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Dysphoria and Specificity in Self-Focused Attention

Center for Research in Human Development and Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

Constantina Giannopoulos

Center for Research in Human Development and Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

Patricia Ciank

Center for Research in Human Development and Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

Morris Mendelson

Center for Research in Human Development and Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

The hypothesis was that dysphoric individuals' greater self focused attention reflects attempts at self-understanding as opposed to awareness of their thoughts and feelings. Subjects in Study I completed the short form of the Beck Depression Inventory and the Self Consciousness Scale. As expected, more-dysphoric subjects reported higher self-reflectiveness but not higher internal state awareness. This finding was replicated in Study 2, in which subjects also completed the Attributional Complexity Scale; other results suggest that dysphoric individuals' attainment of higher scores on the Attributional Complexity Scale, which includes self-referent items, is intrinsically related to their tendency for self reflection. Dysphoric individuals may engage in self-reflection because of poor understanding of self; various indexes of maladjustment seem associated with a poor understanding of self Other possible causal links are discussed

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