Within-person variations in self-focused attention and negative affect in depression and anxiety: A diary study Nilly Mor Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel Leah D. Doane, Emma K. Adam, Susan Mineka, Richard E. Zinbarg, and James W. Griffith Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA Michelle G. Craske, Allison Waters, and Maria Nazarian University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA This study examined within-person co-occurrence of self-focus, negative affect, and stress in a community sample of adolescents with or without emotional disorders. As part of a larger study, 278 adolescents were interviewed about emotional disorders. Later, they completed diary measures over three days, six times a day, reporting their current thoughts, affect, and levels of stress. Negative affect was independently related to both concurrent stress and self-focus. Importantly, the association between negative affect and self-focus was stronger among participants with a recent unipolar mood disorder, compared to those with an anxiety disorder, comorbid anxiety and depression, or those without an emotional disorder. The implications of these findings to theories of self-focus and its role in emotional disorders are discussed. Keywords: Self-focus; Negative affect; Within-person; Depression; Anxiety. Self-focused attention, the direction of attention to one’s thoughts and feelings, has been linked to negative affect (Mor & Winquist, 2002). Accord- ing to self-regulation theories, focusing attention on oneself instigates a self-evaluative process that often results in negative affect (e.g., Carver & Scheier, 1998; Duval & Wicklund, 1972). In this process, people compare their current standing on a salient dimension with a desired standard. Falling short of this standard (Duval & Wicklund, 1972) or perceiving that the standard cannot be met, can lead to negative affect (Carver & Scheier, 1981, 1998). In addition to temporary mood states, self-focus has been implicated in the development and maintenance of unipolar depression and anxiety disorders. Depressed individuals are said to get stuck in a self-regulatory cycle, unable to disengage from unattainable goals. As a result, they engage in perseverative and maladaptive self-focus, which Correspondence should be addressed to: Nilly Mor, School of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel. E-mail: nmor@huji.ac.il This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grants R01 MH65651 and R01 MH65652, by the Patricia M Nielsen Research Chair of the Family Institute at Northwestern University, and by the William T. Grant foundation. COGNITION AND EMOTION 2010, 24 (1), 4862 48 # 2008 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business http://www.psypress.com/cogemotion DOI:10.1080/02699930802499715