The goal of this research was to examine age and gender differences in mindfulness on Bosnian general population. The study was conducted on a sample of 441 participants from the general population, from twelve cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a measure of mindfulness we used Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire. Results showed that older participants' scores were higher than for younger participants for all aspects of mindfulness. There was found a statistically significant difference between the three age groups on the subscales of Acting with awareness F(2, 435) = 7.39, p < .01 and of Non-judging of inner experience F(2, 428) = 5.67, p < .01. We found statistically significant difference for the Acting with awareness between 20-32 age group (M = 28.57, SD = 5.66) and 33-49 age group (M = 31.01, SD = 5.00, t(292) = -3.91, p < .001), and between 20-32 age group and 50+ group (M = 30.14, SD = 5,86, t(290) = -2.32, p < .05). Also, there was a significant difference for the Non-judging between 20-32 age group (M = 24.77, SD = 5.80) and 33-49 age group (M = 26.65, SD = 5.09, t(288) = -2.94, p < .01), and between 20-32 age group and 50+ group (M = 26.49, SD = 4.90, t(287) = -2,71, p < .05). According to the t-test results, there was statistically significant gender difference between the subscales Observing (t(432) = -2.259, p < . 05) and Acting with awareness (t(432) = 2.197, p < .05), women scored higher than men on the subscale Observing, while men exhibited higher scores on the subscale Acting with awareness. Results of this research showed that there were found significant age and gender differences for some aspects of mindfulness in the sample of Bosnian general population.Keywords: mindfulness, age, gender, differences Psychological Thought, 2017, Vol. 10(1), 155-166, doi:10.5964/psyct.v10i1.224 Received: 2017-01-14. Accepted: 2017-03-02. Published (VoR): 2017-04-28.Handling Editors: Marius Drugas, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania; Stanislava Stoyanova, South-West University "Neofit Rilski", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria *Corresponding author at: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, Franje Rackog 1, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia. E-mail: sabina_alispahic@hotmail.com This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Mindfulness can be defined as the degree of awareness that is achieved by purposefully paying attention to the present moment, without judging it (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). Since the launch of the first empirical research conducted on this topic (Kabat-Zinn, 1982) numerous studies have shown the positive effects of increased mindfulness -on life-satisfaction, vitality, self-esteem, empathy, optimism, integrity, or positive affect -and its contribution to reducing the difficulties with emotional dysregulation, depression, neuroticism, rumination, social anxiety, and...

The results of this study indicate the importance of further research on therapist's interpersonal style, as well as further validation of the instrument that measures this construct. Besides, a client's perception that the therapy is being helpful could instigate more explorative and approach-oriented behavior, what indirectly might contribute to a client's stability.

The academic literature shows that by helping tune out distractions, goals can get individuals' to try harder, work longer, and achieve more. Goals that people set for themselves and that are devoted to attaining mastery are usually healthy. But goals imposed by others—sales targets, quarterly returns, standardized test scores—can sometimes have dangerous side effects (Pink, 2009). Because understanding action demands understanding intention, the idea of motivation is natural and readily expressed in everyday language. Cognitive mental events like goals and expectancies can function as a “spring to action”, a moving force that energizes and directs action in purposive ways (Reeve, 2005). Cognitive studies of motivation are dealing with relationship between cognition and action. Literature is indicating a few cognitive elements that can have motivational significance. The article presents the overview of theory and research about the motivational function of plans and goals, according to Goal setting theory (Locke & Latham, 1990) and Self-determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Suggestions for additional research are also indicated

Introduction: The aim of this study was to determine the demographic and clinical characteristics of Bosnian and Herzegovinian patients involved in psychotherapeutic treatments in order to explore the current situation of psychotherapy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.Methods: The study included 213 patients (154 women and 47 men) undergoing diverse psychotherapeutic treatments. Data about demographic and clinical characteristics were collected by questionnaire. Following characteristics were documented: age, sex, education, employment status, marital status, specific problem that got the client involved in psychotherapy, type of psychotherapy, and use of psychopharmacology.Results: Majority of the patients undergoing psychotherapy are age up to 40 and female. They are by vast majority holding a university degree and are employed. Nearly equal number of patients is living in partnership or marriage compared to single or never been married. Most frequent reasons for getting involved in the psychotherapy treatment are of the intrapersonal nature (depression, anxiety and panic attacks). Majority of the patients were involved in gestalt and cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, and at the same time majority of those were not prescribed medicaments.Conclusions: We point out and overview some of the most prominent socio-demographic traits of patients undergoing psychotherapy, the ones that could be important in the future research with the higher degree of control. In the terms of personal initiative, psychotherapy stops being a taboo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, there is still a long path until it reaches integration in daily life of the people.

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