text:
A Metacognitive Perspective on Mindfulness: An Empirical Investigation
Stian Solem1,2,
Susanne Semb Thunes1,
Odin Hjemdal1,
Roger Hagen1 &
Adrian Wells1,3
The primary aim of this study was to explore how metacognition, as implicated in Wells and Matthews' metacognitive theory of emotional disorder, might relate to the concept of mindfulness, and whether metacognition or mindfulness best predicted symptoms of emotional disorder.
Data was collected from 224 community controls on the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), the Metacognitions Questionnaire-30 (MCQ-30), the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item (PHQ-9), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7), and the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory Revised (OCI-R).
The MCQ-30 and FFMQ subscales constituted two latent factors which appeared to assess metacognition and mindfulness. The FFMQ subscales nonjudging of inner experience and acting with awareness loaded on metacognition, while observing, nonreacting to inner experience and describing formed a unique mindfulness factor. Metacognition correlated strongly with symptoms of depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Regression analyses found metacognition to be an important predictor of symptoms explaining between 42 % and 49 % of the variance when controlling for age and gender, while mindfulness was a weaker predictor explaining between 0 % and 2 % of the variance in symptoms.
The structure amongst scales and the pattern of correlations with symptoms were generally consistent with the metacognitive theory which focuses on metacognitive beliefs, enhancing awareness of thoughts and disengaging extended processing.
Psychological treatments develop in parallel and some of their therapeutic interventions and constructs may overlap or share elements. Exploring and clarifying the relation between potentially related constructs may be useful because it may contribute to a better understanding of similarities and differences, which may be essential in both understanding and developing treatment interventions.
Two recent approaches to treatment are represented by the metacognitive model (Wells and Matthews 1994, Wells 2009) and mindfulness-based therapies (Kabat-Zinn 1994). Each use strategies aimed at directly changing experiential awareness, but do so in different ways. The metacognitive perspective is founded on a specific information processing model of attention and emotion whilst mindfulness draws on Buddhist principles and techniques. It has been argued that effective experiential techniques might be grounded in the metacognitive model in order to conceptualize what mindfulness is and how it should be developed from an information processing perspective (Wells 2005). More specifically, in the metacognitive model, psychological disorder is related to a style of reacting to thoughts with sustained processing in the form of worry, rumination, fixation of attention on threat and maladaptive coping behaviors, collectively referred to as the Cognitive Attentional Syndrome (CAS; Wells and Matthews 1994, 1996). The CAS is the result of the influence of metacognitive beliefs on cognitive processing. For example, the metacognitive belief that thoughts are dangerous and/or uncontrollable leads to sustained negative thinking and entanglement with them.
Theory and research on metacognition evolved from developmental- and cognitive psychology (e.g., Flavell 1979; Nelson 1996; Nelson and Narens 1994). Metacognition was originally defined as knowledge or beliefs about thinking and strategies used to regulate and control thinking processes (Flavell, 1979). As such metacognition refers to cognition applied to cognition. Metacognition has since been developed as a basis for understanding and treating psychological disorders (Wells and Matthews, 1994; 1996). In this metacognitive theory of emotional disorders it is argued that disorder is associated with a non-specific style of thinking termed CAS. According to the theory, much of the knowledge on which processing depends is metacognitive in nature. So the activation and persistence of the CAS in response to stressors is dependent on maladaptive metacognitive knowledge (beliefs). When we refer to metacognitions in the current study, we refer to metacognitions as specified in this metacognitive model of emotional disorders and as operationalized by the Metacognitions Questionnaire-30 (MCQ-30). For a detailed theoretical discussion on metacognition in general (not restricted to Wells' metacognitive model) and mindfulness confer Jankowski and Holas (2014).
Within a different theoretical framework, mindfulness, has gained extensive import into the therapeutic domain through the adoption of meditation practices. In this tradition mindfulness has been defined as "the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment" (Kabat-Zinn 2003, p. 145). As noted by Jankowski and Holas (2014) the abundance of meanings related to the term mindfulness makes it difficult to define. In the current study mindfulness is understood and operationalized according to the FFMQ. According to FFMQ mindfulness is a multifaceted construct which could be defined as: attending to internal and external experiences, labelling internal experiences with words, attending to the present moment, taking a nonjudging stance toward thoughts and feelings, and not getting caught up in thoughts and feelings.
To practice mindfulness is to be aware of what is going on in the present moment. It is the opposite of acting on "autopilot", where the present moment is biased by routinized and habitual thoughts and feelings. While practicing mindfulness, a person will experience the present moment as the direct experience of the body and sensory input. Meditation is used as a tool to develop the state, or the skill of mindfulness. Emotional disorders could possibly be understood as a lack of mindfulness skills in the mindfulness-based approach. However, there is a lack of theory to offer a good explanation as to the mechanisms of mindfulness, but there are indications that mindfulness could be useful in managing cognitive vulnerability and reduce the chance of relapse in depression (Segal et al. 2013). In contrast, in the metacognitive model emotional disorders are seen as the result of fixed ways of coping with negative thoughts through repetitive negative thinking. Disorder does not result from a state of mindlessness or 'autopilot' instead it results from excessive motivated efforts to deal with negative thoughts with the CAS. Metacognitive therapy has developed specific techniques such as detached mindfulness (Wells and Matthews 1994, Wells 2005), which is a reaction to thoughts that is the opposite of the CAS, involving standing back and not reacting or trying to deal with them but remaining flexible with low levels of ideation. This ability is aimed to strengthen metacognitive beliefs such as knowing what a thought is and that it is a benign inner event that is separate from the control of action. See Wells (2005) for a closer description of detached mindfulness and its similarities and differences from mindfulness.
Recent analyses have attempted to differentiate and assess the components of mindfulness and link them meaningfully with different psychological factors. The concept of mindfulness has been operationalized with the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ; Baer et al. 2006), based on a factor analysis of independently developed questionnaires for measuring mindfulness. A systematic review of instruments to measure self-reported mindfulness found that the FFMQ has the best psychometric properties (Park et al. 2013). The higher the scores on the FFMQ the better mental health the individual is thought to have. The five facets of FFMQ are: observing, describing, acting with awareness, nonjudging of inner experience, and nonreacting to inner experience. Observing includes attending to or noticing experiences, either internal or external such as cognitions, emotions or various sensory perceptions (e.g. "I pay attention to how my emotions affect my thoughts and behavior"). Describing refers to being able to put internal experiences into words (e.g. "I'm good at finding words to describe my feelings"). Acting with awareness is the tendency to attend to what you're doing at the moment, as opposed to "going on automatic pilot" (e.g. "When I do things, my mind wanders off and I'm easily distracted"). Nonjudging of inner experience refers to being able to not evaluate thoughts and feelings as good or bad (e.g. "I criticize myself for having irrational or inappropriate emotions" [reverse scoring]). Nonreacting to inner experience refers to the ability to let thoughts and emotions come and go without being caught up in or reacting to them (e.g. "I watch my feelings without getting lost in them") (Baer et al. 2008).
Baer et al. (2006) showed that nonjudging of inner experience and acting with awareness were the subscales most strongly correlated with psychological symptoms, neuroticism, thought suppression and difficulty regulating emotion, while observing and describing mostly showed no or weak correlations with these measures. Another study showed that observing and describing had no correlation to anxiety and depression, while the other three subscales showed weak correlations (Bohlmeijer et al. 2010). It has also been found that nonjudging of inner experience predicts lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress, while acting with awareness predicts lower levels of depression (Cash and Whittingham, 2010).
There are similarities and differences in the concepts used in metacognitive theory and in meditation derived practice. The concept of mindfulness as assessed with the FFMQ (Baer et al. 2006) may be related to the constructs of metacognitive beliefs as specified in metacognitive theory (Wells and Matthews 1994). For instance, items of the FFMQ (e.g. "When I do things my mind wanders off and I'm easily distracted") appear to tap attitudes or beliefs about cognition. In metacognitive theory of psychological disorder metacognitive beliefs are assessed with the metacognitions questionnaire (MCQ; Cartwright-Hatton and Wells 1997; Wells and Cartwright-Hatton 2004). The MCQ has five subscales: positive beliefs about worry (e.g. "Worrying helps me cope"), uncontrollability and danger (e.g. "When I start worrying I cannot stop"), need to control thoughts (e.g. "I should be in control of my thoughts all of the time"), cognitive confidence (e.g. "I do not trust my memory"), and cognitive self—consciousness (e.g. "I am constantly aware of my thinking").
There is both convergence and divergence in the items of the FFMQ and MCQ. Whilst the FFMQ and MCQ contain constructs with no apparent overlap, it is clear for example, that the FFMQ construct of observing overlaps with MCQ cognitive self-consciousness as they both relate to an internal focus of attention. However, in the metacognitive model cognitive self-consciousness should be positively related to troublesome symptoms, while the mindfulness construct of observing should be negatively related to troublesome symptoms. However, there might be differences between experienced and inexperienced meditators as they have different cerebral activation in response to stressors (e.g. Froeliger et al. 2012) and meditation experience could also affect the relationship between observing and well-being (Baer et al. 2006; 2008)."
It would be useful to establish whether metacognition correlates with mindfulness and whether mindfulness and metacognition subscales combine to form latent variables that might predict psychological distress. The primary aim of the current study was therefore to explore how metacognition as implicated in metacognitive theory of emotional disorder might relate to the broad concept of mindfulness. We also wanted to examine the latent structure among factors related to mindfulness and metacognitions and how this might relate to anxiety, depressive and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Because the constructs may be related in different ways (or not at all) our goal was exploratory rather than testing a particular model fit, as we did not wish to impose constraints on any meaningful structure that could emerge. In addition to exploring the latent structure among subscales we examined, post hoc, the relationship between the latent factors and measures of psychopathology as a means of provisionally validating emergent constructs.
Participants and procedure
The sample was 224 Norwegian-speaking participants between the age of 18 and 67, with a mean age of 31.8 years (SD = 13.0). The sample consisted of 75 (33.5 %) men and 149 (66.5 %) women. In this sample, 39.8 % were employed either part time or full time, 45.1 % were full time students, 1.8 % were part time students, and 13.4 % received disability benefits or disability insurance or were retired or unemployed. Also, 34.4 % was single, 21.4 % was in a relationship, 38.8 % was married or cohabiting, and 5.4 % was divorced or separated. The data was anonymously collected online through posts on social media and on public online discussion forums where people were encouraged to answer and to share a link to the questionnaires. The majority of participants recruited through social media were from the network of a psychology graduate student, while the discussion forums were related to psychological health. Anyone over the age of 18 could participate, and 224 people completed all five questionnaires. The study was submitted to the Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics in Norway for approval. The ethics committee decided that an approval was not necessary as the participants responses were anonyomous. The study was approved by the Norwegian Social Science Data Services (project nr: 33966).
Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ; Baer et al. 2006). The FFMQ uses a 5-point Likert response scale (1 = never or very rarely true, 5 = very often or always true). The higher the score on FFMQ the more mindful a person is and should thus experience less psychological problems. It contains 39 items, where each facet is represented with seven or eight items each. The five facets are: observing, describing, acting with awareness, nonjudging of inner experience, and nonreacting to inner experience. Baer et al. (2006) argue that using a total score of FFMQ to measure mindfulness will provide a distorted view of the relationships between mindfulness and other concepts, because the subscale scores of FFMQ measure different aspects of mindfulness that should not be collapsed into one. Thus, there is a need for clarifying the relation between the FFMQ facets. The Norwegian FFMQ has been validated for use in Norway (Dundas et al. 2013). In the current study, FFMQ showed adequate psychometric characteristics with Cronbach's alpha on the five facets of 0.80, 0.88, 0.86, 0.92 and 0.80, respectively.
Metacognitions Questionnaire 30 (MCQ-30; Wells and Cartwright-Hatton 2004). All subscales of the MCQ-30 have been shown to have positive relationships with obsessive-compulsive symptoms, pathological worry, and trait-anxiety. The MCQ-30 uses a 4-point Likert response scale (1 = do not agree, to 4 agree very much). Higher scores on MCQ represent higher levels of dysfunctional metacognitions. The five subscales are: positive beliefs about worry, uncontrollability and danger, need to control thoughts, cognitive confidence, and cognitive self—consciousness. MCQ uncontrollability and danger and MCQ need to control thoughts demonstrate particularly strong relationships with mood and anxiety disorders (Spada et al. 2008; Wells and Cartwright-Hatton, 2004). In the current study, MCQ-30 showed adequate psychometric characteristics with Cronbach's alpha on the five subscales of 0.80, 0.85, 0.80, 0.88 and 0.85, respectively. The MCQ has been used with subscale factors as well as a total score as an indication of levels of metacognitions (e.g. Hjemdal et al. 2013).
Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item (PHQ-9; Spitzer et al. 1999). The PHQ-9 contains criteria for depression. The name PHQ-9 refers to the nine items in the questionnaire, and is based on the nine criteria for diagnosing depression in DSM-IV. Each item is reported on a four-point Likert scale (0 = not at all, 3 = almost every day), and the answers refer to the past two weeks. The PHQ-9 total score is used as a severity measure, and can range from 0 to 27. It has been shown to have good internal reliability and test-retest reliability, as well as criterion validity, construct validity and external validity (Kroenke et al. 2001). In the current study, the PHQ-9 showed adequate psychometric characteristics with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.88.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7; Spitzer et al. 2006). GAD-7 is based on the DSM-criteria for generalized anxiety disorder. Each item is reported on a four-point Likert scale (0 = not at all, 3 = almost every day), and the answers refer to the past two weeks. The total score ranges between 0 – 21. It has been shown to have good reliability, as well as good criterion, construct, factorial and procedural validity. In the current study, the questionnaire showed adequate psychometric characteristics with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.89.
Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory Revised (OCI-R; Foa et al. 2002). The OCI-R is an 18-item self-report questionnaire. OCI-R was developed to examine the presence and severity of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. Each item is rated on a 5-point Likert scale (0 = not at all, 4 = extremely). The higher the score the higher the level of OCD symptoms. The total score of the OCI-R provides information about the OCD severity, but there are also sub-scores which addresses the severity of the different types of obsessions and compulsions. There are six subscales included in the OCI-R: Washing, checking, obsessions, neutralizing, ordering and hoarding. The score of OCI-R ranges between 0 – 72, and higher scores indicate higher levels of OCD symptoms. The OCI-R has been shown to be a valid and reliable diagnostic tool (Foa et al. 2002). A study with a Norwegian sample found results supporting the validity of OCI-R (Solem et al. 2010). In the current study, the measure showed adequate psychometric characteristics with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.90 for the total score.
Pearson correlation analyses were used to investigate the relationship between metacognition and mindfulness. The relationship between metacognition and mindfulness was further explored using Maximum Likelihood factor analysis with a direct oblimin rotation in which subscale scores of the MCQ and the FFMQ were used. After investigating the relationship between metacognition and mindfulness, the next step was to determine the independent predictors of symptoms using hierarchical regression analysis. We conducted three regression analyses. One using symptoms of anxiety as the dependent variable, the second using symptoms of depression, and the third using symptoms of OCD as the dependent variable. On the first step we entered gender and age, on the following steps we entered the factors extracted from the Maximum Likelihood analysis.
Levels of depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms in the sample
The mean score of PHQ-9 was 6.56 (SD = 5.61). The optimal cut-off score when using PHQ-9 is often set to 10 points (Manea et al. 2012). Using a cut-off point of 10 and above to describe the current sample; 20.5 % scored above this cut-off. With regard to severity; 11.1 % reported that their problems with depression made doing their work, taking care of things at home, or getting along with other people as "very difficult", while 2.8 % reported this as being "extremely difficult".
In this sample, the mean score of GAD-7 was 5.32 (SD = 4.61). The cut-off point for 'caseness' is a score of 10. In this sample, 14.8 % scored above cut-off. With regard to severity, 10.3 % reported that their anxiety problems made doing their work, taking care of things at home, or getting along with other people as being "very difficult", while 2.3 % reported this as being "extremely difficult".
The mean OCI-R score was 10.06 (SD = 9.78). The recommended cut-off point is 21, with scores at or above this level indicating the likely presence of OCD (Foa et al. 2002). In this sample, 11.6 % scored above cut-off. A summary of the scores on the different instruments are presented in Table 1.
Table 1 Levels of mindfulness, metacognitions, and symptoms (n = 224)
Relationships between metacognition, mindfulness, and symptoms
The subscales acting with awareness and nonjudging of inner experience were the two facets of FFMQ with the strongest correlation with MCQ. Of these the nonjudging of inner experience dimension correlated most strongly with two MCQ subscales: negative beliefs about uncontrollability and need to control thoughts. These relationships, as with most of the associations between these two questionnaires were negative. They appear to show that the nonjudging of inner experience decreases as metacognitive beliefs about the uncontrollability and danger of thoughts and beliefs about the need to control thoughts increase. All of the five subscales in MCQ correlated positively and significantly (ranging from .23 to .71) with the symptom measures. The two subscales correlating the most with the three symptom measures were MCQ uncontrollability and danger and MCQ need to control thoughts. Four of the subscales in FFMQ correlated negatively and significantly (ranging from -.22 to -.65) with symptoms of emotional disorders while observing showed non-significant relationship with symptoms. The two mindfulness facets with the strongest correlations with symptoms were acting with awareness and nonjudging of inner experience.
The relationships between metacognition and mindfulness were explored using a Maximum Likelihood factor analysis in which subscale scores of the MCQ and the FFMQ were used. The aim of the factor analysis was to reveallatent constructs amongst the two sets of subscales. Two factors had eigenvalues above 1 and were extracted and subject to oblimin rotation. Acting with awareness and nonjudging of inner experience loaded onto a factor along with and dominated by the MCQ subscales and therefore appeared to reflect a metacognition factor. MCQ cognitive self-consciousness measures a construct primarily related to the first factor but it had a side-loading on the second factor. Because the variance is partially related to both factors it is difficult to interpret in further analyses in this particular context. The second factor consisted of three FFMQ subscales (observing, nonreacting to inner experience, and describing) and was labeled mindfulness. Standardized z-scores were used for the analysis and the FFMQ scales that corresponded with the metacognition factor were reversed when creating total scores for the two factors.
Partial correlations were used to examine unique relations between these latent factors and each symptom measure while controlling for symptom overlap. The metacognition factor showed strong zero-order correlations with all of the three symptom measures (ranging from .65 to .72) and correlations were still significant after controlling for other symptoms (ranging from .27 to .35). For the mindfulness factor, correlations with symptoms ranged from -.19 to -.27. Only the relationship with depression emerged as significant when controlling for symptom overlap in the partial correlation analyses. A summary of the correlation analyses and Maximum Likelihood factor analysis is presented in Table 2 and Table 3.
Table 2 Correlations between metacognitive subscales, mindfulness subscales, and symptom measures (n = 224)
Table 3 Subscale loadings in the factor analysis with Maximum Likelihood and correlations between factors and psychiatric symptoms
Predictors of psychological symptoms
Two separate factors emerged from the MCQ-30 and FFMQ in which metacognition could be separated from mindfulness and metacognition was a stronger predictor of specific psychological symptoms than mindfulness. The next step was to determine the independent predictors of symptoms using hierarchical regression analysis. We had two aims in doing this, first to provide some validation of the separate factors and more specifically test the incremental validity of mindfulness when controlling for metacognition. Such an analysis also permitted exploration of the individual predictors of a range of psychological symptoms.
Predictors of anxiety
With GAD-7 as the dependent variable, the regression analysis revealed that at step one, age and gender explained 3 % of the variance where age was the significant predictor. The metacognition factor was entered on step 2 and explained 49 % of the variance in GAD-7 scores. The mindfulness factor was a non-significant predictor on step three. In the final step of the equation, metacognition was the only significant individual predictor of anxiety symptoms. A summary of this regression is presented in Table 4.
Table 4 Hierarchical regression analysis with GAD-7 as dependent variable (n = 224)
Predictors of depressive symptoms
The regression analysis with PHQ-9 as the dependent variable showed that at step one, age and gender explained 2 % with age being the significant predictor. When entering metacognition on step two an additional 46 % was explained and mindfulness on step 3 added a further 2 %. In the final step of the equation both metacognition and mindfulness were significant individual predictors of depressive symptoms. A summary of this regression is presented in Table 5.
Table 5 Hierarchical regression analysis with PHQ-9 as dependent variable (n = 224)
Predictors of obsessive-compulsive symptoms
Age and gender explained 1 % of OCD symptoms. Metacognition on step two added 42 %. Mindfulness on step three was a non-significant predictor. In the final step of the equation, metacognition was the only significant individual predictor of OCD symptoms. A summary of the regression is presented in Table 6.
Table 6 A multiple hierarchical regression analysis with OCI-R as dependent variable (n = 224)
This study set out to explore the relationship between metacognitions and mindfulness and to examine how these constructs might relate to symptoms of depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Results of correlation analyses showed that metacognition was related to mindfulness as predicted by metacognitive theory. However, Maximum Likelihood factor analysis distinguished two clusters of traits. A metacognitive factor comprised of five MCQ subscales and two FFMQ subscales, and a narrower mindfulness factor comprised of three FFMQ subscales with a low side-loading from MCQ cognitive self-consciousness. The two factors were independently related to depression symptoms, but only the metacognition factor was related to anxiety and OCD symptoms. Metacognition was the strongest predictor of each set of psychological symptoms with little additional variance explained by the mindfulness factor. The negative association between mindfulness and depression scores in the regression suggests that higher depressive symptom levels are associated with lower levels of reacting, observing and describing events. However, these mindfulness components might reflect in part the symptoms of depression such as inactivity or disengagement from the environment. Further work is required to determine the distinctness of the mindfulness factor from depressive symptoms.
