Untangling Effects and Interactions of Mindfulness and Emotional Literacy: Metacognitive Beliefs as a Pathway of Reductions in Anxiety and Depression Through a Mindfulness-Based Intervention

The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate metacognitive beliefs of the Self-Regulatory Executive Function (S-REF) model as a possible mechanism behind symptomology-reduction effects of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). Our motivation for this came from the current opacity of these mechanisms which hampers the refinement of current and development of new MBIs for higher efficacy across different populations and symptomology. To add nuance to this understanding, subtypes of mind-wandering (deliberate and spontaneous) and rumination (reflective and brooding) were included in the Cognitive Attentional Syndrome (CAS) of this model which also showed variance in their correlations with metacognitive beliefs and symptomology of anxiety and depression. Regular meditators were found to score significantly higher in dispositional mindfulness and significantly lower on maladaptive cognitive processes and symptomology, all of which was cause to examine more closely using a randomised control trial.