In the health psychology literature there has been a proliferation of research linking forms
of self-attention to psychological distress, especially to depression. The broad conclusion that
self-attention is harmful, however, challenges the central premise of self-regulation theory - a
theory detailing the role of self-attention as the engine of an adaptive regulating system that
enables people to achieve their goals. In an attempt to reconcile these perspectives, I conducted
two studies to distinguish the forms and states of self-attention that serve an adaptive self-regulation
function from those that create a vulnerability to depression.
Both studies included a pretest and a daily diary component. Participants were pretested
on trait self-attention, trait negative affectivity (Study 1), depression (Study 2), and a goal
inventory. Study 2 included a follow-up session where participants again completed the
depression inventory. For the diary component, participants described and rated the most
negative event they experienced during the rating period (twice daily for 2 weeks in Study 1;
once daily for 4 weeks in Study 2). Diary self-report measures of self-attention included: level
of rumination (Study 1), initial self-analysis (Study 2), and multi-day-protracted attention (Study
2). After the diaries were completed, participants' event descriptions were coded for goal-relevance
and level of self-focused attention (SFA).
Consistent with self-regulation theory, participants' goal-related events elicited stronger
self-attentional responses (higher levels of SFA, rumination, initial self-analysis, and protracted
attention) than did their goal-unrelated events. These within-person effects were not moderated
by the pretest measures, nor did they predict levels of emotional distress. Thus, in daily life it
appears to be typical and not harmful for people to respond to goal-setbacks by engaging in
elevated levels of introspection, self-analysis, and even negative, symptom-focused rumination.
With respect to individual differences, people higher in pretest rumination and in chronic daily
rumination, initial self-analysis and protracted attention experienced higher levels of emotional
distress. Chronic daily levels of initial self-analysis and rumination predicted emotional distress
after controlling for pretest levels of distress. Thus, self-attention appears to create a
vulnerability to depression only when people have chronic difficulty containing initial levels of
self-analysis and rumination in response to negative events. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/10788 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Lavallee, Loraine F. |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 6002432 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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