Meditation Curriculum on Anger, Hostility, and Egoism for Incarcerated Adults

An evaluation of a meditation based curriculum§developed to reduce anger, hostility, and egoism was§be performed using incarcerated adults as§participants. Previously, Vannoy and Hoyt (2004),§pilot tested a new intervention delivered to§incarcerated adult males. In the current study, the§goal was three fold: a) to replicate the previous§findings, while improving the experiment; b) expand§the focus to investigate the impact of the§intervention on the anti-social construct of§hostility and the pro-social construct of§social-connectedness; and c) include female§participants. Results of this study indicate the§intervention was effective at reducing anger in§female participants. Changes on other variables§failed to reach statistical significance. We§hypothesized that meditation participants would§voluntarily continue to meditate, while participants§in treatment as usual would not opt to voluntarily§continue studying course material. Male participants§in MBESH participated in after-care at a high rate§(89%), and female participants in MBESH participated§at a moderate rate (45%). The participation rate in§after-care for both male and female§treatment-as-usual participants was 0%.