The Maximum Likelihood factor analysis revealed that metacognitive traits can be distinguished from mindfulness with three out of five mindfulness subscales (observing, nonreacting to inner experience and describing) showing weak relationships with metacognition. The metacognition factor had substantial loadings for all MCQ subscales with negative beliefs predominating. The negative loading of nonjudging of inner experience on the metacognition factor suggests that the tendency to evaluate one's thoughts and feelings are more closely associated with metacognitive beliefs than with mindfulness. This pattern of findings supports a central assertion of the metacognitive model, that a syndrome of entanglement with thinking and analyzing events is linked to specific forms of metacognitive knowledge. It would seem that other dimensions of mindfulness (observing, nonreacting to inner experience, and describing) which are features of meditation practice may be only weakly related to the ideational processes that are considered most problematic in the metacognitive model. Nonreacting to inner experience was part of the mindfulness factor. Some nonreacting to inner experience items describe emotions and situations and how the person responds to them, whereas MCQ items refer to metacognitive knowledge, meaning knowledge about cognitions (not emotions/situations) and not about the person's behavioral responses to them. These differences could explain why nonreacting to inner experience is not a part of the metacognition factor.
Acting with awareness also loaded negatively on the metacognition factor. The acting with awareness subscale appears to assess the ability to attend to what one is doing with items suggesting a good resistance to distraction. This loading is also parsimonious with the metacognitive model of emotional vulnerability, where the pattern of extended thinking (the cognitive attentional syndrome) that contributes to disorder is associated with reduced attentional flexibility (Wells and Matthews 1994, 1996). Moreover, the result is consistent with the use in metacognitive therapy of techniques such as attention training (Wells 1990) which is designed to increase flexibility and awareness of control.
Whilst the metacognitive dimension of cognitive self-consciousness loaded most highly on metacognition it also loaded on mindfulness. Examination of the bivariate subscale correlations reveals that this association is the result of shared variance with observing as there was no correlation with the other constituents of the mindfulness factor (nonreacting to inner experience, describing). Observing assesses the tendency to focus on thoughts, feelings and behaviors and therefore overlaps in content with cognitive self-consciousness which is the tendency to focus on thinking processes.
The mindfulness factor was composed of FFMQ subscales (observing, nonreacting to inner experience, describing) involving the concept of focusing on present-moment experience in an accepting way. This factor corresponds well to the definition of mindfulness presented in Buddhist-related applications (e.g. Kabat-Zinn 2003), but these features do not appear to be closely associated with psychological vulnerability. In contrast, metacognition was positively associated with each of the dimensions of psychological disorder symptoms measured and remained an independent predictor of all symptoms on the final step of the analysis. In contrast, mindfulness explained a small amount of additional variance in depression symptoms but not anxiety or OCD symptoms.
In summary, the present analysis indicated that the extent to which mindfulness is linked to maladaptation largely reflects metacognition. Specifically, higher negative beliefs about the uncontrollability and danger of thoughts and beliefs about the need for control loaded with high levels of nonjudging of inner experience and high levels of acting with awareness. Of the two emergent factors metacognition showed the strongest association with symptoms of psychological disorder. This factor corresponds to the Wells and Matthews (1994) metacognitive model of psychological disorder in which metacognitive beliefs coupled with extended conceptual processing and threat monitoring (the CAS) are central to emotional disorder. The results support the call to examine the structure and nature of mindfulness within the context of metacognitive theory (Wells, 2005) with a view to advancing the construct within a well specified psychological model.
Strengths and limitations
The present study is innovative in examining how metacognitive traits relate to mindfulness constructs. The study used validated measures possessing good psychometric properties. A systematic review of instruments to measure self-reported mindfulness found that the FFMQ has the best psychometric properties (Park et al. 2013). However, there have also been criticisms of the scale (e.g. Van Dam et al. 2012) such as problems with combining positively and negatively worded items. Future studies should thus continue developing and improving the assessment of mindfulness.
Whilst the sample size was reasonable for this type of analysis, the cross-sectional nature of the data means that inferences about causality cannot be made. The data used was based on self-report, which means that it may have been biased by selective memory, personal experience and social desirability. For example, meditators and non-meditators complete the FFMQ differently (van Dam et al. 2009). It may be relevant to explore this in future studies. Also, the study did not measure detached mindfulness as described in Wells' metacognitive theory. As such the study cannot address the relationship between mindfulness and detached mindfulness.
Measures of anxiety and depression were chosen as symptom measures because they are the most frequent emotional disorders in the population. A measure of OCD was also included as mindfulness and metacognitions have been implicated as important in OCD, however, other measures of other emotional disorders could have been included as well and a measure of global functioning would be a reasonable addition to the study. To ease burden on participants we chose to include a few brief symptom measures. Future studies should look into the relationship between mindfulness and metacognition on other symptom measures as well as measures of global functioning.
A major limitation is that convenience sampling was used and limited information about the sample is available, for example we do not know if any of the participants were treatment seeking. The uncertainty with regard to the representativeness of the sample means that we do not know if the latent structure of relationships between subscales applies in a clinical group. Several variables showed significant skewness and kurtosis and generally this would indicate that the results of the analyses should be interpreted with some caution. A single study does not implicate changes to theories of treatment. However, if further studies replicate the findings from our study using patient populations and more rigorous designs, there would be indications as to which components of mindfulness and metacognitions are most important to address in therapy.
In conclusion, the results of the present study suggest that mindfulness and metacognition traits as assessed by the FFMQ and MCQ-30 can be described by two latent factors. A large metacognition factor that correspond with the Wells and Matthews (1994) metacognitive model of dysfunctional processing and a smaller mindfulness factor that corresponds more with Buddhist-based conceptions of an experiential stance of observational acceptance. Psychological disorder symptoms were most strongly associated with the metacognition factor with little or no contribution made by mindfulness. These results imply that mindfulness as assessed by constructs such as the FFMQ is rather heterogeneous in its constituent parts, a result that is consistent with definitions of the construct that appear to combine attention and cognitive control (metacognition) with a direct experience and acceptance of the present. However, some of the most characteristic and unique feature of mindfulness; focusing on present moment experience may well be the least important from the perspective of psychological wellbeing. The results underscore the need for a greater psychological theory informed analysis.
CAS:
Cognitive attentional syndrome
FFMQ:
Five facet mindfulness questionnaire
GAD-7:
Generalized anxiety disorder 7-item
MCQ-30:
Metacognitions questionnaire 30
OCD:
OCI-R:
Obsessive-compulsive inventory revised
PHQ-9:
Patient health questionnaire 9-item
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Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Mindfulness meditation for everyday life. London UK: Piatkus.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10, 144–156.
Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., & Williams, J. B. W. (2001). The PHQ‐9. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 16(9), 606–613.
Manea, L., Gilbody, S., & McMillan, D. (2012). Optimal cut-off score for diagnosing depression with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9): a meta-analysis. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 184, E191–196. doi:10.1503/cmaj.110829.
Nelson, T. O. (1996). Consciousness and metacognition. American Psychologist, 51, 102–116. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.51.2.102.
Nelson, T. O., & Narens, L. (1994). Why investigate metacognition? In J. Metcalfe & A. P. Shimamura (Eds.), Metacognition (pp. 1–26). Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press.
Park, T., Reilly-Spong, M., & Gross, C. R. (2013). Mindfulness: a systematic review of instruments to measure an emergent patient-reported outcome (PRO). Quality of Life Research, 22, 2639–2659. doi:10.1007/s11136-013-0395-8.
Segal, Z. V., Williams, J. M. G., & Teasdale, J. D. (2013). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression. New York: The Guilford Press.
Solem, S., Hjemdal, O., Vogel, P. A., & Stiles, T. C. (2010). A Norwegian version of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised: psychometric properties. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 509–516. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9450.2009.00798.x.
Spada, M. M., Nikčević, A. V., Moneta, G. B., & Wells, A. (2008). Metacognition, perceived stress, and negative emotion. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 1172–1181. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.11.010.
Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. W., & Löwe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: The gad-7. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166, 1092–1097. doi:10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092.
Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., & Williams, J. B. (1999). Validation and utility of a self-report version of PRIME-MD: the PHQ primary care study. Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders. Patient Health Questionnaire. JAMA, 282(18), 1737–1744.
Van Dam, N. T., Earleywine, M., & Danoff-Burg, S. (2009). Differential item function across meditators and non-meditators on the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 516–521. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.05.005.
Van Dam, N. T., Hobkirk, A. L., Danoff-Burg, S., & Earleywine, M. (2012). Mind your words: positive and negative items create method effects on the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire. Assessment, 19, 198–204. doi:10.1177/1073191112438743.
Wells, A. (1990). Panic disorder in association with relaxation induced anxiety: An attentional training approach to treatment. Behavior Therapy, 21, 273-280. doi:10.1016/S0005-7894(05)80330-2.
Wells, A. (2005). Detached mindfulness in cognitive therapy: A metacognitive analysis and ten techniques. Journal of Rational Emotive and Cognitive Behavior Therapy, 23, 337–355.
Wells, A. (2009). Metacognitive therapy for anxiety and depression. New York: Guilford press.
Wells, A., & Cartwright-Hatton, S. (2004). A short form of the metacognitions questionnaire: properties of the MCQ-30. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42, 385–396. doi: 10.1016/S0005-7967(03)00147-5.
Wells, A., & Matthews, G. (1994). Attention and emotion: A clinical perspective. Hove UK: Erlbaum (Psychology Press).
Wells, A., & Matthews, G. (1996). Modelling cognition in emotional disorder: The S-REF model. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34, 881–888.
The authors wish to thank all the participants who took part in the study. The study was conducted as part of the graduate work of SST under supervision by SS and without any further funding.
Department of psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491, Trondheim, Norway
Stian Solem
, Susanne Semb Thunes
, Odin Hjemdal
, Roger Hagen
& Adrian Wells
St. Olavs University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Manchester, Manchester, England
Adrian Wells
Search for Stian Solem in:
Search for Susanne Semb Thunes in:
Search for Odin Hjemdal in:
Search for Roger Hagen in:
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Correspondence to Stian Solem.
SS and SST contributed to the study design and data collection. SS, SST, and OH conducted the statistical analysis. SS, SST, OH, RH and AW interpreted the data and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Solem, S., Thunes, S.S., Hjemdal, O. et al. A Metacognitive Perspective on Mindfulness: An Empirical Investigation. BMC Psychol 3, 24 (2015) doi:10.1186/s40359-015-0081-4


