Objectives

This study explores the evolution of the concept of mindfulness over the last 104 years in terms of the content, practice, and research development of all relevant studies reported in the academic literature.

Methods

We identified 15,764 mindfulness-related papers published between 1916 and 2019, and analyzed the frequency of publications, types of journals, keywords, and included disciplines. Using topic modeling methodology, hidden semantic structures were discovered in the collection of papers allowing the development of sets of topics.

Results

The results revealed a sharp increase in mindfulness research since 2000, a trend suggesting that research in this area has increased exponentially and may continue to do so for some time. The research was published in academic journals across a variety of subjects, from psychology to medicine. Three epochs of published studies emerged, these being epoch 1 (E1) (1916–1999), epoch 2 (E2) (2000–2009), and epoch 3 (E3) (2010–2019)—with the studies within each epoch containing different sets of frequently used keywords and research topics. In E1, publications largely reflected a theoretical or spiritual approach in their conceptualization of mindfulness that gradually shifted to more generalized pragmatism. This then evolved into more specific inquiry into a variety of mindfulness-based interventions in E2. In E3, the research moved towards more robust validation approaches for establishing the efficacy of therapeutic mindfulness programs and professionalizing those who deliver them.

Conclusions

Our analysis suggests that future research could move towards a more in-depth examination of long-term, lifespan experiences with mindfulness. In addition, we propose that content experts from various fields need to work together to integrate diverse perspectives on mindfulness, thus deepening our knowledge of its fundamental nature, attributes, and potentialities.

中文翻译：

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1916年至2019年正念的演变

目标

本研究从学术文献中报道的所有相关研究的内容，实践和研究发展方面，探讨了正念概念在过去104年中的演变。

方法

我们确定了19764年至2019年之间发表的15764篇与正念相关的论文，并分析了出版物的发布频率，期刊类型，关键词以及所包含的学科。使用主题建模方法，在论文集中发现了隐藏的语义结构，从而可以开发主题集。

结果

结果表明，自2000年以来，正念研究急剧增加，这一趋势表明该领域的研究呈指数增长，并且可能会持续一段时间。这项研究发表在学术期刊上，涉及从心理学到医学的各个领域。出现了三个时期的已发表研究，分别是时期1（E1）（1916–1999），时期2（E2）（2000–2009）和时期3（E3）（2010–2019）–每个时期内的研究都包含不同组的常用关键字和研究主题。在E1中，出版物在对正念的概念化过程中主要反映了一种理论或精神方法，这些思想逐渐转向更为普遍的实用主义。然后，这演变为对E2中各种基于正念的干预的更具体的询问。在E3中

结论

我们的分析表明，未来的研究可能会朝着对正念的长期，终生体验进行更深入的检查。此外，我们建议来自各个领域的内容专家需要共同努力，以整合关于正念的多种观点，从而加深我们对正念的基本性质，属性和潜能的认识。