Personality and Social Psychology

Research examining the influence of affect on self-focused attention has concentrated exclusively on the valence dimension (i.e., negative-positive) of affect. The authors propose that the dimension of affect orientation (i.e., reflective-social) illuminates considerably this relation.A reflective orientationrefers to a tendency for inaction, whereas a social orientation refers to a tendency for action. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that two oppositevalenced but reflective affective states (i.e., sadness and contentment) heighten self-focused attention, whereas two opposite-valenced but social affective states (i.e., thrill and anger) reduce self-focused attention. Affect was induced via an imagination task (Experiment 1) or an imagination task combined with musical selections (Experiment 2). Self-focused attention was assessed through the state version of the Private Self-Consciousness (PSC) scale (Experiment 1) or the state version of the PSC plus a behavioral intention measure (Experiment 2). The results confirmed the hypothesis.