text:
Father George Coyne. S.J., Ph.D. – Jaki Lecture 2012
Fr. Coyne's lecture is entitled "The Dance of the Fertile Universe: Chance and Destiny Embrace" and explores the immense quantity and variety in the universe which contains about 100 billion galaxies each of which contain on the average 200 billion stars.
George Coyne is a Catholic priest, member of the Society of Jesus or Jesuits, and a world renowned astronomer. Father Coyne served as the Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, and is currently President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. He is considered to be one of the leading intellectuals on the topics of the interaction between science and religion.
YouTube SubscribeSubscribe to Vatican Observatory YouTube Channel
Reflections on the passing of Fr. George Coyne
By Br. Guy Consolmagno | 21 Feb 2020
Fr. George V. Coyne SJ (1933-2020)
From The Back Yard: Astronomical Retrospect Of 2019
By Fr. James Kurzynski | 6 Jan 2020
Coyne vs. Bellarmine
By Mr. Christopher Graney | 16 Oct 2021 | Sacred Space Astronomy
George COYNE en Lucette Verboven 'Do good science!'
Risk, Reward, and Remembrance: A Thank You to Fr. George Coyne, SJ
By Fr. James Kurzynski | 17 Feb 2020

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I've never done a tutorial before so i apologise if it is hard to follow, or if it is too patronising! This tutorial shows you how to make a corner hammock with a hole at the back, But the principles are essential the same without it, i will discuss this as I go along. Ok so here goes!
1) First you will need to cut a 50cm by 30cm rectangle from your desired fabrics. I am using here 3 layers, just because I want it to be thicker and one of my layers is cotton, but two layers is usually fine. My outer layers are the music note cotton and the blue fleece. the brown fleece is my padding layer.
2)Then you need to cut the rectangle into a sloped sided shape(trapezoid).
To do this fold the rectangle in half, and cut an angle from 15cm high accross.
If you are creating a hammock with a hole in the corner follow these next two steps, if not jump to step 6.


