Psychology, 2016, 7, 6-11 Published Online January 2016 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/psych http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2016.71002 How to cite this paper: Uchino, B. N., Bowen, K., Kent de Grey, R. G., Smith, T. W., Baucom, B. R., Light, K. C., & Ray, S. (2016). Loving-Kindness Meditation Improves Relationship Negativity and Psychological Well-Being: A Pilot Study. Psychol- ogy, 7, 6-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2016.71002 Loving-Kindness Meditation Improves Relationship Negativity and Psychological Well-Being: A Pilot Study Bert N. Uchino 1* , Kimberly Bowen 1 , Robert G. Kent de Grey 1 , Timothy W. Smith 1 , Brian R. Baucom 1 , Kathleen C. Light 2 , Shirley Ray 3 1 Department of Psychology and Health Psychology Program, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA 2 Department of Anesthesiology University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA 3 Insight Mindfulness Meditation of Salt Lake, Salt Lake City, USA Received 5 September 2015; accepted 2 January 2016; published 5 January 2016 Copyright © 2016 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Most interventions on relationships and health have focused on altering positive aspects of rela- tionship such as social support. Given the separability of positive and negative aspects of rela- tionships it is less clear if such interventions can also influence relationship negativity. This pilot study of 9 individuals tested the influence of a novel 6-week loving-kindness meditation (LKM) intervention on changes over time in social support, social negativity, depression, and life satis- faction. Consistent with past work, LKM participants showed increases in perceived support and decreases in depression. Extending prior work, LKM participants also showed decreases in social negativity, which was more closely linked to changes in depression compared to social support. These data suggest the feasibility of using LKM to increase relationship positivity, decrease rela- tionship negativity, and enhance psychological well-being. Keywords Social Support, Social Negativity, Loving-Kindness Meditation, Well-Being 1. Introduction The quality of one’s social relationships has been reliably-related to both mental and physical health outcomes (Holt-Lunstad, Smith, & Layton, 2010). As a result, interventions to improve psychological and physical * Corresponding author.