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Article Review

PSYC 335

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Article Review

For this assignment, I read an article from the journal, Psychology of Consciousness

titled Depression, Anxiety, and Stress and the Distinction Between Intentional and Unintentional

Mind Wandering. A study was conducted to see if there was a correlation of people whose mind

wanders and lower psychological well-being. Research revealed that people whose mind tends

to wander more frequently also experience increased negative affect and lower psychological

well-being (Deng & Tang, 2014).

This study broke down mind wandering into two categories, people who intentionally let

their mind wander and people who unintentionally have their mind wander. Participants for this

study came from two separate nonclinical samples of undergraduate psychology students. Data

was collected from as many undergraduate students who were willing to complete an online

questionnaire. The first sample consisted of 2,581 participants (Mage = 20.20, SD = 3.82, range

= 15–58; 1,821 females, 754 males) and the second sample consisted of 2,107 participants ( M age

= 20.54, SD = 3.21, range = 19.5–47 ) (Carriere, Seli, & Smilek, 2013). Unintentional mind

wandering is positively associated with attention failures like attention-deficit/hyperactivity

disorder (ADHD) and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), whereas intentional mind

wandering does not share any relation with attention failures (Carriere, Seli, & Smilek, 2013). In

this instance, those people whose mind wanders intentionally is the independent variable and

those whose mind wanders unintentionally is the dependent variable. The article states that those

people whose mind wanders unintentionally are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety,

and stress (Seli, Beaty, Marty-Dugas, & Smilek, 2019).

Studies of the neurophysiological basis of mood disorders and attention failures further

supports the hypothesis that depression, anxiety, and stress to be linked to unintentional bouts of

mind wandering. People who have chronic exposure to life’s stressors develop high levels of

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Article Review

circulation cortisol, which can enter the brain at such high levels, that it can cause damage to

several brain areas that include the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus (Popoli, Yan,

McEwen, & Sanacora, 2011). Damage can be further exacerbated by increases in stress inducing

incidents, which can cause for an increase inflammation, which has been associated with mood

disorders and impaired attentional control (Liston, McEwen, & Casey, 2009). In order to test the

possibility that symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress are associated with unintentional (but

not intentional) mind wandering, two large independent samples were studied, they are Mind

Wandering-Spontaneous (MW-S) and Mind Wandering-Deliberate (MW-D) (Seli, Beaty, Marty-

Dugas, & Smilek, 2019). In the end, the study showed that people reporting higher symptoms of

depression, anxiety, and stress tended to also report higher levels of both intentional and

unintentional mind wandering.

The study began by examining the descriptive statistics for MW-D, MW-S, and the three

facets of the DASS-21 (Depression, Anxiety, and Stress) in each of the two samples. Table 1

shows the mean scores of MW-D, MW-S, and the three facets of the DASS-21. After examining

the psychometric properties it was found that both skewness and kurtosis values were within

acceptable ranges (Carriere, Seli, & Smilek, 2013).

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Article Review

Next, the Pearson product–moment correlation coefficients for all measures were

examined where the disattenuated correlations were also computed. These correlations are useful

because they “rid a correlation coefficient from the weakening effect of measurement error”

(Jensen, 1998). As a result, the MW-D and MW-S were moderately positively correlated in both

samples. There was a significant positive relation between both the MW-D and MW-S with all

three facets of the DASS-21. This indicates that people reporting higher symptoms

of depression, anxiety, and stress tended to also report higher levels of

both intentional and unintentional mind wandering (Carriere, Seli, & Smilek, 2013).

I found this study to be fascinating because I have had issues with my mind wandering at

times that I do not want it to, though I do not necessarily suffer from depression, anxiety, or

stress. My significant other does suffer from depressions, anxiety, and stress and she has ADHD

as well as OCD. Her mind wanders constantly, and when it does, she is usually thinking about

the worst possible outcome to events that have and have not happened. She tells me constantly

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Article Review

that she cannot control her mind when she wants to and that paying attention to something for an

extended period is very difficult to do.

I would like this study to be repeated again, but instead of just having two categories of

people, I would like to see it broken down a bit further. I would like for them to notate the

gender, age, and race of the people they studied to see if there was any correlation between mind

wandering and gender, age, and race. Some people develop these traits later on in life and it

would be fascinating if this study would be done on the same people over an extended period to

see if any of the results would change.

This study does has implications for the practice of counseling psychology. If a child

exhibits habits of mind wandering at a young age, perhaps they could begin to see a counselor to

help give them tools sooner that can help them combat depression, anxiety, and stress. I believe

that knowledge is power, and I know firsthand how hard it can be for people who suffer from

depression and anxiety. People can struggle for years because they do not have the right tools to

help themselves. If something could be diagnosed earlier, those people who suffer could also

learn skills earlier on in life that will help them battle the demons that come with their diagnosis.

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Article Review

References

Carriere, J. S., Seli, P., & Smilek, D. (2013). Wandering in both mind and body: Individual

differences in mind-wandering and inattention predict fidgeting. Canadian Journal of

Experimental Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale, 67, 19–31.

Deng, Y. Q., Li, S., & Tang, Y. Y. (2014). The relationship between wandering mind, depression

and mindfulness. Mindfulness, 5, 124–128. 10.1007/s12671-012-0157-7

Jensen, A. R. (1998). The g factor: The science of mental ability. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Liston, C., McEwen, B. S., & Casey, B. J. (2009). Psychosocial stress reversibly disrupts

prefrontal processing and attentional control. Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences of the United States of America, 106, 912–917. 10.1073/pnas.0807041106

Popoli, M., Yan, Z., McEwen, B. S., & Sanacora, G. (2011). The stressed synapse: The impact of

stress and glucocorticoids on glutamate transmission. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13,

22–37. 10.1038/nrn3138

Seli, P., Beaty, R. E., Marty-Dugas, J., & Smilek, D. (2019). Depression, anxiety, and stress and

the distinction between intentional and unintentional mind wandering. Psychology of

Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 6, 2nd ser., 163-170.

doi:10.1037/cns0000182

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