Self-focused attention in clinical disorders: review and a conceptual model.
Working largely independently, numerous investigators have explored the role of self-focused attention in various clinical disorders. This article reviews research examining increased self-focused attention in these disorders. Results indicate that regardless of the particular disorder under investigation, a heightened degree of self-focused attention is found. Hence, as ordinarily conceptualized, self-focused attention has little discriminatory power among different psychological disorders. Using information processing constructs, a somewhat different model of self-focused attention is proposed, and it is suggested that certain deviations in this process constitute a psychopathological kind of attention. A meta-construct model of descriptive psychopathology is then outlined to examine how certain aspects of attention can be considered specific to certain disorders and others common to different disorders.
Ingram
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Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, California 92182-0551.
D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept