An examination of the relationship between qigong meditation and personality Author: Leung Y//Singhal A Affiliation: Dr. Yvonne Leung, 4 Assiniboine Road, Rm. 805, North York, Ontario, M3J1L2, Canada. Phone: 647-299-1101; Fax: 416-736-5774; Email: <yvonne.leung@rogers.com> York University, Toronto, ON, Canada Conference/Journal: Social Behavior and Personality Date published: 2004 Other: Volume ID: 32 , Issue ID: 4 , Pages: 313-320 , Word Count: 2983 Qigong meditation is an ancient form of meditation that has been linked with various health benefits. We were interested in whether or not this form of meditation has a relationship with personality. To this end, we administered the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) to eighty Qigong meditation practitioners and seventy-four non-practitioners. The results showed that the number of years of Qigong practice was negatively correlated with neuroticism, but there was no relationship with extraversion. Even after controlling for age, gender, and education level, the practitioners were significantly less neurotic than the nonpractitioners. The study of Qigong meditation and personality may lead to a greater understanding of the various disorders characterised by high neuroticism, and may provide a viable treatment option for long-term health. Qigong (pronounced “Chi Kung”) is an ancient art of self-healing practiced by millions of people in China for thousands of years. ‘Qi’ means vital energy and ‘Gong’ means discipline. It consists of physical and mental exercises to regulate mental processes and enhance physical functioning, and is made up of five components: visualization, meditation, relaxation, deep breathing, and target circulation (Tseng, 1998). This study had enormous support from the Qigong Institute in California, U.S.A. The institute granted permission for making a posting on their website for subject recruitment purposes. Especially the authors wish to express their sincere appreciation to Dr. Kenneth Sancier for his invaluable support in subject recruitment. In addition, the authors wish to show gratitude to the Qi Magazine, U.K. for their sponsorship of free copies of the March 2003 issue. Moreover, they wish to thank Mr. Kendall Chan and Dr. Kevin Chen, for their precious comments. They also wish to express gratitude to Dr. Allan Chan for his inspiring discussions. Appreciation is also due to anonymous reviewers. Throughout history, numerous types and styles of Qigong have evolved, falling under four categories: healing, martial-art, philosophical (Taoist), and spiritual (Buddhist). Despite the variations, all styles have a similar philosophy, which is based on the ancient Chinese idea that vital energy exists in all matter in the universe and humans can circulate and exchange it with the environment by means of voluntarily induced physical and mental action. The two distinct styles of Qigong practice are classified as internal and external, or moving and static. The internal Qigong involves meditation and breathing techniques with visualizations in order to guide the vital energy, while external Qigong includes a sequence of movements accompanying meditation. The present study focuses on the relationship between personality and meditative Qigong because this form of meditation is believed to have a positive impact on health. In Qigong meditation, the practitioner visualizes a flow of Qi energy circulating through his/her body. This process is based on repetitive, positive, reinforcing suggestions, which may promote health and a sense of wellbeing (Liu, Cui, Li, & Huang, 1990). Qigong meditation has been shown to be beneficial to patients’ feelings of wellness when suffering from arthritis, hypertension, dizziness, and chronic pain (Kuang, Wang, Xu, & Qian, 1991; Wu et al., 1999). Moreover, Qigong meditation has been found to have a positive impact on postworkout anxiety (Jiang, 1991), improvement in respiratory capacity in asthma patients (Reuther & Aldridge, 1998), heroin detoxification (Li, Chen, & Mo, 2002), stroke recovery (Kuang et al., 1986), sleep disorders (Wang, 2002), and senile dementia (Yan et al., 2000). The mechanisms of these effects are not well known, however one theory is that there is a relaxation response whereby autonomic activity is controlled and causes a decrease of sympathetic activation (Benson, Greenwood, & Klemchuk, 1975). Benson, Malhotra, Goldman, Jacobs, and Hopkins (1990) showed that Tibetan monks could vary their metabolic rate at will while meditating. Furthermore, studies of Yoga-based relaxation show that sympathetic activity is lessened by guided relaxation compared to nonrelaxed states (Arambula, Peper, Kawakami, & Gibney, 2001; Lazar et al., 2000; Vempati & Telles, 2002). A neuroimaging study of Tibetan Buddhist meditation showed an increase in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the cingulate gyrus, inferior frontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and thalamus (Newberg et al., 2001). These results suggest meditation involves higher