TITLE:
Mediating Role of Decentering in the Associations between Self-Reflection, Self-Rumination, and Depressive Symptoms
AUTHORS:
Masaki Mori, Yoshihiko Tanno
KEYWORDS:
Self-Reflection, Self-Rumination, Depression, Decentering, Mediating Role
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.6 No.5,
April
16,
2015
ABSTRACT: Theorists
have suggested that self-focused attention has adaptive and maladaptive aspects
and have proposed self-rumination and self-reflection. Previous research on
self-focus and mindfulness have shown that self-rumination increases depression
and counteracts decentering which is the capacity to take a detached view of
one’s thoughts and emotions. On the contrary, although self-reflection was
defined as an adaptive type of self-focus, its contents or mode have not been
examined, and the mechanism of its contribution to psychological adjustment is
still not well understood. Hence, we explored the function of self-reflection
in relation to decentering to elucidate its adaptivity. Two-hundred and
forty-nine Japanese undergraduate students participated in our cross-sectional
questionnaire study. Mediation analysis indicated that individuals with higher
levels of self-reflection showed more decentering and less depressive symptoms
while self-ruminative participants showed less decentering and more depressive
symptoms. This result suggests that self-reflection involves decentered
self-focused attention, and its adaptive function appears when self-reflection
leads to increased decentering.