Autobiographical Memory Characteristics and Emotion Regulation Strategy in Depression

Depression is a severe psychopathological disorder that is marked by a constellation of affective, cognitive and memory deficits. These deficits have been observed as being responsible for the onset, maintenance, and recurrence of depressive episodes among individuals diagnosed with depression. However, the nature and course of these cognitive and affective deficits in undiagnosed samples are relatively less explored. The present study examined the nature of autobiographical memory recall and emotion regulation in 38 (19 male and 19 female) depressed participants screened on the basis of their scores on Beck Depression Inventory-II. All the selected participants responded on self-report measure of Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and Autobiographical Memory Test. The results showed that both the dimensions of emotion regulation (emotion suppression and cognitive reappraisal) correlated positively and significantly with depression. However, the emotion suppression dimension emerged as best predictor of depression. Results also showed a significant and negative correlation between depression and specificity of positive autobiographical memory recall. Overall, the findings of the present study suggest that the overgeneral autobiographical memory recall, use of inappropriate emotion regulation strategy and lack of motivation to repair negative mood are associated with depression.