We examined concurrent and prospective associations of self-focused cognitive styles with bipolar spectrum disorders. Controlling for depressive and hypomanic/manic symptoms, 125 individuals with bipolar spectrum disorders scored higher than 149 demographically similar normal controls on the rumination scale of the Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ) and the private self-consciousness subscale of the Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS). The two groups did not differ on the distraction scale of the RSQ or the public self-consciousness and social anxiety subscales of the SCS. In addition, among the bipolar individuals, controlling for initial depressive and hypomanic/manic symptoms, rumination predicted the number, but not the likelihood of onset, of depressive episodes, whereas private self-consciousness predicted the likelihood of onset, but not the number, of hypomanic/manic episodes over a 3.5-year follow-up.