order cognitive processes associated with focusing attention, and perhaps involves an altered sense of spatial perception (Newberg et al., 2001). These results correlate with other studies showing electroencephalographic (EEG) indications of heightened attentional focus and deep relaxation (Aftanas & Golocheikine, 2001; Litscher, Wenzel, Niederwieser, & Schwarz, 2001; Travis & Wallace, 1998). Other QIGONG MEDITATION AND PERSONALITY 314 evidence suggests that meditation leads to increases in activation in anterior areas of the left hemisphere, believed to be the areas involved in pleasant emotion, which can also lead to improved immune function (Davidson et al., 2003; Jones, 2001; Lee et al., 2003). A growing body of evidence suggests that meditation, in its various forms, will have a positive impact on psychological health associated with anxiety, panic, and negative affect by increasing positive thinking, self-confidence, and selfefficacy (Shapiro, 1992). Meditation has been described as equivalent to a repetitive dose of positive emotional experiences, and may be as beneficial as an interpersonal therapeutic encounter (Kutz, Burysenko, & Benson, 1985). Miller, Fletcher and Kabat-Zinn (1995) showed that an 8-week mindfulness meditation program produced clinically and statistically significant improvements in the subjective and objective symptoms related to anxiety disorders. Similar findings have shown that meditation may enhance functional status and well-being, and reduce psychological distress (Deckro et al., 2002; Jiang, 1991; Miller et al., 1995; Reibel, Greeson, Brainard, & Rosenzweig, 2001). Elderly Qigong meditators with chronic illnesses have reported greater physical and psychological well-being, including decreased clinical depression and increased self-efficacy (Lewis, 2000; Sandlund & Norlander, 2000; Tsang, Mok, Au Yeung, & Chan, 2003; Tsang, Cheung, & Lak, 2002). The brief foregoing review suggests that meditation has a relationship with physical and mental health, and this relationship is beneficial in nature. However, there has been little research done investigating whether or not meditation has a relationship with personality characteristics, despite the fact that there is a known relationship between personality and general health (Francis, 1999). As a result we were interested in whether or not Qigong meditation is connected with overall good health due to its relationship with personality characteristics over a long period of time. To this end, we designed a study to investigate the relationship between the number of years practicing Qigong meditation and levels of extraversion and neuroticism. METHOD PARTICIPANTS Eighty Qigong practitioners (45 male, 35 female, age range 23 - 68, mean age = 47.5 years), were recruited as participants after providing informed consent. The majority of participants were practicing Qigong meditation at least once a day, and many of them had practiced other forms of meditation regularly for at least a year in the past ten years. The study inclusion criteria were that they must have practiced for over 12 months and at least once a day in frequency. We reasoned that this would ensure proper representation of the population of QIGONG MEDITATION AND PERSONALITY 315 Qigong practitioners, and would eliminate those who were just “experimenting” with the Qigong meditation. We excluded those who had used any psychotic drugs in the past ten years or who had a history of neurological disorders or mental illness. The participants were recruited over the Internet from Canada, the United States, and Europe, and a small number from personal visits to Qigong organizations and classes in Toronto, Canada. Seventy-four nonpracticing individuals (29 male, 45 female, age range 28 - 73, mean age = 42 years), were also recruited as above. Twenty participants reported practicing Qigong meditation for less than 12 months. The control group of participants was similar to the Qigong group in terms of age, gender, marital status, education level, occupation, handedness, and geographical location of residence. The Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) was chosen to measure the level of Extraversion and Neuroticism as well as Social Desirability (Lie-Scale). A Lie- Scale score of over 5 out of 9 questions was used as the criterion for further exclusion. PROCEDURE The questionnaires consisted of an online survey webpage and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI). The webpage survey was advertised on different web sites, including the Qigong Institute, the Newsgroup for Qigong Science and Research, and the Social Psychology Studies online service. Participants who responded via the online survey provided either an email address or a set of unique characters to identify themselves. Informed consent was established by pressing the “I agree to participate” button. After completion, participants pressed the “Submit” button to send the information to our database. A “thankyou” message and the results of the EPI were provided