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Toward a Mindful Psychological Science: Theory and Application
Journal of Social Issues, Spring, 2000 by Jack Demick
Jack Demick [*]
It is argued that, toward mitigating the "centrifugal forces" (Altman, 1987) currently splintering the field of psychology, Langer's (1989, 1997) theory of mindfulness has the potential to become a unifying framework for the field of psychological science. Toward this end, this article demonstrates the ways in which Langer's work, usually associated with the subfield of social psychology, (a) constitutes a grand theory that advances contemporary developmental theory; (b) has relevance for other basic and applied subfields of psychology (e.g., cognitive, educational, organizational, clinical); and (c) offers practical directives for conceptualizing and treating such social issues as development and remediation of prejudice and discrimination; satisfaction and well-being of adoptive and foster families; and promotion of automobile safety across the lifespan (i.e., the translation of mindless experience into more mindful action).
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Toward mitigating the "centrifugal forces" (Altman, 1987) that are currently splintering the field of psychology, [1] I (e.g., Demick & Andreoletti, 1995; Wapner & Demick, 1989, 1998, 1999, in press) have long been involved in the construction of a holistic, developmental, systems-oriented psychology, based on Werner's (1940/1957) organismic-developmental theory, that has broad applicability to diverse content areas of psychology, including but not limited to child development (see Wapner & Demick, 1998, for an overview). I contend here that, in a similar manner, Langer's (1989, 1997) theory of mindfulness has the potential to become a unifying framework for the field of psychological science. Toward this end, I will attempt to demonstrate the ways in which Langer's corpus of work to date, usually associated with the subfield of social psychology, (a) in my own subfield of developmental psychology, constitutes a grand theory of development; (b) similar to other grand theories (e.g., Piaget, 1970; Vygotsky, 1 978; Werner, 1940/1957), has vast implications for additional basic and applied subfields of psychology (e.g., cognitive, educational, organizational, clinical); and (c) in a more practical manner, offers strong directives for conceptualizing and treating social problems, a prime focus of this journal. Where appropriate, references will be made to the other articles in this issue and to directions for future research.
Theory of Development
Stated most simply, mindfulness (Langer, 1992b) has been defined as a state of conscious awareness characterized by active distinction drawing that leaves the individual open to novelty and sensitive to both context and perspective. In contrast, mindlessness has been conceptualized as a state of mind characterized by an overreliance on past categories and distinctions whereby the individual is context-dependent and oblivious to novel (alternative) aspects of situations (see Langer & Moldoveanu, this issue). Although similar to such psychological concepts as autonomic processing, habit, functional fixedness, and overlearning, mindlessness--or rigid and invariant behavior that occurs with little or no conscious awareness--is different insofar as it may result from only a single exposure to information (e.g., when the information initially appears irrelevant, is provided by an authority, and/or is presented in absolute rather than conditional terms). Further, Langer (1992b) has conceptualized mindful/mindless v ersus automatic! controlled processes as orthogonal in that "one can process information in a controlled but mindless manner, or automatic but mindful" and "related concepts like scripts, set, expectancy, labels, and roles direct behavior, but these too may be enacted mindlessly or mindfully" (p. 289). Finally, Langer (1992b) has also suggested that
mindlessness is not just minimal information processing but may be characterized more accurately as a state of being of the entire organism. One may be mindless with respect to particular content encoded in a single-minded, rigid way and this may have behavioral consequences for the person. In this case, the individual may be mindless with respect to one issue but still mindful of others. One may also be mindful of very little, perhaps even of nothing. The physiological evidence... suggests that when a person may be described as in a more pervasive state of mindlessness, there may be significant physical consequences for that person. (p. 299)
Against this backdrop, Langer and her colleagues (e.g., Langer et al., 1990) have presented the broad brushstrokes of a theory of development. That is, as they have reasoned,
it is only when people are behaving "mindlessly," and thereby are relying on categories that were drawn in the past, that change appears necessarily sequential and endpoints seem fixed. In such a situation, the individual is like a projectile that is moving along a calculable trajectory. However, we feel that a "mindful" mind continually creates categories and thus creates expanded possibilities and that this alteration in the mind influences the state of the body as well. Therefore, we postulate that by virtue of mindful involvement in any process within one's larger lifespan, one becomes less like a projectile propelled along a predetermined trajectory and more like a free-flying bird. If this is so, then the process of aging does not necessarily have a single endpoint and, in principle, development can proceed nonsequentially rather than decrementally as the person ages...we believe it is possible both (1) to move bidirectionally from a given "stage" to any other "stage" without passing through intermedia te ones and (2) to construct any number of new and different stages or states.... This view opens the possibility of positive growth in late adulthood. (p. 116)
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