The attentional scope model of rumination describes the links between rumination and attentional breadth. The model postulates that a more narrow attentional scope, caused by negative mood, increases the likelihood that thoughts become repetitive on the same topic, which in turn could exacerbate negative mood and lead to more attentional narrowing. We experimentally tested this model by examining the attentional effects of rumination using a newly developed rumination versus problem-solving induction. In the first experiment we found that only at high levels of trait rumination, induction of rumination compared with a problem-solving approach was associated with more attentional narrowing for self-related information relative to other-related information. A second experiment on the relationship between trait rumination and attentional breadth in the absence of induced rumination revealed that especially trait brooding was related to more narrowed attention for self-related information relative to other-related information.
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