INFLUENCE OF SELF-REFERENTIAL PROCESSING ON THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN INTERPERSONAL STYLE AND MOOD: A MEDIATION ANALYSIS

Abstract

There has been much attention on the association between cognitive vulnerabilities (i.e., negative self-referential processing) and interpersonal vulnerabilities (i.e., hostile-submissive interpersonal style) of low mood. However, despite self-referential processing and interpersonal style being strong predictors of mood, little is known about the relationship between negative self-referential processing, hostile-submissive interpersonal style and low mood. There is also a lack of studies on the underlying mechanisms for the association between interpersonal style and mood. In this current cross-sectional study, the hypothesis of whether self-referential processing mediates the impact of interpersonal style on mood was examined using the self-referential encoding task as well as several self-report measures of interpersonal style and mood. Overall, correlation and multiple regression analyses showed relatively strong evidence for the mediating effect of self-referential processing as the effect was found across three measures of mood and even after controlling for possible third variables such as life events. Findings of this study have theoretical and therapeutic implications which would be discussed along with key limitations of the study and future research directions.