A b s tract

The Char act eristics of the Disposit ional Self- Focused Att ention
in Socially Anxious Individuals
Ji Young Lee
Department of Psychology
Graduat e School
Seoul National Univer sity
This study investigat ed the relationship of self- focused att ention t o social
anxiety and social phobia. The self- focused attention which focused on the ones
thought s, feelings, behavior s, and appearance was considered t o play a central
role in maint aining 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 Privat e Self- Consciousness
Scale. The reason is that self- focused att ention contribut es to the health and
adaptation as well as relat ed to the maladapt ation such as anxiety and
depression, and this duality of self- focused att ention is reflect ed in the Privat e
Self- Consciousness Scale. Therefore, this study aims 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- Focused Attention in
Social Situation (DSFAS) which can differentiate t wo types of dispositional
self- focused att ention in social situation, with postulating the existence of t wo
types of dispositional self- focused att ention, defensive self- focused att ention and
nondefensive self- focused att ention. Defensive self- focused att ention refers t o the
t endency t o give continuous att ention to ones specific aspect s excessively and
simult aneously be difficult t o turn his att ention to the other aspect s or external
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environment . Nondefensive self- focused attention refer s t o the t endency t o assign
ones att ention t o his various aspect s and easily turn t o ones att ention t o the
other aspect s or external environment with ones att ention not being preoccupied
with his specific aspect s. DSFAS consist s of t wo subscales ; general dispositional
self- focused att ention scale which measures the degree of paying ones attention
t o the self and self- absorption scale which measures the tendency to give
continuous att ention t o ones specific aspect s excessively and simult aneously be
difficult t o turn his att ention t o the other aspect s or external environment .
Among those who show high score on general dispositional self- focused att ention
scale, those who also show high score on self- absorption scale constitutes
defensive self- focused att ention group and those who show low score on
self- absorption scale constitut es nondefensive self- focused att ention group.
In Study I- 1, DSFAS with 30 items was developed through confirmatory
fact or analysis. The reliability and validity of the DAFAS was successfully test ed
in Study I- 2. Result s indicated that the defensive self- focused att ention group
showed significantly higher scores on trait anxiety, social anxiety, fear of
negative evaluation, and neuroticism than nondefensive self- focused attention
group, and suggest ed that t wo types of self- focused attention can be
differentiated by means of DSFAS. On the other hand, low self- focused att ention
group composed of those who fall lower 15% on general dispositional
self- focused att ention scale showed lower scores on all self- report sympt om
measures than defensive self- focused att ention 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
att ention group showed the highest score on Rosenberg Self- Est eem Scale, and
there was no significant differences bet ween low self- focused att ention group and
defensive self- focused attention group.
Study II investigat ed the relationships of dispositional self- focused att ention to
social anxiety and social phobia, using the DSFAS developed in Study I. Study
II- 1 explored the characteristics of the dispositional self- focused att ention in
subject s high in social anxiety and subject s low in social anxiety. Result s
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indicated that subject s high in social anxiety have defensive self- focused
att ention and subject s low in social anxiety have nondefensive self- focused
att ention. Study II- 2 was designed t o evaluat e the effect s of dispositional
self- focused att ention on social anxiety sympt oms in social situation. For this
purpose, defensive/ nondefensive self- focused att ention group and low self- focused
att ention group select ed by DSFAS was asked to deliver his opinion t o the
int erviewer and falsely informed that the int erview was videot aped and rat ed by
five rat er s. The result s of the experiment indicat ed that during the interview,
defensive self- focused att ention group showed the most increase in anxiety and
the most negative aut omatic thought s and perceived their anxious behavior s
exaggeratively compared to the evaluation of the int erviewer . In addition, low
self- focused att ention group showed more change in anxiety and negative
aut omatic thought s than nondefensive self- focused att ention group.
The findings of the present series of empirical studies were int erpret ed and
int egrated as follows: fir stly, t wo types of dispositional self- focused attention
differed qualit atively and could be differentiat ed each other by means of DSFAS.
Secondly, socially anxious individuals showed defensive self- focused attention.
Thirdly, those who don ' t pay attention t o the self showed lower level of social
anxiety than defensive self- focused att ention group but higher level of social
anxiety than nondefensive self- focused attention group. Finally, it would be
effective intervention for social anxiety t o transform defensive self- focused
att ention to nondefensive self- focused attention in addition to decreasing
dispositional self- focused att ention. 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 att ention, privat e
self- consciousness, general dispositional self- focused attention, self- absorption,
defensive self- focused attention, non- defensive self- focused att ention, confirmat ory
fact or analysis
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