Abstract:

Mindfulness is a new concept emerged in the field of contemporary clinical health psychology. Although its application in the field has made remarkable achievements, research on its theories has to be strengthened. After systematically sorted and evaluated the three-stage evolutionary process of the conceptualization as well as four orientations of measurements, it was found there are two big problems in its theoretical researches. For the one, the current Chinese definitions about the concept are not clear enough, which can refer to a kind of activity (meditation), psychological state, psychological process, or even personality trait; for the other, there exist diverse measurements, which are state-oriented, ability-oriented, cognition-oriented and trait-orientated. The core cause is how to understand mindfulness. Based on analysis of current problems and previous empirical studies, the article argues that future research can take reference to “Values In Action Classification”, from the trait orientation, employing the Combined Etic–Emic Approach, digging out its essential connotations, highlighting the basic characteristic of individual experience at the moment in the naming and measurement aspects.

Key words: mindfulness, trait, virtue, conceptualization, measurement