Cognitive Control, Cognitive Hardiness, and Dispositional Mindfulness: A Mixed Methods Case Report

Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22304761

Samhita K. and Pooja Varma (Department of Psychology, School of Sciences, JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), Bangalore, Karnataka)

This mixed-methods case report explores the interplay between cognitive control, cognitive hardiness, and dispositional mindfulness using an autoethnographic design. Focusing on a single-subject sample (N=1), the study bridges quantitative psychometric indices with qualitative introspective reporting to capture the nuances of the subject’s internal psychological mechanics. The subject completed multiple trials of a cognitive control task, demonstrating high performance by outperforming approximately 8 out of 10 participants on average. Subsequently, the subject took the Hardy Personality Profile, yielding a moderate hardiness score of 8, followed by the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) (Brown & Ryan, 2003) which indicated moderate dispositional mindfulness with a total score of 53. Despite these moderate-to-high quantitative baseline scores, the qualitative autoethnographic findings revealed that while the subject can exert effortful cognitive control and occasionally experiences flow states, sustained mindfulness is heavily bottlenecked by challenges in emotional regulation. Furthermore, the subject noted mildly optimistic thoughts but reported that their default state is often “autopilot,” making mindful awareness a highly effortful process. These findings expose the limitations of relying solely on unidimensional psychometric tools, highlighting the critical need for integrated, mixed-method approaches to accurately capture the complexities of emotional regulation and everyday mindfulness. Ultimately, this research provides practical implications for advancing mindfulness interventions, resilience training, and cognitive retraining therapies by demonstrating how subjective lived experiences can contextualize raw psychometric data.