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State Mindfulness Scale (SMS)

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Handbook of Assessment in Mindfulness Research

Abstract

The Satipatṭhāna Sutta describes mindfulness as a mental state characterized by the objects of mindful awareness (i.e., what experience a person attends to) and mental qualities of that mindful awareness (i.e., how a person attends to experience). In contemporary psychology, mindfulness is often similarly conceptualized as a trait or a state characterized by two components: attention of physical/bodily and mental present-moment experience (i.e., what experience a person attends to) and a mental attitude characterized by curiosity and acceptance of present-moment experience (i.e., how a person attends to experience; Bishop SR, Lau M, Shapiro S, Carlson L, Anderson ND, Carmody J, Devins G. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice; Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice 11:230–241, 2004; Lindsay EK, Creswell JD. Clinical Psychology Review 51:48–59, 2017). Integrating these canonical and contemporary theoretical perspectives, Tanay and Bernstein (Psychological Assessment 25:1286–1299, 2013) developed the State Mindfulness Scale (SMS). The SMS is a 21-item self-report measure designed to assess state mindfulness. More specifically, the SMS is designed to quantify subjective levels of present-moment attention to and awareness of two domains of experiential events or objects of which one may be mindful, bodily sensations and mental events, during a specific period of time (e.g., past 15 min) and context (e.g., mindfulness meditation or other activity). In this chapter, we review the theoretical foundations, development, initial validation, and subsequent psychometric study of the SMS. We also describe the SMS administration and scoring, and briefly, the limitations and possible next steps for the psychometric study of the SMS and the measurement of state mindfulness more broadly.

A. Bernstein recognizes the support of the Israel Science Foundation. Y. Hadash recognizes the support of the Mind and Life Institute Varela Award. Authors have no conflict of interest to report.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Liad Ruimi, Yuval Hadash, Galia Tanay & Amit Bernstein

Authors
  1. Liad Ruimi
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  2. Yuval Hadash
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  3. Galia Tanay
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  4. Amit Bernstein
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amit Bernstein .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Oleg N. Medvedev

  2. North Shore Campus, Auckland Univ of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Christian U. Krägeloh

  3. Dept of Psychology and Neuroscience, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Richard J. Siegert

  4. Augusta University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Nirbhay N. Singh

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Ruimi, L., Hadash, Y., Tanay, G., Bernstein, A. (2022). State Mindfulness Scale (SMS). In: Medvedev, O.N., Krägeloh, C.U., Siegert, R.J., Singh, N.N. (eds) Handbook of Assessment in Mindfulness Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77644-2_25-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77644-2_25-1

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