The role of autobiographical memory in psychopathology.

Abstract

Over the past decade, there has been a growing interest in autobiographical memory (AM) and its application to psychopathology.  The literature review provides an overview of AM and its application to depression and anxiety.  The conceptualisation of AM is outlined from a historical perspective and its reciprocal relationship with the self-concept is considered.  Conway and Pleydell-Pearce’s (2000) recent framework for AM, the self-memory system, is described and its clinical implications are discussed.  Finally, current understanding of the role of AM in the maintenance of depression and anxiety is reviewed, with a special emphasis upon major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and social anxiety.  A number of gaps in the literature are identified and areas for future research are suggested. Using Clark and Wells’ (1995) model of social phobia as a basis, the empirical paper addresses several of the gaps in the social anxiety literature.  This study comprised three main parts;  an exploratory analysis of memory phenomenology in undergraduates with high and low social anxiety;  an examination of the use of observer and field perspectives; and, investigation of the effect of switching memory perspective on associated affect and self-appraisal.  The findings provided some limited support for Clark and Wells’ (1995) model but further work is required to develop current understanding of the role of AM in social anxiety.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record

ASCII CitationAtomBibTeXData Cite XMLDublin CoreDublin CoreEP3 XMLEndNoteHTML CitationHTML CitationHTML ListJSONMETSMODSMPEG-21 DIDLOpenURL ContextObjectOpenURL ContextObject in SpanRDF+N-TriplesRDF+N3RDF+XMLRIOXX2 XMLReferReference ManagerSimple Metadata