Is Social Self-Criticism a Unique Vulnerability Dimension for Social Anxiety and Depression?

摘要

Although self-criticism has been implicated in both depression and social anxiety it has been assessed as a global construct. We therehwe constructed the Social Self- Criticism Scale (SSCS), which consists of items tapping self-criticism in the social domain. Initially assessing both social and non-social domains, principal compo-nent analyses revealed a social domain ( i.e., social self-criticism) distinct from self-criticism in non-social domains. Social self-criticism predicted depressive and social anxiety symptoms over and above (1) our non-social self-criticism subscale, (2) the extensively used self-criticism factor of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ). Findings encourage disentangling global versus specific domains of affec-tive vulnerability.