Dimensions of the self-consciousness scale and their relationship with psychopathological indicators

The current study has two specific aims: one is to examine the levels of self-consciousness in patients with different mental disorders (social phobia, panic disorder, major depression, dysthymia and generalized anxiety) as well as in a group with no mental disorder; another aim is to provide data for external validation of the different components of the self-consciousness scale using anxiety and depression measures. To do this, we considered the Fenigstein, Scheier, and Buss (1975) dimensions of self-consciousness (public self-consciousness, private self-consciousness and social anxiety), the private sub-scales proposed by Burnkrant and Page (1984) (Self-reflectiveness and Internal State Awareness), and the public self-consciousness sub-scales presented by Mittal and Balasubramaniam (1987) (Style Consciousness and Appearance Consciousness). Our results show that the original dimensions of the scale (private and public self-consciousness) do not support the existence of differential profiles among the groups studied. However, using the Mittal and Balasubramanian (1987) subdimensions for both public and private self-consciousness, we found different profiles regarding self-reflectiveness, style consciousness and appearance consciousness in some groups.