Comparison of Frequency and Content of Internal Speech in People with Generalized Anxiety Disorders traits, obsessive-compulsive disorder traits and normal

Cognition is mediated and combined by mental processes formed by internal speech and cognitive processes play a key role in generalized anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The aim of this study was to compare the frequency and content of inner speech in people with generalized anxiety disorder traits, obsessive-compulsive disorder traits and normal. 348 (boys: 203, girls: 145) students of Shahid Beheshti University were selected by convenience sampling method and participants answered the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Scale (Spitzer et al., 2006), the Self-talk Scale (Brinthaupt et al.., 2009) and the Padua Inventory–Washington State University Revision (Burns et al.., 1996). Findings were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance. The results showed a significant difference in frequency between the normal group and clinical groups. Also, the research findings showed a significant difference between the normal group and clinical groups in the negative subscales of inner speech content (self-criticism and social assessment) and not the positive subscales (self-regulation and self-reinforcement).