Assessment of Autobiographical Memories

Project Title: Assessment of symptom-relevant autobiographical memories in clinical and healthy samples

Project Description: Project Description: One possible factor contributing to the development and/or maintenance of emotional disorders is the dysfunctional retrieval of negative autobiographical memories that are relevant to patients’ mental health symptoms. Clearly, in the case of PTSD, symptom-relevant autobiographical memories play a central role in the etiology and maintenance of the disorder. Their role is less clear, however, in patients with anxiety and other emotional disorders. There is some evidence of more frequent retrieval and greater distress upon retrieval of memories of negative social events amongst individuals with social anxiety. To our knowledge, however, no study has examined the prevalence or impact of symptom-relevant autobiographical memories across patients with emotional disorders.

In this study, self-report data are collected from three samples: 1) an unselected sample, 2) a non-treatment seeking sample of spider fearful individuals, 3) a sample of patients with emotional disorders from the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, an outpatient CBT clinic at Boston University. Participants report on mental health symptoms, autobiographical memories, and the impact of autobiographical memories. Additionally, patients report on their treatment history and whether their symptom-relevant autobiographical memories have been discussed in their current cognitive behavioral therapy.