This proposal is aimed at studying chronic differences in attentional processes as a vulnerability factor for psychological distress. Specifically, a kind of attentional process, self-focused attention, studied by a number of social-cognitive researchers has been implicated as a risk factor for exacerbated emotional distress in response to stressful life events. Self-focused attention is defined as attention directed inwardly toward the self as opposed to externally toward other individuals. Researchers studying this cognitive process have identified a number of cognitive and emotional correlates as well as establishing individual differences in the tendency to be self-focused across diverse situations. To date, however, studies examining chronic self-focused attention as a risk factor have either not controlled for pre-existing symptoms in individuals selected for high levels of self-focusing or have not determined the mechanisms by which this process may lead to increased reactivity to stressful events. The purpose of the current proposal is to appropriately control for pre-existing emotional distress in chronically self-focused individuals and to investigate potential reactivity mechanisms. In particular, individuals selected for varying levels of chronic self- focus and emotional distress will be exposed to a stressful laboratory task and measures of cognitive, affective, and physiological variables will be assessed. This procedure will allow for an assessment of the various levels at which chronically self- focused individuals respond to stressful events as well as test several hypotheses as to the mechanisms of these responses.
