Ruminative Response Style and Autobiographical Memory: An Integrative Correlational Model of Depression
Date Issued
2004
Date
2004
Author(s)
Yu, Sheng-Hsiang
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
The Response Style Theory of Depression（Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991）suggests that individuals who respond to their depression with consistently engaging in rumination would exacerbate and prolong their depressive mood and symptoms. Both correlational and experimental studies have empirically verified the role of ruminative response style in the maintenance and exacerbation of depression. Based on extant empirical findings, recent studies have begun to explore the mechanism underlying rumination and its effects on the development of depression. Growing evidences suggest personal memory plays a critical role in the link between ruminative response style and depression. Yet, research of this line is to be done and relevant research tool is to be developed in Taiwan. Hence, the aim of this study is to develop essential research tool and appropriate methodology to investigate ruminative responses of depression. Moreover, the present study will further investigate the association between autobiographical memory and ruminative response style as well as their predictive ability for depression.
The present thesis consists of four studies. Study 1 examined the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Response Style Questionnaire (CRSQ) by using a sample of 350 undergraduate students. Study 2 examined the Response Style Theory of Depression by using a sample of 158 undergraduate students and provided validity evidence for the CRSQ. In Study 3, the author devised a modified context-based autobiographical memory task and a structured rating scale to encode memory content for further quantitative analyses. An examination of the association of overgeneral autobiographical memory with current depressive mood and symptoms was then conducted with a sample of 65 undergraduate students. In Study 4, the sample consisted of 94 depressive outpatients recruited from the department of psychiatry of a medical center. We examined the relationship among ruminative response style, overgeneral autobiographical memory, and current depressive symptoms and mood. Furthermore, we investigated the integrative correlational model of rumination, overgeneral memory and depression by path analysis.
Results revealed that:
1.The Chinese Version of Response Style Questionnaire yielded adequate and satisfactory psychometric properties, supporting itself as a useful measurement of response style of depression.
2.Ruminative response style significantly and positively correlated with depressive symptoms and current depressive mood.
3.Overgeneral autobiographical memory significantly and positively correlated with depressive symptoms.
4.Ruminative response style and overgeneral memory together accounted for 54.7% of the total variances in patients’ depressive symptoms and 25.1% of the total variances in patients’ current depressive mood.
5.Path analysis showed that ruminative response style affected patients’ depressive symptoms directly and was partially mediated by overgeneral memory.
Based on the findings, further discussion was provided to centre around the potential effects of ruminative response style on individual’s cognitive resources and memory function specifically in maintenance and exacerbation of depression. Clinical applications as well as future directions were also addressed.
Subjects
過度概化記憶
憂鬱
反芻型反應風格
反應風格理論
Rumination
Overgeneral memory
Response style theory of depression
Depression
Type
other
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