text:
Q: Cumulative Distinct Numbers and Reset i want to create a two columns about unique values in a rows. And another when get to 25 distinct values.
Let take a example:
raffle  Bola1 Ball2 Ball3 Ball4 Ball5 Ball6 Ball7 Ball8 Ball9 Ball10 Ball11 Ball12 Ball13 Ball14 Ball15
2     23    15    05    04    12    16    20    06    11     19     24     01     09     13     07
3     20    23    12    08    06    01    07    11    14     04     16     10     09     17     24
4     16    05    25    24    23    08    12    02    17     18     01     10     04     19     13
5     15    13    20    02    11    24    09    16    04     23     25     12     08     19     01
6     23    19    01    05    07    21    16    10    15     25     06     02     12     04     17
7     22    04    15    08    16    14    21    23    12     01     25     19     07     10     18
8     19    16    18    09    13    08    05    25    17     10     06     15     01     22     20
9     21    04    17    05    03    13    16    09    20     24     25     19     11     15     10
10    24    19    08    23    06    02    20    11    09     03     04     10     05     12     14
11    24    09    08    19    20    22    06    10    11     16     07     25     23     02     12
12    11    05    25    01    09    08    16    04    07     24     17     02     12     14     10
13    13    06    10    05    08    14    03    11    16     15     09     17     19     07     23
14    14    21    13    19    20    06    09    05    07     23     18     01     15     02     25
15    23    06    21    04    10    24    16    01    15     02     08     19     12     18     25
16    24    17    05    08    07    12    13    02    15     10     19     25     23     21     06
17    13    20    17    01    06    07    02    14    05     09     16     19     03     21     18
18    02    23    10    07    11    14    17    22    15     06     24     08     19     20     18
19    15    17    10    23    11    24    13    14    06     02     08     05     20     16     07
20    04    09    08    24    16    20    03    17    18     19     07     06     23     14     10
21    05    02    01    22    19    08    24    04    25     23     18     20     14     11     16
22    13    15    05    09    07    10    01    03    22     02     25     14     06     04     12
23    10    11    05    19    18    14    06    04    20     01     08     03     12     16     17
24    01    19    21    14    02    23    25    05    20     11     07     10     24     17     03
25    04    23    20    02    05    13    07    09    24     03     01     06     14     22     16
26    19    11    07    16    08    21    05    10    20     13     23     09     17     14     22
27    25    06    22    21    11    24    03    14    12     13     20     08     10     15     18
28    18    21    11    07    09    03    20    16    14     12     13     17     01     19     10
29    13    14    06    01    24    04    08    05    17     22     21     19     20     09     16
30    22    02    01    17    08    04    19    20    11     14     06     21     07     23     03

