Article Analysis: Meditation Can Wish You Well, Study Says by Amanda Gardner
Analysis of A newspaper Article Assignment
Newspaper and magazine articles are used as a source of information to the public for all sorts of things including medical information. Many times they report statistical information or results without explaining the methods used to come to their conclusions. In this paper we will examine an article and discuss the purpose of the study, research methodology and statistical procedures used, and the results and the appropriateness of the results.
Purpose of the study
Chosen is an article titled “Meditation can wish you well, study says” by Amanda Gardner. Gardner discusses a study by doctors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. According to Gardner’s article “The main research question was to see whether some positive qualities such as loving-kindness and compassion or, in general, pro-social altruistic behavior, can be understood as skills and can be trained” (Gardner, 2008).
Research methodology and statistical procedures used
According to Antoine Lutz, an associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author of the study “Potentially one can train oneself to behave in a way which is more benevolent and altruistic” (Gardner, 2008).
The study group involved 32 people. 16 of them were Tibetan monks and lay practitioners (experts). The “expert mediators have more than 10,000 hours of practice in Buddhist meditation and are perceived in their communities as embodying qualities of compassion” (Lutz et al., 2008). They were compared with age and gender-matched novices (control group), who had a interest in learning to meditate. They had no experience with meditation except for receiving meditation instructions for the same practice performed by the experts one week prior to the study.
Gardner (2008), states in her article that the participants were hooked up to a MRI while meditating and while not meditating. They were exposed to sounds to produce responses such as the sound of a distressed
Newspaper and magazine articles are used as a source of information to the public for all sorts of things including medical information. Many times they report statistical information or results without explaining the methods used to come to their conclusions. In this paper we will examine an article and discuss the purpose of the study, research methodology and statistical procedures used, and the results and the appropriateness of the results.
Purpose of the study
Chosen is an article titled “Meditation can wish you well, study says” by Amanda Gardner. Gardner discusses a study by doctors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. According to Gardner’s article “The main research question was to see whether some positive qualities such as loving-kindness and compassion or, in general, pro-social altruistic behavior, can be understood as skills and can be trained” (Gardner, 2008).
Research methodology and statistical procedures used
According to Antoine Lutz, an associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author of the study “Potentially one can train oneself to behave in a way which is more benevolent and altruistic” (Gardner, 2008).
The study group involved 32 people. 16 of them were Tibetan monks and lay practitioners (experts). The “expert mediators have more than 10,000 hours of practice in Buddhist meditation and are perceived in their communities as embodying qualities of compassion” (Lutz et al., 2008). They were compared with age and gender-matched novices (control group), who had a interest in learning to meditate. They had no experience with meditation except for receiving meditation instructions for the same practice performed by the experts one week prior to the study.
Gardner (2008), states in her article that the participants were hooked up to a MRI while meditating and while not meditating. They were exposed to sounds to produce responses such as the sound of a distressed
References: Gardner, A. (2008, March 27). Meditation can wish you well, study says. Retrieved March 28, 2008, from Washington Post Web Site: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/27/AR2008032701439 Lutz, A., Brefczynski-Lewis, J., Johnstone, T., & Davidson, R. (2008). Regulation of the neural Circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: Effects of meditative expertise. Retrieved April 7, 2008, from Public library of Science Web Site: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2Fjournal.pone.0001897