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The different faces of self-evaluation: An investigation of how self-evaluation is differentially impacted by social anxiety and depressive symptoms
Abstract
Self-evaluation, the method by which individuals assess their ability and success in multiple areas, has been researched with regard to its relationship to different types of psychopathology. Specifically, the relationship between both social anxiety and depressive symptoms and self-evaluation has been a focus of research. While there has been evidence of a relationship between self-evaluation and both social anxiety and depressive symptomatology, there has been little research seeking to examine the different roles self-evaluation may play in the two disorders. Several factors have influenced the lack of research regarding the differences in the role of self-evaluation and how this construct relates to depressive symptoms and social anxiousness. The current study seeks to first examine the current literature relative to self-evaluation and the role of self-evaluation in both social anxiety and depressive symptomatology and then to complete an investigation of how self-evaluation differs between the two. The results of this study confirm the presence of a central construct of self-evaluation, while also demonstrating that different methods of measuring self-evaluation, may in fact assess different aspects of the construct. The results also indicate that self-evaluation is related to both depressive symptoms and social anxiety. Specifically, the results highlight the different aspects of self-evaluation that are more strongly related with each. Both types of pathology were related to scores of self-competence, although they did differ with respect to the profile of competencies with which each was related. Depressive symptoms were more related to competencies of ability and social anxiety was more strongly related to competencies involving social evaluations. Depressive symptoms are better predicted by the changes in discrepancy scores, while social anxiety is better predicted by the importance of the area in which discrepancy occurs. Finally, behavioral measures of self-evaluation predicted social anxiety better than depression. The implications of the study with regard to treatment and assessment of these two disorders are discussed, as are the limitations of the current study.
Subject Area
Clinical psychology
Recommended Citation
Merritt, Mikel M, "The different faces of self-evaluation: An investigation of how self-evaluation is differentially impacted by social anxiety and depressive symptoms" (2006). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3251375.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3251375