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Although theory and research suggest that self-awareness is necessary to regulate one’s behaviors, it is unclear what effect mindfulness, a form of present-centered, non-judgmental, and non-reactive awareness, would have on behavioral self-regulation. The present study found that trait mindfulness, particularly its nonjudging and non-reacting facets, predicted increased persistence on a difficult lab task (N = 142). Although self-critical facets of self-consciousness were negatively related to mindfulness, self-consciousness did not predict persistence as expected. Mindfulness, particularly nonjudging and non-reactive aspects, may improve self-regulation.

If behavioral persistence can occur only when people are self-aware, what are the effects of mindfulness, a distinct kind of self-awareness, on persistence? Self-awareness has been defined as attention focused on some aspect of the self (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975). According to self-regulation theory (Carver & Scheier, 1998), self-awareness promotes awareness of a discrepancy between one’s current state and a standard, which in turn promotes behavior to minimize the discrepancy. Individuals seek to control their behaviors to the extent that they are aware of their standing in relation to a goal, that is, the extent that they are self-aware. 1.1. Self-awareness and self-regulation As employed in the self-regulation literature, self-consciousness is the trait version of state self-awareness and encompasses three factors: private and public self-consciousness and social anxiety (Fenigstein et al., 1975). Private self-consciousness is awareness of one’s thoughts, feelings, and private motivations, while public self-consciousness is awareness of oneself as a social object. The private self-consciousness factor is itself composed of two facets (Burnkrant and Page, 1984 and Cramer, 2000): Self-reflectiveness represents rumination about oneself, whereas internal state awareness reflects awareness of one’s emotional states. Self-reflectiveness positively correlates with rumination, depression, and anxiety whereas internal state awareness negatively correlates with these variables ( Anderson, Bohon, & Berrigan, 1996), suggesting that self-reflectiveness may be a maladaptive form of self-awareness, while internal state awareness may be neutral or adaptive. Although past research has examined the role that self-consciousness plays in triggering self-conscious emotions such as guilt and shame, and their relation to goal pursuit ( Tracy & Robins, 2004), it appears that no studies have examined the effects on persistence of specific facets of private self-consciousness. 1.2. Mindfulness and self-awareness Mindfulness is a form of attentional self-regulation that involves a different quality of attention brought to bear on the self, emphasizing a non-judgmental, non-discursive awareness of one’s perceptions, sensations, thoughts, and emotions. Mindfulness and self-awareness are different constructs that should affect behavior differently. In the self-regulation literature, self-awareness reflects a critical or evaluative state that automatically leads to comparison of the self against standards (Silvia & Duval, 2001) and efforts to change behavior. In contrast, mindful awareness does not necessarily lead to identification of discrepancies or attempts to reduce them. Rather, mindful awareness involves acceptance of whatever is observed, even discrepancies. Furthermore, mindfulness allows for deliberate actions that may not be consistent with automatic discrepancy reducing behaviors. Studies that have examined the relationship between mindfulness and self-consciousness have found negative correlations between mindfulness and public self-consciousness (r = −.15 to r = −.23) but no relationship with private self-consciousness, although relationships between mindfulness and the two facets of private self-consciousness were significant and in opposite directions (rself reflection = −.13; rinternal state awareness = .23; Beitel et al., 2005 and Brown and Ryan, 2003). 1.3. The present study Relationships among mindfulness, self-consciousness, and persistence have not been investigated simultaneously. The present study tested three hypotheses about these relationships using five facets of mindfulness (Baer, Smith, Hopkins, Krietemeyer, & Toney, 2006) that include observing (noticing or attending to internal and external stimuli); describing (labeling observed experiences); actingwithawareness (attending to one’s present-moment activities); nonjudgingofinnerexperience (taking a nonevaluative stance toward thoughts and feelings), and nonreactivitytoinnerexperience (the tendency to allow feelings and thoughts to come and go). Hypothesis1: Mindfulnessandpersistence. The literature on mindfulness suggests a positive relationship between mindfulness and adaptive functioning ( Brown, Ryan, & Creswell, 2007). To the extent that persistence is adaptive, we hypothesized that mindfulness would predict persistence. With regard to mindfulness facets, in student samples, relationships between observing and adaptive characteristics are nonsignificant or negative. Therefore, we predicted that observing would be unrelated to persistence. Hypothesis2: Mindfulnessandself-consciousness. Because private self-consciousness and its facets include attention to thoughts and feelings, we hypothesized that they would positively correlate with observing. We also hypothesized that actingwithawareness would inversely relate to public self-consciousness and self-reflectiveness, replicating previous findings. Because the content of both public self-consciousness and self-reflectiveness includes critical self-examination, we hypothesized that they would inversely relate to nonjudging. We made no hypotheses regarding relationships between self-consciousness and describing and nonreactivity.