Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)

The MAAS assesses individual differences in the frequency of mindful states over time. The scale is a 15-item (1-6 Likert scale) questionnaire to assess dispositional (or trait) mindfulness.

This scale is based around the understanding that all humans have a “radar” for internal and external experience, which is awareness. Consciousness is built through harnessing the focusing of that awareness, which is attention. Mindfulness is enhanced attention to and awareness of current experience or the present moment.

This scale intentionally excludes mood, attitude, and motivation to keep dispositional mindfulness neutral as a construct. The MAAS measures one’s tendency toward mindfulness or mindlessness. Scores of the MAAS strongly correlate with self-consciousness, rumination, and self-reflection.

Below is a collection of statements about your everyday experience. Using the 1-6 scale below, please indicate how frequently or infrequently you currently have each experience.

Please answer according to what really reflects your experience rather than what you think your experience should be. Please treat each item separately from every other item.

1I could be experiencing some emotion and not be conscious of it until some time later.

2I break or spill things because of carelessness, not paying attention, or thinking of something else.

3I find it difficult to stay focused on what’s happening in the present.

4I tend to walk quickly to get where I’m going without paying attention to what I experience along the way.

5I tend not to notice feelings of physical tension or discomfort until they really grab my attention.

6I forget a person’s name almost as soon as I’ve been told it for the first time.

7It seems I am “running on automatic,” without much awareness of what I’m doing.

8I rush through activities without being really attentive to them.

9I get so focused on the goal I want to achieve that I lose touch with what I’m doing right now to get there.

10I do jobs or tasks automatically, without being aware of what I'm doing.

11I find myself listening to someone with one ear, doing something else at the same time.

12I drive places on ‘automatic pilot’ and then wonder why I went there.

13I find myself preoccupied with the future or the past.

14I find myself doing things without paying attention.

15I snack without being aware that I’m eating.

Reference

Brown, K.W. & Ryan, R.M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822-848.

Carlson, L.E. & Brown, K.W. (2005). Validation of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale in a cancer population. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 58, 29-33.

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