The inner critical voice among university students and patients with depression – a linguistic analysis of self-criticism

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Abstract

Self-criticism is considered an important vulnerability factor for the development and maintenance of psychopathological symptoms. Mostly assessed as trait via self-report, information about its linguistic features is rare. The following study explored individual differences of self-criticism of 184 university students (84.2% female) and 45 in-patients in treatment for a depressive disorder (62.2% female). Participants verbalized self-critical thoughts after a standardized induction of negative emotions talking out load to themselves acting as their “inner critic”. Participants’ self-criticism was analyzed by conducting a linguistic analysis with a quantitative word count tool (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count – LIWC). Self-criticism was also measured with an established self-report instrument alongside with symptoms of depression and self-compassion for validation. Non-parametric Spearman rank correlations between the linguistic features of the “inner critic”, self-reported self-criticism, self-compassion, and depressive symptoms have been conducted. Furthermore, group differences between university students and patients have been explored. In both subsamples, small significant relations between the language categories and self-reported self-criticism, self-compassion, and depressive symptoms became evident ranging from |ρ|=.13 to |ρ|=.39, with slightly different patterns in students and patients, indicating qualitative differences in clinically relevant self-criticism and non-pathogenic self-reflection. University students used significantly less pronouns than patients with depression when they acted as their “inner critic” (t = -5.14, p <.001) and used overall less negative emotion words (t = -4.19, p <.001), particularly less words indicating sadness (t = -3.18, p =.003).Using different assessment methods of self-criticism and comparing clinical and non-clinical samples add valuable information to a better understanding of the cognitive-affective processes in self-criticism and can inform clinical practice and innovative public mental health strategies on preventing mental disorders.

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