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

Abstract

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 nondepressed (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; Agradecimientos: With funding from the Gipuzkoa Regional Council (DG10/02) and the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (General Grants for Groups, GIU11/29). ACCIÓN PSICOLÓGICA, diciembre 2015, vol. 12, nº. 2, 111-122. ISSN: 1578 110 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 selffocus, 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.