Mindsight is a concept developed by Dr. Dan Siegel that involves developing the ability to notice and think about one’s own mind and thoughts and therefore better understand one’s own emotions and motivations. It is a tool to help people understand the relationships between the mind (emotions, thoughts, etc.), the body (physiology of anxiety, anger etc.) and relationships (interactions and connections to other minds) which might otherwise be chaotic and overwhelming in times of stress and confusion. In this study a children’s book was developed to teach mindsight in the context of anger. Before testing the effectiveness of the book on children, it is currently being pilot tested on undergraduates. I first assess how well subjects understand their own anger, and then have them read the book before measuring their understanding of their anger again. Data collection is ongoing, but so far have collected data from 11 subjects and found a wide range of responses, spanning from those who had learned Mindsight in a previous class to those who had not so much as realized that anger is a biological function triggered by their fight or flight mechanism.

Effectiveness of Mindsight Children's Book