title: Self-focused attention and negative affect: a meta-analysis.
abstract: This meta-analysis synthesized 226 effect sizes reflecting the relation between self-focused attention and negative affect (depression, anxiety, negative mood). The results demonstrate the multifaceted nature of self-focused attention and elucidate major controversies in the field. Overall, self-focus was associated with negative affect. Several moderators qualified this relationship. Self-focus and negative affect were more strongly related in clinical and female-dominated samples. Rumination yielded stronger effect sizes than nonruminative self-focus. Self-focus on positive self-aspects and following a positive event were related to lower negative affect. Most important, an interaction between foci of self-attention and form of negative affect was found: Private self-focus was more strongly associated with depression and generalized anxiety, whereas public self-focus was more strongly associated with social anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. nmor@wam.umd.edu
authors.forename: Nilly
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mor
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Winquist
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D012931:Social Environment