I have 15 distinct values, in first rows,
I have plus 6 distinct values, in second rows,
I have plus 3 distinct values, in a third rows,
On the seven row, i complete all numbers, 25 distinct values,
I need to memory this information, like this
raffle Ball1 Ball15 unique_balls group
1        16     02     15      1
2        22     19     21      1
...
7        24     10     25      1
8         8     1      15       2

When i get to 25 distinct values, i indicate another group!
I have more than 1 hundread raffle, help me!

A: If you want to calculate unique values in each row and also carry it forward till the threshold is reached, we can use a for loop
num <- numeric(length = 0L) #Vector to store unique values
threshold <- 25  #Threshold value to reset
df$group <- 1  #Initialise all group values to 1
count <- 1     #Variable to keep the count of unique groups

#For every row in the dataframe
for (i in seq_len(nrow(df))) {
    #Get all the unique values from previous rows before threshold was reached
    #and append new unique values for this row
    num <- unique(c(num, as.integer(df[i, ])))

    #If the length of unique values reaches the threshold
    if (length(num) >= threshold) {
         df$group[i] <- count
         #Empty the unique values vector
         num <- numeric(length = 0L)
         #Increment the group count by 1
         count = count + 1
     }
     else {
        #If the threshold is not reached, continue the previous count
        df$group[i] <- count
     }
}

df$group
# [1] 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 7

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Eminem To Give Super Bowl Halftime Show A Motor City Vibe
Jojo Girard Published: October 1, 2021
Eminem will be featured in a hip hop flavored Super Bowl LVI halftime show announced Thursday. So how many Michiganders have been featured in Super Bowl halftime shows? The answer lies below.
A day after serving food at the grand opening of his new restaurant in Detroit, our own Slim Shady was named to perform at the Super Bowl LVI halftime show in Los Angeles.
The game will be played at SoFi Stadium on February 13, 2022.
Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers will join hip hop legends Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre to headline the show with featured performers Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar.
Halftime sponsor Pepsi tweeted the lineup Thursday.
The show will be produced by Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by Jay-Z.
The Super Bowl will air on NBC (locally WOOD-TV 8)and Telemundo and stream on Peacock.
Eminem has yet to comment as of this writing about his selection.
The last Michigan resident to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show was Madonna back in 2012 at Super Bowl XLVI.
So how many total Michigan residents have performed at Super Bowl halftime shows?
Quite a few actually, especially if you count all 200-some odd members of the University of Michigan marching band who performed way back in 1973 at Super Bowl VII.
Other Michigan halftime performers from the Mitten State include Diana Ross at Super Bowl XXX in 1996. Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves and the members of the Temptations did a Motown tribute back in 1998 at Super Bowl XXXII and the aforementioned Madonna in 2012.
So the answer is 217. Give or take a few marching band members.
Five Artists Who Could Organize a Michigan Charity Concert
Categories: Celebrity News, Michigan News, Music News
Jeopardy Star Ken Jennings Tweets His Love For Gerald R. Ford International Airport
How Many Of These Songs That Mention Michigan Do You Know?


text:
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VAQUEROS HONORED TO FACE SANTOS LAGUNA U20s ON JULY 4TH
FORT WORTH _ The Vaqueros will celebrate Fourth of July with an exhibition match against popular Mexican club Santos Laguna's U20 side.
The exhibition game marks the second this season against a club from Mexico as the Vaqueros are slated to face Monterrey Rayados' U20 side on June 30.
The match is slated for 7:30 p.m. at Texas Wesleyan University's Martin Field.
"We can think of no better way to celebrate Independence Day than with a soccer match," Vaqueros Director of Business Operations Tobias Xavier Lopez said. "We had a great time last summer on July 4th and expect to do the same this year. We want to thank Jarritos and the Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau for helping make this match happen."
Santos Laguna hold the current Liga MX title. Santos was founded in 1983 and made its first appearance in the top division five years later in 1988. They managed to stay in the top two flights ever since. Santos have won the Liga MX five times: Invierno 1996, Verano 2001, Clausura 2008, 2012, & 2015, the Copa MX once in 2014, the Campeon de Campeones in 2014-15, and InterLiga once in 2004. In international play they have been runners-up in the CONCACAF Champions League twice (2011-12, 2012-13).
Fort Worth has played international exhibitions every season with a match against the El Salvador U21 national team in 2014 and Japan's RKU last year.
Tickets for the Santos Laguna match are the normal Vaqueros price of $10 for adults and $5 for youth 6-16. Vaqueros season seat holders get in free as always by wearing their official UN1TUS Vaqueros jersey.
A $15 two-game Mexico Showcase package is available for the Monterrey Rayados U20 match on June 30 and the Santos Laguna U20 match on July 4.
Tickets can be purchased online at the Vaqueros Gear Shop https://fortworthvaqueros.myshopify.com or at the gate.
2016 south
CHICAGO MUSTANGS TURN UP THE HEAT ON MINNESOTA TWINSTARS
BOSTON CITY FC DEFENDS FOUR-MATCH UNBEATEN RUN AT HOME TO KINGSTON STOCKADE ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT
Lipsher and Burnett Bring Impressive Resumes to Minneapolis City SC
National Premier Soccer League | © 2021 | All Rights Reserved


Festivals in Placerville, CA. Craft Shows, Festivals, Film Festivals.
A State Fair organized by El Dorado County Fair Assoc., Inc..
This California State Fair will have commercial/retail and corp./information exhibitors, and 40 food booths. There will be 6 stages with National, Regional and Local talent and the hours will be Thu 12pm-12 midnight, Fri 12pm-12 midnight, Sat 10am-12 midnight, Sun 12pm-10pm. Admission tickets are $8 - $10. This event will also include: wide variety, carnival.
An Art Competition organized by Placerville Arts Association.
This California Art Competition will have fine art exhibitors and no food booths.
A Craft Show organized by High Hill Farm Festival.
This California Craft Show will have Fine Art, Fine Craft and Crafts exhibitors, and no food booths. This event will also include: hay & pony rides, farm experiences, outdoor bbq, apple pie, kids' activities, beer & wine.
An Antiques Collectibles Show organized by Placerville Downtown Association.
This California Antiques Collectibles Show will have Antique/Collectibles exhibitors and 4 food booths.
A Music Festival organized by Hangtown.
This California Music Festival will have crafts, commercial/retail and corp./information exhibitors, and tba food booths. There will be 1 stage with National, Regional and Local talent and the hours will be Thu 12pm-Sun 11pm. Admission tickets are $40 - $1000.
A Film Festival organized by El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce.
This California Film Festival will have Fine Art, Fine Craft, Crafts, Film, Commercial/Retail and Corp./Information exhibitors, and local food booths. This event will also include i love film mixer.
A Family & Kids Festival organized by Boa Vista Orchards.
This California Family & Kids Festival will have Fine Art, Fine Craft, Crafts, Homegrown Products and Antique/Collectibles exhibitors, and 6 food booths. This event will also include: bunny photos, kids area, princess photos, games, adult egg hunt.


text:
Pope Francis appeals for peace with Shimon Peres, Mahmoud Abbas
by Josephine McKenna, Religion News Service
Vatican City — As Israel continued its ground offensive into the Gaza Strip, Pope Francis urged Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to end the spiraling conflict.
The pontiff telephoned the two leaders Friday to express "his very serious concerns" only six weeks after both joined him at the Vatican for a historic prayer meeting.
Francis said he was concerned about the "climate of growing hostility, hatred and suffering" that was claiming many victims, resulting in "a serious humanitarian emergency," the Vatican said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who did not attend the Vatican prayer meeting in June, has said he is prepared to "significantly widen" Israel's action against militants in the Gaza Strip.
Thousands of troops moved into areas of Gaza on Thursday night, backed by tanks and artillery fire, while Hamas, the Palestinian organization that controls Gaza, has warned Israel will "pay a high price" for the invasion.
At the end of the joint prayer service with Peres and Abbas in June, Francis urged the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to act with courage and seek peace in the Middle East.
Given the rapidly degenerating situation in Gaza, the pope's plea now seems like a very dim prospect.
The Vatican said the pope considers the two men to be "men of peace" and Francis reminded the two leaders of the need for both sides and those who hold political office to work to end the hostilities and promote peace.
The pope also sent a personal message to 200 Catholic missionaries working in Gaza to express his support and tell them he was praying for them, according to the Italian daily La Stampa.
World | Pope Francis appeals for peace with Shimon Peres, Mahmoud Abbas
The Calvary of the Middle East church
The coming Palestinian State
US bishops plan to be stronger advocates for Israeli-Palestinian peace
Jerusalem, a holy site for three religions, teeters on the precipice of religious strife
USCCB official urges Tillerson to work for two-state solution in Mideast


text:
Home News Yet another faulty lift accident injures woman despite being flagged by block...
Yet another faulty lift accident injures woman despite being flagged by block residents for over a year
picture credit: CNA
In yet another faulty lift accident, Lift D in Block 542 Jurong West Ave 1 suddenly shot down from the fourth floor to the ground level while passengers tried to exit the compartment, before getting stuck halfway below ground. At least two passengers were injured while one woman had to be hospitalised
The victims' relative claims that this particular lift has been flagged due to prior incidents to the town council and their Member of Parliament but that no action has been taken for over a year. The lift is located in the ward of the chairman of the Jurong-Clementi Town Council, Mr Ang Wei Neng, – that too, in a GRC anchored by Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
Netizen Raudhah Putri shared her account of the accident which involved her family on Facebook. Raudhah wrote that her father was on his way out of the elevator when her uncle heard a snap and pulled her father back in. The lift then shot down so suddenly that if her father had not been pulled in, his leg might have been severely injured.
It appears that Raudhah's aunt was not so lucky as she allegedly injured her leg from the impact of the lift coming to a standstill after shooting down. She was subsequently hospitalised. When the lift stopped below ground level, Raudhah's father forced the lift's doors open and evacuated all the passengers but also injured his hand in the process.
Raudhah wrote that long before this latest incident, another group of boys were involved in an accident in the faulty lift although none of them were injured. "This matter was brought up to the Town Council and the MP while they made their rounds in the neighbourhood. The MP was informed about this matter upfront by the residents and even after a year, no action taken."
Yesterday there was an accident happened in the lift at Block 542 Jurong West Ave 1, Lift D. Apparently, the lift…
Posted by Raudhah Putri on Saturday, 1 July 2017


text:
Q: I can't run rspec $bundle exec rspec spec/
Could not find rake-0.9.2.2 in any of the sources
Run `bundle install` to install missing gems.

I'm totally new to Rails and trying to read the tutorial: http://ruby.railstutorial.org/chapters/static-pages#sec:TDD
However, when I try to run rspect, I get that error.
Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?
EDIT My Gemfile
source 'http://rubygems.org'

gem 'rails', '3.1.3'
gem 'sqlite3', '1.3.5'
gem 'rake', '0.9.2.2'

group :development do
  gem 'rspec-rails', '2.8.1'
end

group :test do
  gem 'rspec-rails', '2.8.1'
  gem 'webrat', '0.7.3'
end

gem 'jquery-rails'

A: You might want to add
gem "rake", '0.9.2.2'

to your gemfile (under gem 'rails' or what so ever..).
Run bundle install afterwards
Then run bundle exec rspec spec at last.
Will this work for you? If not, any error messages?
If there are error messages please type rake -V and bundle exec rake -V in your console and share us the versions!


