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Letting go of self: The creation of the nonattachment to self scale

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posted on 2024-07-11, 12:01 authored by Richard WhiteheadRichard Whitehead, Glen BatesGlen Bates, Bradley ElphinstoneBradley Elphinstone, Yan Yang, Greg MurrayGreg Murray
The Buddhist notion of nonattachment relates to an engagement with experience with flexibility and without fixation on achieving specified outcomes. The present study sought to define, create and validate a new measure of nonattachment as it applies to notions of the self. A new construct of "nonattachment to self" (NTS) was developed, defined the absence of fixation on self-related concepts, thoughts and feelings, and a capacity to flexibly interact with these concepts, thoughts and feelings without trying to control them. Two studies were conducted in the development of the new scale. With expert consultation, study 1 (n = 445) established a single factor, internally consistent 7-item scale via exploratory factor analysis. Study 2 (n = 388, n = 338) confirmed the factor structure of the new 7-item scale using confirmatory factor analyses. Study 2 also found the new scale to be internally consistent, with evidence supporting its test-retest reliability, criterion, and construct validity. Nonattachment to self-emerged as a unique way of relating to the self, distinct from general nonattachment, that aligned with higher levels of well-being and adaptive functioning.

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ISSN

1664-1078

Journal title

Frontiers in Psychology

Volume

9

Issue

DEC

Article number

article no. 2544

Pagination

2544-

Publisher

Frontiers Research Foundation

Copyright statement

Copyright © 2018 Whitehead, Bates, Elphinstone, Yang and Murray. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Language

eng

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