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About Your
Self-Assessment

The GROOVS self-assessment is based on a well-studied concept called mindful attention awareness — a specific, measurable quality of mindfulness that researchers have explored for decades.

The idea is simple: some people, some of the time, are more tuned into the present moment than others. They notice what's happening around them and within them, rather than running on autopilot. This quality of attention isn't fixed. It varies day to day, and it can be trained.

GROOVS uses the score as a starting point — a snapshot of where your attention tends to sit.

Where it comes from
Validated and widely cited

The questions are adapted from the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), developed by psychologists Kirk W. Brown and Richard M. Ryan and first published in 2003 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The MAAS was designed to measure trait mindfulness — how present and aware someone tends to be in their daily life. The original instrument has 15 questions. GROOVS uses all 15. A shorter 6-question version is also available.

Since its publication, the MAAS has been used in hundreds of studies across dozens of languages and cultures. It is one of the most widely cited mindfulness measures in the scientific literature.

How it works
Questions, one score

01
Descriptions of inattention

Each question describes a moment of mindlessness — running on autopilot, not noticing something, getting caught in thought rather than staying with the present.

02
A six-point frequency scale

Each question asks you to rate how often these things happen, from Almost Always to Almost Never. The scale runs 1 to 6. The score is the average across all your answers.

03
Higher means more present

A higher score means fewer lapses — you tend to be more present. A lower score means they happen more often. There is no pass or fail. It's a starting point, not a verdict.

The research
For the curious

Citation

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(4), 822–848.

Adapted from the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Brown & Ryan, 2003.

Original Paper (PDF)
Brown & Ryan, 2003 — selfdeterminationtheory.org
MAAS at the Penn Positive Psychology Center
Scale overview and download — ppc.sas.upenn.edu
Self-Determination Theory Website
MAAS page and related research — selfdeterminationtheory.org