DMK President M Karunanidhi demanded that India not participate in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet in Colombo in November this year and warned of protests if its demand was not accepted by the Centre.
He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should clearly convey to Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister G L Peiris during his scheduled visit tomorrow that India would not participate in the meeting.
On the frequent attacks on Indian fishermen, he observed that though the Centre had repeatedly been writing to the island nation on the issue it seems those requests had not yielded any results.
External Affairs Minister G L Peiris will visit India tomorrow to deliver the invitation for the Indian premier to participate at CHOGM.
Discussions are also to be held on the fishermen's issues and also regarding the Northern Provincial Council election.
However the JHU says that the role of the Tamilnadu state government was an indication of invasion of Sri Lanka's sovereignty.
Media Spokesperson Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe expressed these views.


text:
Acne Dysmorphia
by Carly Albright November 18, 2021
TIGGER WARNING TALKING ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH.
Acne Dysmorphia, what is it?
Acne Dysmorphia is a form of BMD (body dysmorphia) and what is that even?
The definition of BMD is
A mental illness involving obsessive focus on a perceived flaw in appearance.
The flaw may be minor or imagined. But the person may spend hours a day trying to fix it. The person may try many cosmetic procedures or exercise to excess.
People with this disorder may frequently examine their appearance in a mirror, constantly compare their appearance with that of others, and avoid social situations or photos.
Treatment may include counseling and antidepressant medication.
Theres no surprises that acne can effect your mental health. If you've ever had acne or currently struggle with acne, you know how draining it is. That's because society has taught us unrealistic beauty standers at a very young age, unfortunately. If you're on the internet at all, that's all you see is retouched photo's of literally everyone around you. That alone can be a lot of pressure on someone struggling with body image.
Acne dysmorphia can be triggered by those unrealistic standards - making you think theres more things wrong with your skin than there really is. Being fixated on a minor imperfection. Acne dysmorphia can be like ptsd if you've ever had your acne treated, now managed but you're still so obsessed with the fact that you've had breakouts that your mind is telling you that you still do and that's what you see when you look at yourself. It can be fear of thinking your acne is coming back after getting it managed, this can be very stressful and overwhelming. If you've ever had any sort of body dysmorphia you're more at risk to have ADM.
ADM can come after struggling with acne.
I've come here to tell you having BDM or any forms of BDM you're absolutely not alone. Growing up with BDM is something I've personally have dealt with from a very young age to present. It can be extremely debilitating and dark at times. I used to be so ashamed to talk about it, because telling someone who's never experienced its hard for them to understand what that feels like. I personally never liked to because of the reactions that I'd get ex) "shut up no you don't" "you're crazy" "she probably just wants attention" things like that are hard to hear when its something you feel like you physically see in the mirror. Please be gentle on how you react to people who open up about their feelings. I say this to maybe help anyone who also deals with BDM. My email or inbox is always open to listen & help as best as possible.
I want to drop some tips that I feel like help me on a day where my BDM is at its worst.
Get up & move your body.
Go outside for fresh air - like a walk, jog even just standing outside.
Journal about your feelings because what you're feeling in this moment is valid.
Learn about your disorder, it can empower you to stick with your treatments.
Speak with a therapist & come up with a treatment plan.
Don't isolate yourself.
Find a support group, Im here for you.
Don't make and life changing decisions when you're at your lowest.
Reduce how often you look in the mirror.
Make a to do list for that day, stay focused.
Avoid speaking negative about yourself, practice positive affirmations even if you might not believe them in the moment.
Note that its just a bad day not a bad life, this too shall past.
Find ways to relax like yoga, reading a book, stay off the internet.
Back to SKIN TIPS WITH CARLY


text:
Features · New York
The Cost of a New York City Billboard
By boricua01 on September 24, 2021
If you have been to New York City, you have probably seen the big, bold, and beautiful billboards that light up the sky. Seeing the beautiful neon signs in Time Square at night is such a sight to behold, but it can be quite a costly sight as well. Read on to learn about the cost of a New York City Billboard and to learn about the types of billboards that are available in The Big Apple.
Types of Billboards in NYC
There are several different kinds of New York billboards, and each one can reach a wide audience. According to Times Square NYC, there are anywhere from 380,000 to 460,000 people that go through Times Square alone on a daily basis, so these ads are coveted space for advertisers. Let's learn about some of the different types of billboards that are available in NYC.
Digital Billboards and Signage
Digital billboards are some of the most sought after displays for advertisers, as these high-tech installations glow with LEDs and HD displays, and are truly captivating. These digitized billboards and signs are truly a marketer's dream, as the signs can display everything from colorful graphics, photos, text, and even video, all on a timed loop.
Times Square advertising receives around 1.5 million impressions day to day, due to pedestrians, social media, TV, and shows in the area, which makes this an advertiser's dream. For New Years Eve each year, the streets of Times Square are filled with people to watch the ball drop. After all of the appearances from TV shows, concerts, and movies are factored in, those billboards are seen by around 150 million people each year.
So while they are very grand, digital billboards in areas like Time Square can cost a pretty penny. If you are looking to buy a Times Square billboard for one day, it typically costs anywhere between $5,000 and $50,000. If you are looking to buy advertising space on one of these billboards, costs typically range between $1 million and $4 million a year, and depending on the size and location of the sign, this number could go even higher.
However, if you are looking at costs of a digital billboard in other parts of NYC, the price is a bit cheaper, and usually starts around $725, and goes up from there.
All in all, there are hundreds of digital billboard locations all across New York City, and they can be a great option for advertisers.
Traditional Static Billboards
As for static billboards, these are typically also very large displays that can be seen by pedestrians, people sitting in traffic in the city or on major highways, and they offer 24/7 exposure of an advertisement. Unlike the digital billboards, traditional static billboards do not have to share ad space. While traditional billboards may not have as vibrant of colors as digital billboards, they can still be used in very creative ways.
The cost of a traditional static billboard in NYC is definitely cheaper than a digital billboard, with costs starting at around $200, and the average cost being around $2.5 thousand for a four week long campaign.
Wallscapes
New York City is also known for its creative use of advertising via wallscapes. Wallscapes can be very elaborate, such as a painted ad or mural on the side of a building. Or, they can be a more simple ad attached directly to a brick wall, on the side of the exterior of a building, or on the facade of a retail store. Wallscape advertising can reach many pedestrians in NYC, and some driving around the city as well. Wallscapes typically rival large billboard ads and can cost anywhere from $400 to around $12.5 thousand as an average cost, for a four week campaign.
In conclusion, the cost of a New York City billboard is made up of several factors including the type, size, and location of the billboard. If you are looking for a lower cost option, consider a traditional static billboard either in the city or along a major street or highway. If you have a large budget and really want your ad to stand out, consider upgrading to a digital billboard in a prime part of town such as Times Square, Manhattan, the Financial District, SoHo, or the Lower East Side. These areas will be full of foot traffic and cars alike.
All in all, New York City is one of the hottest spots for advertising in the country, and using a New York City billboard for your next ad campaign will be sure to boost your business.
billboards, New York City, times square billboards