Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in cognitive flexibility depending on the level of self-criticism through experimental procedures. A total of 57 students of a university in south Korea participated in this study. A score of above 24 and a score of under 17 for FSCRS were assigned each a high self-criticism (HG) group and a low self-criticism (LG) group, respectively. These students participated in an experiment of task-switching using task paradigm (TS), to measure cognitive flexibility. The TS presented that, the greater the switch-cost people got, the less the cognitive flexibility they had. Results of the study showed that the HG group had better task performance than the LG, although differences in switch-cost between the two groups were not significant. In the valence, the switch-cost for negative words was significantly higher than that of LG. This means that cognitive flexibility can be reduced when groups with high self-criticism are exposed to negative stimuli. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed.