INNER SPEECH AS A COGNITIVE PROCESS MEDIATING SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND INHIBITING SELF-DECEPTION

The cognitive processes which mediate self-consciousness are unknown, although Morin and others have suggested that inner speech may mediate self-consciousness. We developed a questionnaire which measures the e xtent to which one talks to oneself about oneself. As expected, the co rrelation between inner speech and self-consciousness was significant. A German version of the 1979 self-deception questionnaire by Sackeim and Gur correlated negatively with the scores on inner speech, suggest ing the validity of the questionnaire. We also replicated the negative association between depression and self-deception in a different cult ure.