Skip to main content

Excessive Self-focused Attention and Defensiveness among Psychiatric Patients: A Vicious Cycle?

Hoping, Winfried, De Jong-Meyer, Renate, Abrams, Dominic (2006) Excessive Self-focused Attention and Defensiveness among Psychiatric Patients: A Vicious Cycle? Psychological Reports, 98 (2). pp. 307-317. ISSN 0033-2941. (doi:10.2466/PR0.98.2.307-317) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:35935)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/PR0.98.2.307-317

Abstract

The contribution of defensive coping to the phenomenon of excessive self-focused attention was studied in 20 depressed or anxious psychiatric outpatients comprising the negative affect group, 20 patients with psychotic disorders, and a control group of 21 patients of an orthopaedic clinic. Self-focused attention was assessed using the Self-reflectiveness and Internal State Awareness subfactors of the Private Self-consciousness Scale. In accordance with other research on self-focused attention, the negative affect group obtained higher scores on the Self-reflectiveness scale than the control group (t[sub]39[/sub]=2.40, p<.03). To examine the relationship between self-focus and defensiveness, Weinberger, Schwartz, and Davidson's approach was employed, using median splits of short forms of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale and the Marlowe-Crowne scale to differentiate among four groups of subjects. The highest self-reflectiveness was found for those participants who were high in both defensiveness and anxiety. This group scored higher than the nondefensive high anxious group (t[sub]30[/sub]=-2.31, p<.03). The heightened self-focused attention might result from automatically instigated states of self-focused attention and paradoxical effects of defensive efforts to avoid self-focus.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.2466/PR0.98.2.307-317
Uncontrolled keywords: excessive self focused attention, defensiveness, defensive coping, psychiatric patients, psychotic disorders, depression, anxiety
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User: M.L. Barnoux
Date Deposited: 01 Nov 2013 15:43 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:13 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/35935 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.