The Relationship between Autobiographical Self-Focus and Memory Specificity/Overgenerality: Differences between Individuals with and without a Diagnosis of Depression

• Michael Bender ^[1] ; María Carrera ^[1] ; Itziar Alonso-Arbiol ^[2]
  1. [1] Tilburg University

     Tilburg University

     Países Bajos

     
  2. [2] Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea

     Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea

     Leioa, España

     
• Localización: Acción psicológica, ISSN 1578-908X, Vol. 12, Nº. 2, 2015, págs. 109-122
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.5944/ap.12.2.15783
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Relación entre auto-focus autobiográfico y especificidad/sobregeneralización de la memoria: Diferencias entre personas con y sin un diagnóstico de depresión
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    La investigación ha revelado que la depresión clínica está relacionada con una menor especificidad y/o sobregeneralización en la memoria autobiográfica. Nuestro objetivo consistió en estudiar dicha relación comparando personas deprimidas (n = 40) y no deprimidas (n = 40) no solo en términos de especificidad/generalidad de la memoria autobiográfica, sino también con respecto a la estructura narrativa. Se evaluó la especificidad con el Test de Memoria Autobiográfica (AMT; Williams & Broadbent, 1986). Los participantes también proporcionaron recuerdos en formato abierto, los cuales se analizaron en términos de complejidad cognitiva autobiográfica (Woike, 1994). La diferenciación narrativa, como un indicador de auto-focus, se relacionó negativamente con la especificidad y positivamente con la sobregeneralización de recuerdos autobiográficos negativos, pero solamente en la muestra de deprimidos; las asociaciones fueron significativamente diferentes entre personas no deprimidas. Se discuten los resultados en el contexto de la relación entre especificidad/sobregeneralización y auto-focus.

  • English

    Research has revealed that clinical depression is related to reduced specificity and/or overgenerality in autobiographical memory. We set out to investigate this relationship by comparing depressed (n = 40) and non-depressed (n = 40) individuals not only in terms of autobiographical memory specificity/generality, but also in terms of narrative structure. Specificity was assessed with the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT; Williams & Broadbent, 1986) and participants also provided open-ended memories, which were analyzed for autobiographical cognitive complexity (Woike, 1994). Narrative differentiation, as an indicator of self-focus, was negatively related to specificity and positively to overgenerality of particularly negative autobiographical memories – but only in the depressed sample. Relationships were significantly different among non-depressed individuals. Results are discussed in the context of the relation between specificity/overgenerality and self-focus.

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