The relation between mindfulness and anxiety is a topic not many research is done on. The relation of the two variables would be significant as anxiety is a psychological problem many people have in society today and mindfulness is known to be a cure for many psychological problems. In the present study, breathing exercises were investigated in relation to anxiety. It was hypothesized that the breathing exercises would increase mindfulness and decrease anxiety.
The data collected from the present study show that the breathing exercises did decrease anxiety. However the independent t-test show that there are no differences between the participants who did the breathing exercise and the participants who did nothing. This result suggests that doing nothing and doing the breathing exercise both decrease anxiety. It was hypothesized that the breathing exercises would decrease anxiety however this is not true with the present study as the anxiety decreased for people who didn’t do the breathing exercise. The data suggests that breathing exercises and doing nothing lowers anxiety. However there are other factors, which would have caused this effect. The participants chosen for this study were one of the main reasons this effect occurred. The people chosen for this study were family or friends. This could of caused a demand characteristic, which caused the anxiety to decrease for both the experimental and control group. As a result of the demand characteristics, it could be concluded that the breathing exercises did not actually decrease anxiety.
In addition to this finding, the data also suggests that there are no correlations between stress and anxiety. This contradicts Misra and McKean found in their research. Misra and Mckean found that stress and anxiety were positively correlated. However our present study contradicts their finding. Our present study found that anxiety and stress were not correlated when a correlations test was conducted.
The source for this contradiction could be due to the questionnaires used. The questionnaire used in the present study is the DASS 21 scale. Misra and McKean used their own questionnaire to measure each persons stress and anxiety. A difference in the questionnaires could have affected the results because the question it self are different and the format as well. Misra and McKean questionnaire ask questions only about anxiety and stress while the DASS 21 asks questions about stress, anxiety and depression. The DASS 21 also has a 0-3 range Likert scale when compared to the 0-6 range Likert scale Misra and McKean used for their study Another source for this contradiction could be the demand characteristics. Participants in this present study could have changed the answers, for both groups as they were friends and family and wanted to help the researcher. The change of answers could have decreased either stress or anxiety more than the other. The effects of the change could have caused the differences in correlations.
Another contradiction in the present study is the decrease in stress. Edwards study showed that Latino students decreased in stress after going through a mindfulness program. The present research show that stress decreased after the intervention. However, breathing exercises alone did not decrease stress of the participants.
The reason behind this effect could have been the demand characteristics. The stress decreased for the control and experimental group. Since the participants were friends or family of the researcher it is more likely the answers change to what the researchers want. As a result of this effect, stress could have decreased in the experimental group and the control group. If demand characteristics didn’t exist for this present study, the stress could have decreased only in the experimental group.
The paired samples t-test showed significant decrease for depression after the intervention for the experimental group. Interestingly, it did not show a significant decrease for depression after the intervention for the control group. Other variables showed decreases in both the experimental and control group suggesting it was a demand characteristics. Though it was different for depression, the independent t-test between the experimental and control group for depression scores after the intervention show that the scores are not significantly different.
The independent t-test suggests that depression was decreased due to the demand characteristics. Analysis between female and male score for anxiety after the intervention suggests that the intervention decreased the anxiety for both female and male by the same amount for the control and experimental group. The reason for could be that the anxiety levels for men and female are not different. Armstrong and Khwaja found no gender differences in anxiety in their study. Armstrong and Khawaja’s study suggests that anxiety differences are not present between male and female therefore the female and male anxiety score for the present study should also not be significantly different.
The present study does have a lot of weaknesses. The study does not have a lot of internal validity, as signs of demand characteristics were present in the results. The present study also does not have a high external validity, as participants were actually friends and family of the researchers. However, the present research shows an equal gender distribution among participants.
Results of the present study suggest that anxiety, stress and depression decrease regardless of you do nothing or do mindful exercises. However, demand characteristics due to poor selection of participants have created inaccurate results. Since inaccurate results were collected in the present study, in the future, the same study could be done with randomization of the participants. If the participants are randomized there are possibilities that the control and experimental group would have significantly different scores for anxiety supporting the hypothesis of the present study.