automatically. RESULTS The demographic characteristics and the main findings of the study are shown in Table 1 and Table 2. Four tests were performed on the data. A Spearman correlation test was done to determine the relationship between the number of years of Qigong practice and the level of Neuroticism (N-score). There was a significant negative relationship between the number of years of Qigong practice and the level of Neuroticism [r = -3.23, p < 0.0001]. Apartial correlation test was done to see if age, gender and education level were contributing factors. After controlling for these variables, the correlation between the number of years of practice and N-score remained significant [r = -.2184, p < 0.004]. A t-test was done and revealed a significant difference in N-Score between the Qigong group and comparison group (mean Qigong group = 7.14, mean comparison group = QIGONG MEDITATION AND PERSONALITY 316 QIGONG MEDITATION AND PERSONALITY 10.15) [t (152) = -4.07, p < 0.0001]. Finally, linear regression analysis was used to demonstrate the strength and the predictability of the relationship between the number of years of Qigong practice and the N-score. The findings were significant [r©˜ = .069, p < 0.001]. The relationship between the number of years of Qigong practice and the level of Extraversion (E-score) was not significant. TABLE 1 DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF PARTICIPANTS Meditation (n=80) Control (n=74) Total (N=154) Gender Male 45 (56.3%) 29 (39.2%) 74 (48.1%) Female 35 (43.8%) 45 (60.8%) 80 (51.9%) Handedness Left 16 (20.0%) 4 (5.4%) 20 (13.0%) Right 64 (80.0%) 70 (94.6%) 134 (87.0%) Education High School 3 (3.8%) 12 (16.2%) 15 (9.7%) College and University 43 (53.8%) 34 (45.9%) 77 (50.0%) Graduate School 29 (36.3%) 24 (32.4%) 53 (34.4%) Unknown 5 (6%) 4 (5.4%) 9 (5.8%) Marital Status Single 24 (30.0%) 29 (39.2%) 53 (34.4%) Married/Common Law 44 (55.0%) 37 (50.0%) 81 (52.6%) Separated/Divorced 10 (12.5%) 5 (6.8%) 15 (9.7%) Widow 0 (0%) 1 (1.4%) 1 (0.65%) Unknown 2 (2.5%) 2 (2.7%) 4 (2.6%) Occupation Research and Development 3 (3.8%) 6 (8.1%) 9 (5.8%) Professionals 35 (43.8%) 20 (27.0%) 55 (35.7%) Managerial/Director 6 (7.5%) 5 (6.8%) 11 (7.1%) Self-Employed/Consultant 4 (5.0%) 4 (5.4%) 8 (5.2%) Executives/Sales/Technician 4 (5.0%) 13 (17.6%) 17 (11.0%) Qigong Instructor/Master 16 (20.0%) 0 (0%) 16 (10.4%) Student 2 (2.5%) 8 (10.8%) 10 (6.5%) Admin/Clerical 3 (3.8%) 3 (4.1%) 6 (3.9%) Retired/Unemployed 5 (6.3%) 5 (6.8%) 10 (6.5%) Unknown 2 (2.5%) 10 (13.5%) 12 (7.8%) No. of Years of Practice Year 1-5 30 (37.5%) 0 (0%) 30 (19.5%) Years 6-10 21 (26.3%) 0 (0%) 21 (13.6%) Years 11-15 14 (17.5%) 0 (0%) 14 (9.1%) Years 17 or up 15 (18.8%) 0 (0%) 15 (18.8%) Interested in Qigong Interested 80 (100.0%) 47 (63.5%) 127 (82.5%) Not interested 0 (0%) 24 (32.4%) 24 (15.6%) Unknown 0 (0%) 3 (4.1%) 3 (1.9%) 317 TABLE 2 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF PARTICIPANTS Meditation (n=80) Control (n=74) M SD M SD t p-value Age 47.48 9.40 42.04 10.67 3.36 0.001 No. of Years of Practice 9.80 7.87 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. Extraversion Score 13.75 3.05 14.04 3.45 -0.55 NS Neuroticism Score 7.14 4.45 10.15 4.73 -4.07 0.000 DISCUSSION The findings of this study show that there is a negative relationship between Qigong meditation and neuroticism. Even after controlling for potential confounding variables: age, gender, and education level, the data still supported the hypothesis that the Qigong practitioners were significantly less neurotic. However, the present findings do not suggest that the numbers of years of Qigong practice are related to extraversion. These data provide support for the suggestion that Qigong meditation may serve as a stabilizing agent for mental health by decreasing practitioners’ neuroticism. However, we are cautious about this claim because our results do not suggest a causal relationship between these variables. The present findings are consistent with previous research showing that non-Qigong meditation was related to lower neuroticism scores (Tjoa, 1975). As well, transcendental meditation has been shown to be negatively correlated with neuroticism (Williams, Francis, & Durham, 1976). A common characteristic of neuroticism is elevated anxiety (Eysenck, 1988), and there is evidence to suggest that meditation can have long-term beneficial effects in the treatment of people with anxiety disorders (Miller et al., 1995). Other evidence suggests that meditation can lower anxiety and reduce worry (Davidson et al., 2003; Gillani & Smith, 2001). In the case of Qigong meditation, studies have reliably shown that anxiety can be significantly reduced (Lee, Jeong, Oh, Ryu, & Chung, 1998; Li, Chen, & Mo, 2002). The results of these studies taken together with our present findings suggest that Qigong meditation is closely related to a relaxation response, which may be correlated with lower levels of neuroticism by virtue of an overall reduction in anxiety over time. 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