Autobiographical memory and the self-memory system in posttraumatic stress disorder

2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 555-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kylie Sutherland ◽  
Richard A. Bryant
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Memory System ◽  
The Self

scholarly journals Impaired Autobiographical Memory Flexibility in Iranian Trauma Survivors With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Piltan ◽  
Ali Reza Moradi ◽  
Mohammad Hassan Choobin ◽  
Parviz Azadfallah ◽  
Sara Eskandari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Emotional Disturbance ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Trauma Survivors ◽  
Community Control ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Memory Flexibility

Reduced ability to retrieve specific autobiographical memories is a well-defined feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and science-driven interventions have emerged to improve memory specificity and thereby symptoms. However, research in depressed samples indicates that the ability to flexibly move between retrieval of specific and general memory types (i.e., memory flexibility) may more accurately conceptualize autobiographical memory deficits in emotional disturbance. In this study, we evaluated memory specificity and memory flexibility in Iranian trauma survivors ( N = 63) with and without PTSD relative to community control participants. Trauma-exposed participants had experienced a serious road-traffic accident. Results indicated that individuals with PTSD experienced reduced memory specificity and memory flexibility relative to trauma-exposed participants and community control participants. A small sample size limits the strength of conclusions, although good statistical power was obtained. Findings suggest that reduced memory flexibility may be a transdiagnostic marker of emotional disturbance and support further development of memory flexibility interventions for PTSD.

scholarly journals Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Autobiographical Memories in Everyday Life

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Schönfeld ◽  
Anke Ehlers
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Trauma Survivors ◽  
Autobiographical Memories ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Distinct Features ◽  
Ptsd Group

Evidence from self-reports and laboratory studies suggests that recall of nontrauma autobiographical memories may be disturbed in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but investigations in everyday life are sparse. This study investigated unintentional nontrauma and trauma memories in trauma survivors with and without PTSD ( N = 52), who kept an autobiographical memory diary for a week. We investigated whether unintentional nontrauma memories show an overgeneral memory bias and further memory abnormalities in people with PTSD, and whether unintentional trauma memories show distinct features. Compared to the no-PTSD group, the PTSD group recorded fewer nontrauma memories, which were more overgeneral, more often from before the trauma or related to the trauma, were perceived as distant, and led to greater dwelling. Trauma memories were more vivid, recurrent, and present and led to greater suppression and dwelling. Within the PTSD group, the same features distinguished trauma and nontrauma memories. Results are discussed regarding theories of autobiographical memory and PTSD.

scholarly journals Compartmentalization of self-representations in female survivors of sexual abuse and assault, with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 956-963 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgina Clifford ◽  
Caitlin Hitchcock ◽  
Tim Dalgleish
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Negative Attributes

AbstractBackgroundThis study examined the structure of the self-concept in a sample of sexual trauma survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to healthy controls using a self-descriptive card-sorting task. We explored whether individuals with PTSD possess a highly affectively-compartmentalized self-structure, whereby positive and negative self-attributes are sectioned off into separate components of self-concept (e.g. self as an employee, lover, mother). We also examined redundancy (i.e. overlap) of positive and negative self-attributes across the different components of self-concept.MethodParticipants generated a set of self-aspects that reflected their own life (e.g. ‘self at work’). They were then asked to describe their self-aspects using list of positive or negative attributes.ResultsResults revealed that, relative to the control group, the PTSD group used a greater proportion of negative attributes and had a more compartmentalized self-structure. However, there were no significant differences between the PTSD and control groups in positive or negative redundancy. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated that the key findings were not accounted for by comorbid diagnosis of depression.ConclusionFindings indicated that the self-structure is organized differently in those with PTSD, relative to those with depression or good mental health.

