachment and improves life satisfaction, well-being, and interpersonal functioning, as noted by Safran and Segal (1990) and Sahdra et al. (2010).