Processing of information about self by neurotics

Abstract

This article examines the possibility that neurotic people exhibit consistent idiosyncracies of cognitive information processing. Specifically, it was hypothesized that if a subject is presented with both negative and positive information which is said to refer to the subject's personality then neurotic people should exhibit a greater than normal tendency to selectively process the self-depreciatory rather than the self-appreciatory information. An experimental investigation with both clinically neurotic and normal samples employed a variety of experimental measures in conjunction with three personality measures (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Repression-Sensitization scale, and Social Self-esteem), and provided evidence for the existence of such an association.