A developmental psychopathology model of overgeneral autobiographical memory
Highlights
► An integrative model of OGM that includes processes at psychological, biological, social and cultural levels is proposed. ► Extant models of OGM are reviewed. ► Developmental theory and research on autobiographical memory that have relevance for OGM are discussed. ► Directions for future research are formulated and treatment implications derived from this perspective are addressed.
Introduction
Overgeneral memory (OGM) is a phenomenon that refers to difficulty retrieving specific autobiographical memories. The tendency to be overgeneral in autobiographical memory recall has been commonly observed among adults with depression and/or posttraumatic stress disorder. For example, when asked to recall a specific episode from one’s past, adults who are depressed as compared with those nondepressed are more likely to provide a categorical response, or recall a memory that refers to an extended period of time (i.e., the summer before I went to college) rather than recalling a specific event in their personal past (see Moore & Zoellner, 2007, for review).
OGM has high clinical relevance because overgenerality is not only associated with depression and PTSD, but it also appears to predict the onset and course of these disorders. For example, OGM is predictive of PTSD after a trauma, (Harvey, Bryant, & Dang, 1998), of vulnerability toward developing depression (van Minnen, Wessel, Verhaak, & Smeenk, 2005), and of delayed recovery from episodes of affective disorders (Brittlebank et al., 1993, Dalgleish et al., 2001). Moreover, memory remains overgeneral in those with a history of emotional disorder, even when they are not currently depressed (e.g., Mackinger, Pachinger, Leibetseder, & Fartacek, 2000), and OGM when one is not depressed predicts severity of later depressive symptomatology (e.g., Gibbs and Rude, 2004, Mackinger et al., 2000). As such, researchers have been quite interested in the etiology of OGM, and in developing models to explain its emergence (Williams, 1996, Williams et al., 2007).
In this paper, a developmental psychopathology perspective on the development of overgeneral autobiographical memory is presented. From this conceptualization, in order to understand developmental processes or outcomes, it is essential to understand the integration of developmental processes at multiple levels of complexity within individuals over the life course including cognitive, affective, biological, social, and cultural processes (Cicchetti, 1984). Additionally, it is necessary to integrate multidisciplinary advances in research with both typically developing and atypically developing populations, and among fields including developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, clinical psychology, psychiatry, and neurosciences. Therefore, this developmental psychopathology position urges current models to move past identifying isolated deficits in cognitive or affective presentations of individuals with high OGM and to alternatively begin formulating how they are integrated across developing psychological and biological systems within the individual, and within a multilevel ecology.
As such, the aim of the current paper is to utilize a developmental psychopathology framework, which emphasizes the interface between typical and atypical development, and risk and protective factors at multiple ecological levels, to propose a comprehensive model of OGM development. First, etiological models of OGM are reviewed, followed by a survey of developmental research on autobiographical memory at multiple levels of ecology that have relevance for OGM. A developmental psychopathology model is then proposed to address additional mechanisms/factors that may be important to consider in understanding the development of OGM. The concluding section considers how this model can direct/inform future research and discusses treatment implications derived from this perspective.
Section snippets
Occurrence of OGM
OGM was first described by Williams and Broadbent in 1986 when studying the memory of depressed and suicidal adults. Since that time, OGM has been documented in several samples of adults all of whom exhibit or exhibited depression, a history of trauma (particularly childhood trauma), or both (Moore & Zoellner, 2007). Specifically, OGM has been observed among adults with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD; Brittlebank et al., 1993, Dalgleish et al., 2001, Goddard et al., 1996, Henderson et al., 2002
Etiological models
Early views on the development of OGM emerged from a “main effects” perspective, in which it was believed that single risk factors, such as early trauma, could alone provide an etiological account of OGM. The majority of this seminal work emerged from the cognitive psychology discipline. Perhaps the most influential early model of OGM is Williams’ (1996) functional avoidance hypothesis. According to this model, autobiographical memory retrieval is conceptualized as a top-down, generative
Concepts in a developmental psychopathology approach to OGM
Given the prevalence of OGM among specific clinical populations, particularly among depressed and traumatized individuals, relative to nonclinical populations, and the associations between OGM and subsequent episodes of affective disorder, it is essential to understand the developmental processes that contribute to the emergence and perpetuation of this phenomenon.
Moreover, OGM may form a spectrum of severity from normative to pathological across the lifespan. For example, there is recent
Developmental psychopathology model of overgeneral memory
Emerging from Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) seminal ecological-developmental theory, many current theories and etiological models acknowledge the influences of transacting factors operating at cultural, contextual, familial, and individual ecologies (e.g., Belsky, 1980, Cicchetti and Lynch, 1993, Cicchetti and Rizley, 1981, Cicchetti and Valentino, 2006, Garbarino, 1977, Sameroff and Chandler, 1975). For example, the ecological–transactional model of child maltreatment (Cicchetti and Lynch, 1993,
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2017, Developmental ReviewCitation Excerpt :Research with TD children supports cross-cultural differences in the length, structure, and specificity of AM (see Reese (2009) for review). Although a full review of cultural differences in AM is beyond the scope of the current investigation and has been reviewed elsewhere (Reese, 2009; Valentino, 2011), it is important to acknowledge that cultural differences may likewise be related to AM in ASD. No work has examined cultural influences on memory in ASD.