On the relationship between self-focused attention and psychological disorder: a critical reappraisal.
A recent review of the literature on the role of self-focused attention in psychological dysfunction (Ingram, 1990) is critically examined. This article (a) reexamines the evidence relevant to Ingram's proposal that self-awareness is a nonspecific factor involved in virtually all forms of psychopathology and argues that this conclusion is not warranted by the existing evidence; (b) takes issue with his premise that the fact that self-awareness is associated with a variety of psychological dysfunctions poses a conceptual dilemma; (c) corrects several important inaccuracies and mischaracterizations in his presentation of Carver and Scheier's (1981) cybernetic control theory and Pyszczynski and Greenberg's (1987) self-regulatory perseveration theory; and (d) critiques the "self-absorption" model that he proposed as an alternative to extant theories and concludes that this conceptualization does not add to the understanding of either self-awareness processes or psychopathology.
Pyszczynski
T
T
Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs 80933-7150.
Greenberg
J
J
Hamilton
J
J
Nix
G
G
D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D010553:Personality Development; D012307:Risk Factors; D012649:Self Concept