Attachment Orientations Moderate the Self-Amplifying Cycle of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Negative Cognitions—A Seven-Year Longitudinal Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 522-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafit Levin ◽  
Mario Mikulincer ◽  
Zahava Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
The Self ◽  
Negative Cognitions ◽  
Anxious Attachment ◽  
Yom Kippur War ◽  
Attachment Orientations ◽  
Ptsd Severity

Introduction: We examined whether attachment orientations moderated the self-amplifying cycle of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and negative cognitions, decades after the trauma ended. Method: We sampled Israeli veterans from the 1973 Yom Kippur War and assessed PTSD severity and cognitions about the self and the world, twice—35 (T1) and 42 (T2) years after the war. At T1, we assessed participants’ attachment orientations (anxiety, avoidance). Results: Findings provided support for a self-amplifying cycle of PTSD severity and negative cognitions about others’ benevolence during the seven-year study period. Findings also indicated that this self-amplifying cycle was significant only among veterans who scored relatively high on attachment anxiety but not among those who had less anxious attachment. Attachment avoidance also moderated the prospective contribution of negative cognitions about the self and others to PTSD severity seven years later. Discussion: The psychological mechanisms underlying the observed effects of attachment orientations were discussed.

Veterans, the hidden wounds of war, and soul repair

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Grimell
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Spiritual Care ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
The Self ◽  
War Zones ◽  
Psychiatric Screening

AbstractTo better understand how deployment in war zones and/or combat may inflict emotional wounds upon veterans, researchers, clinicians, and caregivers it was recently started to focus on the concepts of moral and spiritual injuries. Such injuries may remain undiscovered during psychiatric screening for posttraumatic stress disorder. What is often missing, however, is a conceptualization of the part of the self which is implicitly related to emotional wounds caused by moral and spiritual injuries. This article utilizes a number of historical and contemporary conceptualizations of what is called the soul, and their implications for pastoral and spiritual care of emotionally wounded veterans. Moreover, it explores the use of biblical stories in pastoral and spiritual care among veterans suffering from moral and spiritual injuries.

Negative and positive emotional complexity in the autobiographical representations of sexual trauma survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgina Clifford ◽  
Caitlin Hitchcock ◽  
Tim Dalgleish
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Sexual Trauma ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Community Studies ◽  
Female Survivors ◽  
Chronic Ptsd

This study examined the diversity of experienced positive and negative emotions – emodiversity – within two existing datasets involving female survivors of sexual abuse and assault, with chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Study 1 investigated the structure of the self-concept and Study 2 explored the organization of past autobiographical knowledge. In each study, we measured emodiversity for positive and negative emotion constructs in the PTSD samples, relative to healthy control participants with no PTSD and no history of sexual trauma. Results confirmed our hypotheses that individuals with chronic PTSD would show elevated negative emodiversity and reduced positive diversity across both the structure of the self-concept and the structure of the life narrative, relative to control participants. The current results differ from community studies where greater negative emodiversity is associated with better mental health but mirror those from a prior study with individuals with Major Depressive Disorder. This suggests that valence-based differences in emodiversity are potentially a broader transdiagnostic marker of chronic emotional disorder.

Autobiographical Memory in Children and Adolescents With Acute Stress and Chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 180-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reginald D.V. Nixon ◽  
Shelly-Anne Ball ◽  
Jisca Sterk ◽  
Talitha Best ◽  
Lisa Beatty
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Acute Stress ◽  
Traumatic Events ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Past Study ◽  
The Past

Children exposed to traumatic events either recently (Study 1) or in the past (Study 2) were administered the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT). In Study 1 (N = 67), when asked to retrieve memories from the 24-hour period following their trauma, children with higher levels of acute stress disorder symptoms retrieved a greater number of specific memories on the AMT than either children with low acute stress levels or hospital control children; no difference between groups was observed when memories were retrieved from a period that predated their trauma. However, in Study 2 (N = 67) children with posttraumatic stress disorder retrieved fewer specific memories than non-PTSD controls. The two studies represent the first occasions that AMT performance has been examined in acutely traumatised children and in a sample of children stringently diagnosed with PTSD respectively. The findings underscore the need for further prospective research with clinical samples of children who have experienced trauma.

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