The role of perfectionism and autobiographical memory in a sample of parasuicide patients: an exploratory study.
The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between social perfectionism, overgeneral autobiographical memory recall, and psychological distress (hopelessness, depression/anxiety, and suicidal ideation) in a sample of parasuicide patients. Forty patients who had been admitted to a Scottish hospital following an episode of deliberate self-harm participated in the study. The participants completed the autobiographical memory task and a battery of self-report measures (multidimensional perfectionism, hopelessness, depression/anxiety, and suicidal ideation). The results showed that repetitive self-harmers were more overgeneral in their recall of positive autobiographical memories than were first-time self-harmers. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that socially prescribed perfectionism interacted with overgeneral recall of both positive and negative memories to predict suicidal ideation/depression. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research.
Rasmussen
Susan A
SA
Suicidal Behaviour Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, UK. sar3@stir.ac.uk
O'Connor
Rory C
RC
Brodie
Dallas
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001325:Autobiographies as Topic; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D012107:Research Design; D012307:Risk Factors; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology*