Emotion in self-criticism

A sample of college students was selected as high or low in self-criticism using the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire. These students were videotaped criticizing themselves and responding to the criticism after an imagination exercise which recalled an experience of failure. Observer codings of emotion showed that Self-Critics displayed more contempt and disgust for the self in their self-criticism than did Controls. Observer codings also revealed that Self-Critics were less self-resilient than Controls in response to the criticism: They were less assertive, more submissive and more sad and ashamed than Controls. These results support the importance of emotion as well as negative cognition in the genesis of depressive states, particularly the emotions of contempt and disgust for the self. Furthermore, these findings suggest the need for a model of depressive vulnerability which more adequately accounts for emotional processes and which can account for self-resilience in the generation of vulnerable or invulnerable self-states.