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A b s trac t

T he Characteristics of the Disposit ional Self- Focused Attention

in Socially Anxious Individuals

Ji Young Lee

Department of Psychology

Graduate School

Seoul National Univer sity

T his study investigated the relationship of self- focused attention to social

anxiety and social phobia. T he self- focused attention which focused on the ones

thought s, feelings, behavior s, and appearance was considered to play a central

role in maintaining and exacerbating social anxiety and social phobia. However ,

there were very few studies which have proved the relationship of self- focused

attention to social anxiety and social phobia, using the Private Self- Consciousness

Scale. T he reason is that self- focused attention contributes to the health and

adaptation as well as related to the maladaptation such as anxiety and

depression , and this duality of self- focused attention is reflected in the Private

Self- Consciousness Scale. T herefore, this study aim s to develop the scale which

can distinguish two types of self- focused attention and to investigate the

relationship of self- focused attention to social anxiety and social phobia by using

it .

Study I was carried out to develop the Dispositional Self- F ocused Attention in

Social Situation (DSFAS ) which can differentiate two types of dispositional

self- focused attention in social situation , with postulating the existence of two

types of dispositional self- focused attention, defensive self- focused attention and

nondefensive self- focused attention . Defensive self- focused attention refers to the

tendency to give continuous attention to ones specific aspect s excessively and

simultaneously be difficult to turn his attention to the other aspect s or external

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Copyright(c)2002 by Seoul National University Library. All rights reserved.(http://library.snu.ac.kr)

2003/08/23 11:09:53

environment . Nondefensive self- focused attention refer s to the tendency to assign

ones attention to his various aspect s and easily turn to ones attention to the

other aspects or external environment with ones attention not being preoccupied

with his specific aspect s. DSFAS consist s of two subscales ; general dispositional

self- focused attention scale which measures the degree of paying ones attention

to the self and self- absorption scale which measures the tendency to give

continuous attention to ones specific aspect s excessively and simultaneously be

difficult to turn his attention to the other aspect s or external environment .

Among those who show high score on general dispositional self- focused attention

scale, those who also show high score on self- absorption scale constitutes

defensive self- focused attention group and those who show low score on

self- absorption scale constitutes nondefensive self- focused attention group.

In Study I- 1, DSFAS with 30 item s was developed through confirmatory

factor analysis . T he reliability and validity of the DAFAS was successfully tested

in Study I- 2. Result s indicated that the defensive self- focused attention group

showed significantly higher scores on trait anxiety , social anxiety , fear of

negative evaluation, and neuroticism than nondefensive self- focused attention

group, and suggested that two types of self- focused attention can be

differentiated by means of DSFAS. On the other hand, low self- focused attention

group composed of those who fall lower 15% on general dispositional

self- focused attention scale showed lower scores on all self- report symptom

measures than defensive self- focused attention group and no significant

differences in all self- report symptom measures but social anxiety measure from

nondefensive self- focused attention group. By the way , nondefensive self- focused

attention group showed the highest score on Rosenberg Self- Esteem Scale, and

there was no significant differences between low self- focused attention group and

defensive self- focused attention group.

Study II investigated the relationships of dispositional self- focused attention to

social anxiety and social phobia, using the DSFAS developed in Study I. Study

II- 1 explored the characteristics of the dispositional self- focused attention in

subjects high in social anxiety and subject s low in social anxiety . Results

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indicated that subjects high in social anxiety have defensive self- focused

attention and subject s low in social anxiety have nondefensive self- focused

attention . Study II- 2 was designed to evaluate the effect s of dispositional

self- focused attention on social anxiety symptom s in social situation. For this

purpose, defensive/ nondefensive self- focused attention group and low self- focused

attention group selected by DSFAS was asked to deliver his opinion to the

interviewer and falsely informed that the interview was videotaped and rated by

five rater s. T he results of the experiment indicated that during the interview ,

defensive self- focused attention group showed the most increase in anxiety and

the most negative automatic thought s and perceived their anxious behavior s

exaggeratively compared to the evaluation of the interviewer . In addition, low

self- focused attention group showed more change in anxiety and negative

automatic thought s than nondefensive self- focused attention group.

T he findings of the present series of empirical studies were interpreted and

integrated as follow s: fir stly , two types of dispositional self- focused attention

differed qualitatively and could be differentiated each other by means of DSFAS.

Secondly , socially anxious individuals showed defensive self- focused attention.

T hirdly , those who don 't pay attention to the self showed lower level of social

anxiety than defensive self- focused attention group but higher level of social

anxiety than nondefensive self- focused attention group. Finally , it would be

effective intervention for social anxiety to transform defensive self- focused

attention to nondefensive self- focused attention in addition to decreasing

dispositional self- focused attention . Additionally , the clinical implications and the

limitations of the present research , and future research directions was discussed

Key words : social anxiety , social phobia, self- focused attention , private

self- consciousness , general dispositional self- focused attention, self- absorption ,

defensive self- focused attention, nondefensive self- focused attention , confirmatory

factor analysis

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